True colours: Whether they're powerful or pastel, combine colours carefully for brilliant summer effects

摘要

There's something to be said for a plant that nails its colours to the mast. Certainly wherever Bougainvilka 'Scarlet O'Hara' rears its thorny head there's little room for compromise. Like many gutsy plants, bougainvillea is overpowering, unaccommodating and totally desirable. Plants less aggressive in the colour department tend to burn up in the intensity of its glowing ego so at Ayrlies we team it with those with the guts to stand their ground like claret monardas and a blackish dahlia such as 'Nuit d'ete'. Both these will add some shadowy depth while a carpet of magenta Spanish shawl (Heterocentron elegans) smoulders for months at their feet.