Bright orange in the springtime. Funny, I don't feel it's a "spring time" color, but I like it in the fall. If only my oriental poppy would bloom in the fall. Sigh.

I think of the orange poppy as a farewell to the softer early spring blooms and a welcome to all the upcoming bold summer colors. As short a show as poppies give, I still love them.

Harlem - great name


Even this softer 'Princess Victoria Louise' pops with her dark center.

Deb, I love my poppies too. Lota bang for your buck even if it is a short show.

well after the show don't they make pods? I think those are pretty, I don't know if all poppies do that or just some, they are pretty to spritz with spray adhesive and shake fine glitter over them.

I have decided I don't like the brown toned heucheras. They just look dead.

Stop with the poppies, I stink with envy.

I can't grow them either!

Frillylily said: 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?!

Perhaps instead of trying to downplay the gaudy red, go with it! Plant some bright purple flowers and dark leaved accents like perilla. Add a touch of hot pink. Maybe a touch or chartreuse ... maybe Mirabilis 'Limelight Rose.' Channel Halston/Yves St Laurent/Studio 54 in the late 70's (before my time, alas, but I can daydream). Grow purple clematis or purple morning glories through your rose (if you want seeds, I have tons of 'Star of Yelta'). Throw in some wacky garden art if that is your thing.

A whole yard of RED/PINK/PURPLE could be overwhelming, but a bright corner could be an interesting contrast to the pastels you (and I) love.

My unliked garden color used to be orange. Bright OMG orange, calamity orange, like the tie dyed sundress I am currently wearing - the ubiquitous orange favored by some misguided architect of the late 1970s. My mother bought orange/black/red shag carpeting. I grew up embarrassed to have my friends visit my house. Now I have a tiger garden - orange and black with large leaved foliage plants and a bit of dark purple.

Mother nature has her own plans sometimes. I relocated my tiger garden plants from my old garden. I planted them in the front garden bed .... but that garden is trying to be pastel....my black barlow columbines reseeded themselves pastel pink ( the perfect, icy light pink).....hmmm......perhaps I can try pastel in spring morphing into the savage garden in the heat of summertime....The icy pink columbines surrounding the lamp post are gorgeous. They stay. Maybe they will reseed and revert to dark purple again.....

I love playing with color and hate working outside when the weather is this hot and humid.

I am absolutely CERTAIN my son has that carpet in his room right now.
An area church gave us some very thick shaggy orange and black carpet they were taking out of a sunday school room.
We just have it in there for now until we get the other room ready and then will move him to that and lay different carpet in there. It is hideously ugly but it was clean and free.

I have considered all measures and have decided with certain uncertainty that I may remove the roses

or may not

Maybe you can list the roses on craigslist. Someone will certainly be willing to come and dig them up (supervised, of course) if you offer them for free.

My mother put that hideous carpet over beautiful hardwood floors. That red/orange/black combo look like your vision during a really bad migraine attack. I think that stuff lives forever. She put a red, white and blue variety in my brothers room. Hideous.

If it weren't for bad taste, some people would have no taste at all!

Orange, I'm dealing with it for a bit. The red/yellow blooms of my Scotch Broom Lena (Cytisus x 'Lena' ) are currently making a major statement. And yet, with the right mix, not bad. Especially in a vase:


Andi is definitely on to something. The companions can make it work. Room, on the other hand, is another issue.

Frillylily said:...My yard probably screams McD's, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

Whitebeard, I LOVE the colors together...

Yellow. Can't bring myself to buy or plant anything yellow because it just seems so smug, which I know is irrational. I know this feeling makes me miss out on some lovely plants, so hopefully one day I find "the one" that gets me over that hang up

I am not a big fan of bright yellow. either. I love pale, buttery yellows. I love yellow roses like David Austin's Charlotte.

I love to see the forsythia and narcissus bloom in spring. It makes me so happy that winter is finally done.

I think we should plant the flowers that make up happy and the veggies we like to eat. Whatever they are.

Oh come on. Everyone needs a little yellow!

I like yellow, it looks cheery to me. I LOVE black eyed susans! I like the yellow roses too, I have yellow knock outs in my font porch area and I have to say I love their scent, but the color is weak and just doesn't last long at all before turning whitish.

I agree about the yellow knockout. The browning blooms are a huge turn off. I do have several of the reds that have been blooming nonstop since February! I cannot grow roses on this hill without enormous and invasive efforts. I love my hardy shrub that blooms. I am sad about how much bashing is done on this hardy friend.

My knock outs have been blooming non stop too, and I don't do a thing to them. I like them for what they are, but do not really consider them a rose per say. I have the dbl pink in my front yard and I like them pretty well. The red is what I started this thread with, decided they are not really red to me, and do not match a thing and look so gaudy so I am tossing them when I get to it. It has been raining and I have been so busy w other things I haven't got to it yet. I don't understand folks who say they don't have scent, my yellow ones smell strongly to me, the red and pink smell too but not as much as the yellow.