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.
