I find myself sometimes buying/planting things and then within a year or two decide I don't like them. I have noted a pattern in this and it is usually red or fusica/cherry colors. I think they are pretty, but then I don't like the way they look with the rest of my garden as a whole and they seem to stick out and appear gaudy to me. I like soft pinks in the spring, but during the summer months, pink is not my thing and I find it hard to match into the landscape and it seems washed out at a distance (read-kitchen window) Ditto with purple foliage for shrubs, if they are too far from the house they just appear dead to me.

I'm wondering if I added more whites or silver foliage that they may blend in better and not appear so stark. My current issue is a couple of red knock out roses I put in 2 yrs ago. I think they are beautiful, they require hardly no care and bloom heavily, I love the fragrance, but to me they are just bright and gaudy looking and I don't like them. These are not really red by my definition of the word, more of a pinkish red, cherry color, but not that deep rich blood red color that I think of as red.
So how do I talk myself into tossing a perfectly good rose?!

For me it's white. It's just too blah. Or, silver, or blue tinged greens. And blue flowers, not so much. My neighbour, who has been here longer than me keeps asking about the seaholly that used to be in the front flowerbed. Ugh! The flowers look like thistles! The leaves are nice though. But I couldn't stand seeing the flowers, so I pulled them all out. I finally confessed to her when she asked me about them for the third time last week. I said I pulled them because the flowers looked like thistles. She said, but they're such a pretty blue. I said, ya, but... I'm not really into blues much. Haha, she's obviously into blues. To each his own!

oh, I have been wanting some of those for the longest time! I love blues and silvery and I am not fond of white though, it is too bright and stands out to me, plus it reminds me of snow sometimes and a I hate that stuff

Magenta. Seems a harsh color to me.

I generally favor pastels over the bright clear colors. The exception is red, which I really like, but Frilly you're right, it has to be a good clear red, not pinky or fuschia. That red Knockout rose really is a terrible color. If they were mine, I'd prune them back, dig them out and set them in pots beside the road, with a sign "Free Knockout rose bushes". Somebody will adopt them, I'm sure.

My real dislike are the plants with foliage that looks brown, or orange, or yellow or light green. Some of the fancy Heucheras that are available now are just awful looking. They just look unhealthy or dead to me. Purple foliage can be really gorgeous, but truth be told down here most of our purple foliage plants grow in the shade, so they look beautiful in the softer light.

The other one you really have to watch is the blazing bright yellow - it really clangs to me. Doesn't go with much else except maybe orange and if you happen to have it blooming with reds, your whole yard screams "McDonalds". Golden yellow is much more mellow, pastel yellow is one of my favorites but . . .
I'm looking out the window at a self-sown Tithonia plant that has just come into bloom:
- Ack.

And I, on the other hand, favor bold colors - crocosmia's orange-red, meadowsweet's fucshia, the pop of an oriental poppy. Absolutely love when the crabapples are in bloom, mine are all that bright rose that fades to white, followed by burgundy leaves. I agree that yellows can get a bit shrill if there are too many of them. My bug-a-boo is bright white - just too harsh for me - candytuft (ugh). I prefer softer whites and/or gray or burgundy foliage to tone down the bright colors. Pastels don't stand much chance in my beds, I moved a real pretty mallow several times but the baby pink flowers never melded well with anything and I finally ditched it. I've definitely noticed that a certain color or foliage will grab my attention each year and I will refer back to my 'sunny year' (yellow flowers), my 'clown year' (variegated leaves) or whatever grabbed me that season. I don't like any red-white-blue combinations. I love blue flowers, especially played against orange. Here's a favorite combo that self-seeded itself nicely:

I guess everybody is different my favorite plants are the different colors of Heuchera, love the orange toned ones. To me pink flowers are hard to match with anything but white

Well I had a garden bed in my front yard once that was orange and purple and I really loved it and had lots of compliments on it. So many people are hard on orange but I love it! My yard probably screams McD's, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut
I like some purple foliage if it is not over done, but the trouble with it for me is that in the shade or from a distance, they look dead or at least not very noticeable. I do love to see some yellow-green foliages but they do tend to sunburn here and look crispy and that I don't like. It is hard to find lighter foliage that holds up in intense sun.

Elaine, my hosta shade garden would drive you bonkers no doubt w the all the foliage colors....


I love this plant I have by my pond


this just looks awful, but I like it anyway

Frilly, your hosta garden is beautiful despite the brown leaves . . the gorgeous hostas make up for it.

The last one . . . well I'd describe that as a "cartoon garden" Wow, you've got some color mix going there.

My least favorite color is that lime green color of foliage like on some hostas and other plants. It makes the plants seem sickly to me for some reason.

I don't like black colored blooms. Feels sad. But I do enjoy my aeoniums that gets so deep maroon colored leaves, almost black since I know it is just a seasonal change in colors.

I'm generally pretty happy just to have something grow and bloom for me, no matter what color it is!

(going back to my veggie garden now...)

I like the color pink but not when it's verging on red or so pale it looks washed out. Blues and purples are great but not when they are so pale they look more gray than purple. I like soft yellows. I say I don't care for red but I have one bed that has been taken over with Arizona Sun Gaillardia's..and I love it!

I love all colors, I just don't like all colors together. I have to have some semblance of "order" with my colors. I can't put it into words, but I can tell when it's just wrong. In my shade garden it's easy, several shades of greens and yellow-greens. But it's there that I keep my eye on leaf/plant textures and make sure they contrast,

How about those reds that turn sort of brown or terra cotta as they age. There are several iris I've had that did this, and they go from beautiful to ugly in a few days. It's another color that doesn't play well with others, too.

Much prefer the dark reds that lean towards purple instead.

Other than fire engine red and Halloween orange my least favorite color is frequently .... green. My "evergreens" are never ever green. I get really bored with all the green stuff I have to put up with to get to the pretty flowers. It may be a zone related problem. Palm trees are green, bird of paradise is primarily green. People think foundation planting always has to be the Xmas tree wannabe green stuff. I'm just tired of it. Except that now that I've got all my non-green evergreens I think I need some variegated green/white to break up the dark colors. The white I like. Green and yellow - no way - just too usual. Or I may be in my third or fourth period of teenage rebellion (at MY age?)

I do not like pink but like all colors as long as I mix them right it is beautiful to my eye. I have some pink in the garden.

I love color foliage any color. Pink foliage is like a pink flower to me. So it is mixed with colors that compliment it to my eye. I view the garden on as a whole and not individual plants or colors.

Yellow can be tough for me. I like it as an accent. It's good in early spring gardens for me, but unless it makes a big statement, I find it a challenge to incorporate it well until fall, and then, all of a sudden it adds the wow again. White , too, I find difficult to apply with the right touch. And as for orange, there are very few things I grow that need that touch, but it is great in fall. On pumpkins.

This reminds me of the re-blooming iris, lilacs and azaleas that are available now. Those to me should only bloom in the spring and it bugs me to see them blooming in later summer or fall. I just don't buy them if I think they would bloom the wrong time of the year.

Interesting to see how folks' preferences can be so diverse. Frilly, I fooled my sister once with a clematis growing within the framework of a lilac. She couldn't quite wrap her head around why a clematis was blooming among what were clearly lilac leaves. We got a chuckle out of that. She thought her brain was messing with her.