It can get confusing sometimes, trying to figure out what garden colors blend with others. The peach and purple clearly wasn’t successful, and the red/white/blue scheme only seemed to work in July. So here’s an idea—throw out color combos, choose one hue and use it boldly! Think it sounds boring? Think again! These examples will change your mind. Remember if you reach for one color to create your garden, other attributes such as leaf size and texture become indispensable—take advantage of all of these characteristics when choosing your plants!

Purple Planting: Check out these tones of purple and lavender! Set off by rich dark green foliage, this garden is anything but ho-hum. What makes it really pop is the addition of the slightly iridescent sheen of the Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus). The contrast between the lighter and darker hues makes a really interesting vignette, so look for plants like lavender, verbena, society garlic and iris.

Crimson Planting: I love this garden—the flowers and foliage alike are in sumptuous shades of red! Here’s where a plant like coleus does double-duty—it provides the color you want with the foliage size and texture that every garden needs. Look for coleus varieties such as ‘Velvet Red,’ ‘Sunset’ or ‘Scarlet,’ then add red impatiens, salvias or begonias. Watch out for red hues, however—some are orange-based while others are more pink-tinged, and mixing them together can seem disharmonious.

Green Planting: All-green plantings can be a bit tricky on the surface—there aren’t too many green flowers (aside from zinnia ‘Green Envy’), so what you’re looking for is foliage. Texture and leaf size becomes all-important in a combination like this, and the designer for this planting was brilliant. He or she used a wispy fern foliage and foiled it with ultra big begonia leaves. But check out that begonia foliage—it has the slightest hint of coppery bronze on the back side of the leaf, adding a bit of contrast in a monochromatic planting. Brilliant!