The masters of the color universe at Pantone have decreed that \u201cRadiant Orchid,\u201d a shade of rosy purple, will be the 2014 \u201cColor of the Year.\u201d\u00a0 The promotional copy is effusive, describing Radiant Orchid as a shade that \u201cblooms with confidence and magical warmth that intrigues the eye and sparks the imagination.\u201d\u00a0 Not only that, but Radiant Orchid apparently has the potential to inspire all kinds of noble things, possibly even world peace.\u00a0 \u201cIt is an expressive, creative and embracing purple\u2014one that draws you in with its beguiling charm. A captivating harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid emanates great joy, love and health.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is quite amazing to think that one color could do all of that.\u00a0 If it does, it will certainly be an improvement on last year\u2019s Color of the Year, Emerald.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t make much fuss about Emerald, because Emerald and its green cousins are everywhere in the garden anyway.\u00a0 However, Radiant Orchid seems more worthy of special attention.\u00a0 It certainly exists in the orchid world, along with lots of other hues and color combinations.\u00a0 Fortunately, even those of us who do not over our Phalaenopses and Miltonias can have plenty of Radiant Orchid in our lives.<\/p>\n
When I read about Radiant Orchid, my thoughts flew immediately to garden plants with rosy purple blooms.\u00a0 Spiderwort or tradescantia flourishes in my garden and at least one hybrid variety, \u2018Hawaiian Punch\u2019 bears flowers in that shade. Like its spiderwort relatives, \u2018Hawaiian Punch\u2019 does best in light shade and sprouts long, strap-like leaves. Generally the plants flower in late spring, but will rebloom if the plants are sheared back after the first flush of bloom.\u00a0 It works well with other spiderworts, which bloom in shades of white, palest purple and blue-purple.\u00a0 \u2018Hawaiian Punch\u2019 might also harmonize nicely with one of the chartreuse heucheras, like \u2018Lime Rickey,\u2019 which enjoys the same landscape conditions.<\/p>\n
Rose lovers can also share in all that \u201cjoy, love and health.\u201d\u00a0 Rosy purple is hardly a rose garden mainstay, but there are some varieties that flower in that color.\u00a0 One is the old standby, \u2018Sterling Silver,\u2019 a lemon-scented hybrid tea of noble lineage.\u00a0 Sired by the near-mythical rose, \u2018Peace,\u2019\u00a0 ‘Sterling Silver’ grows about two feet tall or maybe just a bit more.\u00a0 It blooms heavily in spring and reblooms in flushes thereafter.\u00a0 The larger, newer floribunda, \u2018Wild Blue Yonder,\u2019 comes even closer to \u201cRadiant Orchid,\u201d with lots of rosy purple petals that redden at the edges. Save room for it, because the shrub can grow to be five feet tall, blooming in flushes just like \u2018Sterling Silver.\u2019\u00a0 Rose coloration can change subtly, according to the time of year, soil composition and even the age of the bush.\u00a0 One gardener\u2019s rosy purple \u2018Sterling Silver\u2019 may not appear to be exactly the same color as that of a gardener on the other side of the country.<\/p>\n
Every year it seems that at least forty new coneflower varieties cascade into the retail market.\u00a0 Many orbit within the \u201cRadiant Orchid\u201d color universe.\u00a0 One of them is the flamboyantly named \u2018Pow Wow Wildberry,\u2019 with overlapping rosy purple petals.\u00a0 The flowers are generously sized, at three to four inches across.\u00a0 \u2018After Midnight\u2019 appears to come close, though the promotional copy for one catalog vendor refers to the petal color as \u201cdeep magenta.\u201d\u00a0 Sometimes you just have to take your chances and judge for yourself.\u00a0 The beauty of tough perennials like coneflowers is that you can move them around if they clash with the prevailing color scheme.<\/p>\n
For those gardeners whom the gods have favored with the double gift of nearly neutral pH soil and big-leaf hydrangeas, the good news is that your bushes have probably always bloomed in a shade that resembles this latest Pantone \u201cColor of the Year.\u201d\u00a0 Fashion forward plant lovers who normally add soil amendments to acidify the earth and turn pink or pink-purple hydrangeas blue, may want to save effort this year and let nature take its course.<\/p>\n
The Radiant Orchid riot will start early in the spring for those who the little \u2018Roseus\u2019 crocuses, also known as Crocus tommasianus \u2018Roseus\u2019. They have been around since 1924 and are suddenly back in fashion for their pinky-purple petals. Some tulips and iris fall into the same color category.<\/p>\n
And of course, many orchid aficionados, who wait at this time of year in anticipation of the upcoming flushes of orchid bloom, look forward to having plenty of \u201cRadiant Orchid\u201d among their radiant orchids.\u00a0 They would probably tell the rest of us that they have always been one step ahead–in both horticulture and fashion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The masters of the color universe at Pantone have decreed that \u201cRadiant Orchid,\u201d a shade of rosy purple, will be the 2014 \u201cColor of the Year.\u201d\u00a0 The promotional copy is effusive, describing Radiant Orchid as a shade that \u201cblooms with confidence and magical warmth that intrigues the eye and sparks the imagination.\u201d\u00a0 Not only that, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[704,707,372,708,622,703,706,709,705,416,415],"class_list":["post-966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-color-of-the-year","tag-coneflowers","tag-crocus","tag-echinacea","tag-hydrangeas","tag-pantone","tag-purple-flowers","tag-purple-roses","tag-radiant-orchid","tag-spiderwort","tag-tradescantia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":967,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions\/967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}