In college, I took a class about perennials and designing perennial gardens. The teacher was Bob Hill, he has a Siberian Iris named for him – a deep purple. He was a true Southern plantsman and longtime professor, teaching Planting Design and Plant Identification. My guess is, by the time I took his class, Mr. Hill, in his 50s, had one too many smarty pants student say something annoying. He did not suffer fools gladly and you did not want to be the fool. A good teacher, if you listened. I was lucky to have the perennials course, it was rarely taught and I sincerely doubt the powers that be would even consider such a course nowadays. God knows you don’t want to teach Landscape Architects how to landscape anything. I’ll stop there and save my opinion about Landscape Architecture schools for another time.
Here is the point! We were taught the correct color scheme for a summer perennial garden is cool blue, pale and lemon yellows and pure white. This was supposed to be cooling and soothing in the summer heat. White gardens were brought up as a possible alternative and one wasn’t supposed to use hot colors until the fall and then pastels in spring. I suspect Bob Hill is spinning in his grave if he has visited my garden from the great beyond. A garden he worked on:
The vase is blue and white china, very popular in the South (probably approved by Bob) and I collect it. This teapot is English and one of my favorite pieces. The colors are Southern Classic per my college class. Here is a close up of the flowers:
The blue is Blue Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata), a stalwart shrub of South Florida gardens and nearly indestructible. The bud and white flowers are from Tropical Gardenias (Tabernaemontana divaricata), the white flowers with the yellow eye are from Bridal Bouquet Frangipani (Plumeria pudica), pale yellow verging on apricot flowers on from Zinnias “HomeDepotensis”, the ferns are native Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exalata).
This teapotful of Classic Southern Summer color smells heavenly – and I do feel a bit cooler.
Hopefully, Mr. Hill understands and approves.
The Shrub Queen 
Interesting information that I did not know. I will go for anything that grows in the heat.
LikeLike
Colpir always depends on the light levels around. If I planted soft colours in high summer the garden would look washed out! Bright colours fade in the bright sun and sem more like pastels anyway. But I do love a vase with blue and white; that always seems very elegant.
LikeLike
Oh bless Mr Hill, I m sure he would pleased to know he had at least one diligent student! How intriguing to think of advocating different colours for different seasons though… I particularly like the height in your vase with The Boston Fern and the plumbago, and offset against them the whites look stunningly bright
LikeLike
Homedepotensis? Really Queen!
LikeLike
The colours are so elegant (both flowers and vase) yet the arrangement is welcoming, inviting one’s nose closer to inhale deeply the intoxicating fragrance. Very appealing to me.
LikeLike
All that lovely blue and white is cooling and the bit of peachy-yellow is just the right amount to balance it. Very pretty! I would love to be able to smell the fragrance, too.
Mr. Hill sounds like an old-fashioned guy, his rules are similar to the clothing rules doled out to young women about no white past Labor Day or darks past Easter. Thank God Women’s Lib freed us from those bonds!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Eliza, he was a great design person and plantsman- my mother was worse about clothing rules, though, to this day, I wouldn’t wear patent leather shoes unless tap dancing.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well, I’m not sure you can ever go wrong with blue and white with a touch or yellow, regardless of the time of year. I fell for your latest creation at first glance and I’m coveting that teapot. My own Plumbagos seem disinclined to bloom this year but then it’s still surprisingly cool here. The weather forecasters say the heat is coming though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Kris, I love the old teapot as well. Plumbagos, in my experience never disappoint.just wait
LikeLike
Can’t answer for Mr Hill but I love it. It must smell absolutely heavenly. I cannot imagine gardening to such hard and fast rules and even less dressing to the rules you and Kris discussed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, the ladies who love all the rules also will criticize you for using dark meat in chicken salad. i am hopeless with the rules.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry not Kris, Eliza!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A refeshing delight! Is that your garden in the photo with box (?) hedges? Looks amazing.
My husband thought of plumbago as ‘his’ flower as, for his christening, the lady from the big house next door grew it in her greenhouse and brought a huge bunch of it to decorate the table. My mother-in-law always thought it had been a good omen, being Cambridge blue in colour, and my husband did go to Cambridge University – the only one in the family ever to go to one of the top Universities.
LikeLike
Thank you – that is not my garden, it’s the Founder’s Garden at the University of Georgia. Didn’t know about Cambridge blue or people growing Plumbago in greenhouses. I used it as a center plant in summer containers further north.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think Bob was on to something (at least to the extent those colors work well together). Your vase would make him proud. Blue Plumbago is something I’d love to be able to grow successfully.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like the colors and remember the garden. in the high shade of white oaks, a zoysia lawn, blue hydrangeas, real gardenias, lemon yellow daylilies and chartreuse hosta and ferns. And a few more..I think you should grow the Plumbago in summer containers, I did with Bengal Tiger Cannas and white begonias and blue scaveola and margarita sweet potato.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lovely colour scheme, good for Mr. Hill. I have a summer border in these colours. But plumbago and frangipani are fabulous additions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Liz. It must be a wonderful border.Iliked the colors immediately after I put them in the vase.
LikeLike
I never would have lasted as a landscape designer. I grow what I like. Blue is not an easy color to work with. There are not many options for blue flowers.
LikeLike