This is mine and I keep thinking 'What made me think that bright orange would go with lavenders and pinks!
Mother Nature combines all the colours and then binds them with green so I don't see the hot and cool colours in your photograph offensive in any way. I love them.
2OF--Meid, I have to agree with Eileen on this one. Mother Nature can be a fickle Princess, that is for sure. However, I doubt that she has ever read a book or heard from a garden designer telling her what colours go or don't go together. A person's individual preferences, likes or dislikes is one thing...but natural combinations are another. If you do not find these flower combinations lovely in your garden, then that is it. I think that anyone can respect another's opinion on such things. Having said that, I must agree with Eileen in saying that your choices in the picture above suit me down to the ground. I love it. Perhaps I have been too headstrong in choosing the flower planting style in my own garden. My focus is on what pollinators like firstly. Next is fragrance. Third is choosing what I think an attractive flowering plant is.I tend to plant willy-nilly, but I am happy with that. At the end of the day, it all comes down to what you like. That's my take on what I saw in your piccy up above. I applaud your work.
Two... I grew flowers for cutting this year. Needless to say you don't know exactly what color you are going to get when they bloom. I have these BEAUTIFUL gold rudbeckias in a row but nothing to really match them. in the next row are "cherry brandywine"? rudbeckias with nothing to make a bouquet to match them either... My flower garden isn't for showy looks but to take to the markets so I try to grow a spectrum of colors but it is really easy to "miss" something to contrast or complement a another flower when you are planting from tags or descriptions and think "that will be okay together" until you actually see it. If you don't like it don't do it next year again.... I had a market tonight and happened to snap a few pics... the only thing to put with them was a blue statice. not a great picture since it was in full sun, but you can see there just isn't anything to go in the bouquet. Sometimes we have hits and sometimes we have misses, but I do think yours is fine together.
Nevermind the fact that I do not like Pink.....I think Orange and Purple are gorgeous together. Before I stopped making quilts I had collected fabrics to make myself a quilt using Orange, Green and Purple fabrics. And like the others, what Mother Nature would put together in the wild let no man consider to be ugly.
I'm really glad I posted this and that I have been given such good advise. I won't be making any changes in the planting other than the flowers in the kettle next year. The clematis only blooms a few weeks then the tall white lilies and orange tiger lilies take over.
I love all the colour combos myself. To quote from Sjoerd "I tend to plant willy-nilly" myself too and I don't see Mom Nature clashing. I love the mix of colours especially when they're all held together by green. AND - @2ofus - WHERE did you find that lovely pot you have hanging? THAT definitely looks like a terrific find!
It is a cast Iron kettle that is well over 100 years old. I have 2 of them that at one time belonged to Mikes grandparents.
I tend toward the pastel colors in flowers--my husband likes bold and beautiful (is that why he married me?). The orange, really hot pink, and yelling-yellow zinnias are his favorites. I like my gently yellow roses and the not-too-bold red roses. We combine the two tastes and our gardens are colorful, to say the least! The worse combo we ever planted was an unknown orange annual, in front of pink zinnias. It was perfectly awful!
In order to be happy, plant tall snapdragons of various colors throughout your existing flowers. The snapdragons will make a dramatic difference.
2, I like your planting as it is. But, if you want to ease the color transition, I think Petronius's idea is a good one. I also like that beautiful kettle, the rounded shape, and the two wrought iron circles behind it, echoing the round shape. Very nice.