Host Reds

There are two important points to note about using hot reds. The first is that they are excellent eye-catchers; the second is that they need not be screamingly violent, brash and shocking. Reds come in all shades from the bright scarlet and crimson, to the deep, dark reds which verge on black. And because they stand out so well, you rarely need companion colors. In fact, as these photographs show, the best companions are invariably extra groupings and layers of red.

Hot strong colors do have one extra, vital use. If you want to foreshorten a view in the garden, then end it with a dark color. It makes the furthest point seem much stronger and far more solid. In the same way if you want to make s shortish view appear longer, end it with paler colors. They do not grab the eye in the same determined way, and let the view quietly peter out instead.

RED ON WHITE

TOP LEFT: A dashing horizontal spread of red pelargoniums.

HOT EXOTICS

BELOW LEFT: A lively display with crocosmias, Canna “King Humbert” and “Wyoming”, with Dahlia “Grenadier”, “The Fairy”, and “David Howard”.

RISING REDS

RIGHT: A cleverly engineered show with neat, wooden containers of nasturtiums, gerberas, cannas, and Lotus berthelotii.

Fuchsia “Thalia”

Verbena x hybrid

Pelargonium