My Secret Color Palette

Friends, the official countdown is on. Today is the start of me actually accumulating and procuring all the product that I have been shopping for for the last couple months. We are starting off our adventure here at one of my favorite nurseries. This is Sky Nursery. I love this place. And in fact, I do a lot of shopping here. And in my cart, I've assembled a little selection of plants that you're gonna see in my garden at the Northwest Fire and Garden Festival. But the reason I've done this is because I just got the email from the team here that the Elegance Pansies have landed. Here we are. This is, you guys, this is my colorway and I haven't talked about it before, but I'm having a bunch of these gorgeous primroses grown for me by my friends at TNL. I also, while I won't have this exact pansy, this is a little penny primrose, Viola. I'm not gonna have this exact one, but I brought in this yellow color because I am bringing in a lot of bulbs in this baby soft yellow. All right, the next thing. Look at this cyclamen. Let me pull a tag for you. This one is Cyclamen Super Siri Dragon Blue. You guys, this has like, this has the perfect icy quality to it and it is absolutely wonderful. And what's so funny is I called my friends at Sky and I ordered six flats of this. Okay, last but not least, I'm bringing in some really amazing texture this year. I am actually gonna bring in a little bit of a globosa style spruce. The one I am getting is called Moonstone. I can't wait to show it to you. I also ordered a ton of Black Mondo grass because I just needed, you guys, this is such a dreamy feminine palette that if I didn't bring in some Black Mondo, some really beautiful conifer selections, it could be too feminine and I want it to be a nice mix. Okay, last but not least, I am bringing in a bunch of chartreuse elements. And just for my shopping purposes, I wanted a touch of that bright green. And so I've brought in just a little Scotch Moss to represent that colorway. So let's go shopping for some Elegance Pansies. Now, the cool thing about Elegance Pansies is there's so much variation within each collection. So you have the Marie Antoinette here. You have the Twilight series on the right. And I find that the Twilight series is a bit more saturated. It's got more of that like navy intensity to it. This is a bit softer. I feel like there's a bit more of like a muted quality to this particular pansy. And I've played with both in my garden and in my clients' gardens. And so what I kind of want to do here is I want to start pulling some of these examples and putting them with my existing color palette to see how they play with their friends. So I've grabbed one of each and I can already tell which one is playing with my palette here. This one is one of the Twilight Pansies. And what I'm noticing is there's a lot more red, a lot more deep, deep tonality to it. And it just is, I mean, it kind of goes here, but it's really clashing with a lot of this soft pink. Quite frankly, I don't think it's going well with my soft butter yellow either. So you guys, this is so interesting. So if we take that one away and then we bring in more of the Antoinette, all of a sudden, look at that. This is so beautiful. You still get a little bit of the brown right in the center there, but just the coolness of this lavender, look how smoky that is. This is looking so good. And funny enough, come up here and look at this. I love it with this little globosa. Okay, this was so much easier than I thought. I thought it was gonna be a lot of back and forth, but it is so clear to me that this is the direction that we're gonna head. So we're just grabbing like kind of a mixture of these to see how they play. You guys, this one has way more yellow in it, but look how beautiful it is. You guys, this is so interesting. This is so interesting. We also pulled this one that has a bit more of that creamy white. That works too. I almost feel like I have gotten into this really considered palette, and I'm bringing in multiples of so many things. We're talking like I have 72 of these coming in. I have six flats of this, and I think they're like eight to a flat. So if that gives you a sense of the volume of things that I'm bringing in and the big drifts that I'm establishing, I think I can have a bit more of a play with my pansies, and it's not gonna be too crazy. So I think I'm gonna dive in, and let's just start pulling together some flats. And I think maybe what I'll do is I think I'm gonna stick with this colorway here, but I like the idea that maybe I bring in a few little extra fun bits to put within the greenhouse. As per usual, I'm getting extremely carried away and overexcited. Okay, you know I have conifers. You know I have pansies. You kind of know the color story. But then look at this forced rose I just found. I am dying over this. This is so lovely. It is so just like, this gives us the feeling that it's literally not February. And then look at this. If you have never seen a pieris, you've probably been living under a rock, but this is a pieris. The variety's called Purity. And do you see how the yellow kind of undertone of this white is pulling at all of these buds? This thing will pop open in the convention center. It is just primed and ready. I love a pieris. And then look at this glossy foliage next to the globosa spruce. Oh man, you guys, this is like, this is the week where all of the planning starts to pay off, and you just see the vision coming through. And I just, I'm so excited to see how this shakes out. But so far, it is looking really good. Oh my gosh, I didn't even tell you what we did with the pansies. Essentially, I targeted three separate colorways that I felt like really evoked the energy of what I'm wanting to create. So the first one is this cool kind of purpley tone. It plays really well with all the cyclamen that I'm bringing in. I just think this is such a beautiful compliment. I am going to feature the pansies heavily inside the greenhouse because I feel like this drives home the story of texture within the garden. And so I want an element that's going to bridge that together. Okay, coming down here. This is where I got a little more adventurous. This colorway almost has more raspberry in it. There's still a lot of undertones that coordinate because these are all within the Antoinette collection, but I'm kind of loving these because they almost verge on that toffee color that I love. Okay, the third flat, you guys, this is where I got real intense real quick. Look at this plummy goodness. I am just kind of blown away every time I see these pansies because they are so frilly. They're so lovely. This is just a spectacular. So I got three distinct flats. They all coordinate. I can use them in so many different ways. And this gets to be the star of the show amid beautiful textural items. You know, I love a sneaky squirrel work area. You guys, she already put them on a cart. You guys, would you look how good these people are here? They already started me a cart with all of my cyclamen. Is that so sweet? You guys, I am happy as can be. Like I am feeling so like juiced up with all this color. I don't know what's gotten into me, but I am like, whenever I go plant shopping and I have this much beautiful color, I honestly, I'm like a little bit high off of it. It's like so good. Okay, can I show you one other thing? Obviously I'm working in like my blue purple layer and friends, this is a wallflower. If you are not familiar with wallflowers, they are so beautiful. This one is fuchsia glow. Also side note, if you're ever shopping for a wallflower, do not go based on the name alone. You always have to see it in real life, but they also have this one. Okay, this is bright side purple glow and I am loving it. Okay, I want to take you over to the cart to show you why I think this could be something really beautiful for me to work in. And by the way, I already have, just so you know, I have literally hundreds of yellow daffodils coming in. I've got tons of really beautiful evergreen conifers coming in. And then I also have a very strong pink layer coming in. So I kind of need a little bit of that cool purpley bluey tonality to tie it all together. Let's start here with my cyclamen. The coloration is really matching the intensity. I love that it's not an exact match. Both have a slight red undertone, which is really cool. But then do you see how antique-y and vintage the new blooms look? Look at this one right here. What it ends up doing is it ends up pulling in my Antoinette pansies a little bit more because they both have a certain smokiness, a little bit of a smoky quality. You can really see it there. And just having a little touch of something like that helps marry all of my colors together. This is commonly what I refer to as a bridge element. So this is a flower that because it has so many different types of blooms on it, so many different colorations, it helps marry together several colors within any arrangement that you are doing. By the way, you can apply this kind of bridge element not only in any container that you're doing, but also within landscapes. That's so important to have kind of these little bridge items that pull different things together. You can even do this if you are doing an all texture container. Something like a Japanese painted fern is an excellent example of this because you get so much coloration within that foliage. Also, I have some ladies creeping pretty hard on my cart here because you guys, these colors are so good. I wish you were here in real life with me. This is just, this is when the show starts to feel real. And I can see those colors that I've been dreaming about finally come in to focus. I kind of want to take a little spin around and see if there's anything else that catches my eye. The four inch Pieris Purity that I found, that was actually a really good find. And that circle is $5.99. That is a great element if you're doing a container because you can take it out and pop it in the landscape. That Pieris is gonna be so happy to be in the ground and also really loves a container as well. But I'm seeing a few other things. In fact, I'm seeing here, seeing one of my favorite euphorbias. This is a euphorbia called White Swan. This could actually be really lovely. Now, euphorbias, you always kind of want to be careful with it. A lot of people comment about poisonous plants. This is one of them. It causes contact dermatitis, really bad for the eyes, but it's really pretty and it has a great yellow flower. So I kind of want to see if this is something I might want to play with. You guys, you should see Brian. He's like, don't get me in the video. Here he is. Oh, I'm just kidding. Okay, I have to say there's something really lovely about that creaminess. That is really fun. Okay, this one might go on the radar, but I would be nervous about little kids coming through and pulling on this. So I think I would have to bury it further back within the display. You know, just because they're not my kids and I can't be there 24 seven, I think I may pass on this, but this is a gorgeous selection. We are a sight going through the nursery today. Oh, so many good hellebore. Okay, let's see what else we can find here. More amazing hellebore. You know what, actually? I think I'm gonna head down here because you know I love a good heuchera. Oh wait, hold up. We need to take a pause for the cause. Oh, look at that hellebore. This one is so pretty. Let's see the variety. New York night honeymoon series. Oh, interesting. That is a Brian flower. He loves a black flower. Okay, adventure continues. You know what's so fun about pushing this cart along is immediately you can see what jumps out and what works. This is so much fun. Highly recommend loading up your cart with goodies that you enjoy and taking it for a bit of a tour. Okay, let's see this. Ooh, that is really pretty. Now, if you have been here a minute, you've probably seen me use this heuchera. It's speckled. It's just got gorgeous foliage. And this is midnight rose coral bells. Okay, could be interesting. Could be interesting. You know what I kind of feel like I'm in the mood for though? I kind of feel like we need to shop for some grasses because I definitely need to work on my texture. I feel like the shrubs are dialed. I've got an incredible amount of black mondo grass coming in. But really, I do feel like I am missing a little bit of a grassy moment. I do love this. Look at this. This is a Mexican feather grass. It's got all of the bright new foliage on it. Look how happy that looks. That is so fantastic. And I do know I can get this from my grower. T&L has tons of that. Okay, let's keep looking and see if anything else catches my eye here with my little cart of wonders. Hmm, interesting. You know, there is something really nice and moody about this Carex ribbon falls. That is just a mega gloss leaf. Really good volume as well. Very pretty. Okay, let me see about one other item. This one is Carex feather falls, and I use this so frequently. You know, this one has almost become a common plant to me, but there is something really nice about that variegated blade. Got, okay. That one is going on the radar too. Really good. Okay, I see two other things I wanna grab. I'm gonna grab this Acorus. This is the variegatus. And then I'm also gonna grab this guy. This is Acorus Ogon. I go through heaps and heaps and heaps of these two grasses. So let's kind of put them in play and see which one I prefer. All right, starting off with the variegatus. I actually am really liking that. Blade is a bit softer. Okay, I do have to say I really like that. Not as intense of a yellow. That couldn't be a good choice here. I actually like it better with the cyclamen. Well, isn't this interesting? Here is the Acorus Ogon. I just don't like it with the pansies, you guys. It almost feels too harsh and in your face. But then you come over here and it actually looks amazing with the cyclamen. Isn't that interesting? Okay, so this could be one of those items that I really need to decide where and how I'm using it because it looks absolutely lovely, cozied up here next to the cyclamen. But the very second I bring it over here to these more muted tones, it doesn't match the intensity. Isn't that so funny? Let's go back to the first. Going back to the variegatus. See, that is beautiful. It matches the intensity of the cyclamen. Has a lot of interest to the blade. And then if I bring it over here, do you see how that yellow is just a wee bit softer? That actually coordinates with the pansy a lot better. I'm still not 100% sold on it, but we are definitely moving in the right direction. I have a wild card selection. This is a New Zealand sedge. It's brown and it has all these sweet little curly tips on it. I have to say, I love blue and brown together. That is very pretty. But what I think is exceptional is the brown with these Antoinette pansies. That is really, that is so special. Oh man. Okay guys, really, really good inspiration today. We're gonna do something kind of silly, but I have parked my little cart of purpley blues over there because this is very close to the energy that I'm creating for the show this year. I mean, would we look at this camellia? That thing, let's get a hand for reference. Look how big that thing is. That is a softball-sized bloom. This might be a good substitute for my buttermint. Jury's Pearl Camellia. Oh, all budded, just beautiful. This choisea is looking fantastic. I am also loving the Daphne Eternal Fragrance. That is great. And then they've brought in all of these beautiful conifers. Of course, a hinoki. Look at this gorgeous thing. This is a Camisiparas gracilis. Love a hinoki cypress. Okay guys, this is kind of fun. This is about as close to my show garden as I've seen, but I will tell you this much, because it's me, there's gonna be 8,000 times more flowers. You guys, I'm so excited, I can't even tell you. I'm trying to remain calm in public, and that is very, very difficult. All right friends, I've officially filled two parts, top and bottom, so I'm getting out of here, but thank you for coming along on another garden adventure, another literal shopping spree. This is like, this is where the garden show gets so crazy, but I will see you in the next one, and in the meantime, say hello to your garden for me. Bye.