In this summer trend it’s the visual stimuli - bright colours, distinctive designs, loud patterns - which create an exuberant and energetic garden mood. Opt for playful and eye-catching shapes, paint a staid garden bench an eye-popping colour or use two or three colours together! Mosaic your garden table, hang brightly coloured pots in trees and off the pergola, and fix a cheerful tarpaulin with flowers, butterflies or geometric shapes across a dull wall. The broad, shiny leaves and exotic flowers of Canna fit perfectly with this trend, particularly if you place it in a pot with diamonds or spots.
Salsa with Mandevilla
The jungle feeling comes from tropical prints with rainforest designs on your garden cushions or a colourful cloth on your garden table. Purslane is an ideal match for this ‘more is more’ feeling. A host of shiny green leaves – as well as fantastic bright flowers and colours including hot pink, sunny orange and canary yellow - and easy to look after too: place it in a colourful pot to make a hot statement.
To bring even more ‘oh mambo’ to your garden, have a Mandevilla climbing left and right. This profuse summer bloomer is available in white, pink and bright red and because of this, can hold its own in a brightly patterned pot.
Canna as a graphic element
Circular chair shapes with straight slats or garden chairs with a woven pattern in various colours also contribute to the exuberant effect. Your garden furniture can have a camping vibe: think of plastic and folding chairs, maybe with a mad pot full of bamboo placed on them. if you’d rather take things down a notch, opt for a couple of eye-catching features and hang a plastic toucan, pineapple and/or flamingo in a tree or bush as a humorous surprise. The trick is to boldly combine native plants with exotics. For example, Geranium looks very jolly in a hanging basket with Mandevilla for company.
Bold and varied colour palette
Red, blue and green play the leading role, and are combined with black, white and contrasting pastels. The trick is to ensure strong contrasts: pastel flowers are given a pot in a primary colour as a base and vice versa.
