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:
