Just love HOT colours, like Linda!! Nothing better than red, orange, yellow, hot pink and strong purples!!!Good clear colours that reverberate and sing loudly and happily! Whooopie!!! AND.... love the combination of black and dark red. I've got "queen of the night" tulips just about in bud at the moment and they look amazing with lovely velvety red pansies or violas. So exotic and lush. It gets the blood pumping! I'm really over the pretty, cottage-garden pastel pale pink, lavender and white combination that has been very big here in the past few years. I like something a bit gutsy!!!

Iwould have to vote for all colors.Color combinations and varied heights along with foliage color and texture contribute to the overall visual allure.Adeep wine Clematis shows beautifully with Stella D'Oro lillies in front.

Any of you guys seen the book "Color by design", by Nori and Sandra Pope? That would maybe make all of you orange- (and pink-, and purple-, and ...) haters out there think again. They do "monochrome" plantings, which may sound boring, but WOW! - you just have to see them. Amazing! Don't know the publisher, sorry, as I bought mine in England (just moved here 2 months ago) - but have seen it in US format in our local B&N. Also try "Color in your garden" by Andrew Lawson, and "Best Borders" by Tony Lord (again, mine are UK but I know they're published here, too).

Hope this helps some of you get over your color-hates!

Simple: yellow

Wow! I also can't stand orange or yellow marigolds...... marigolds period, I guess. Many gardeners shy away from hot colors because they're supposedly difficult to coordinate with companions.... the clashing thing and all that. I love yellow...... light, lemony-pastel yellow especially. I keep the orangey-yellows or yellow-orangeys to a minimum..... they stand right out and have to be used carefully. I really DO like orange in herbaceous perennials because there are so few............... my favorites are the reds, blues, violets. Again, true blues and true reds are also remarkably difficult to come by. Then you have the definition problem....... i.e., crimson vs. scarlet and so forth. Oh well. Not many colors I don't like! As Viktoria said, any color can be used to great avail.

I don't like yellow or orange, either, but I DO have some
in my garden. The rudbeckia looked great for a long time this late summer/early fall, when my other flowers had fizzled. What I REALLY don't like are those yellowy-brownish mums (which someone gave me and I don't have the heart to pitch). They sort of remind me of rootbeer popsicles, only more yellow!! Nancy

I like all good, clear colors. I dislike muddy ones: mustard yellow, grayish purple, and that horrible brown-red that's been mentioned.

I don't like pink either. I have a few neighbors that go overboard with pink it makes me sick.

Well, certain oranges make me sick. Marigold orange and roadside daylily orange, namely. The latter is milky-pinky-orange it it really nauseates. Another milky-pinky color that bothers me is the lavender that's just heading over into mauve. On the other hand, the lavender that lavender comes in is very nice, as are the campanula persicifolia "blue", which is really lavender too. And nasturtiums are a very nice orange that I just can't seem to mix in well anywhere.

Finally, I think there's room for a good gold color in even the most english of english gardens. My rudbeckia "Indian Summer" was just so pretty and bright this year that I'm definitely getting more seeds for next year.

The magenta that cosmos come in is pretty harsh, come to think of it.

And my least favorite color of all is "mixed." Yech.

Only two people object to green? I'm definitely in this group. I knew it as soon as I saw the question. Green with yellow undertones is simply the worst.

However, I got ideas for second and third worst as I read, namely all muddy colors and pink. Pink, unlike green, is greatly improved by yellow tones.

Or maybe dark red and black go in third place...

My least favourites, like my favourites, seem to change from year to year. Even last year I couldn't tolerate what I used to call "margarine" yellow. It's the orangey yellow colour that margarine was years ago. But this year I found that colour to be so eye catching and full of life that it became one of my favourites. But one colour I don't think I'll ever like in a plant is that dirty looking white. White astrantia, scabiosa and liatris come to mind. I just can't find a place for them in my gardens.

I agree about the dirty-looking white, it just dulls everything. I also do not like orange or orange-yellow. I like more lemon or soft yellow, with a few exceptions--have an unnamed daylily (not the fulva or roadside daylily) but it is more of a burnt orange but very striking in color, not muddy. I also like nasturtiums, but have not been able to work them in my garden very well--only the cherry or the moonbeam (?) varieties complement my other plants.

The chocolate color so popular now looks okay with the right combinations of plants. but does tend to disappear into the background.

Variegated and burgundy foliage have been a little overdone here and there this year, don't you think?

I honestly can't think of a color that I don't like, but so much depends on what other colors are put with a particular color. Someone mentioned pink needing yellow, and it took me back because that's one combination I really don't care for. And a chalky pink beside a rich orange is about the worst I can think of.

I think location makes a big difference to colors. In semi-shade, or in parts of the country where there is a lot of overcast weather, softer colours seem to look good. I think that's why so many English gardens are full of soft, pale hues, with lots of mauves and lavenders and light blues.

Here on the prairies, where summers are hot and the sun shines with intensity, the softer colors just look washed out and almost unhealthy, like the plant is sick or something. Yellows and golds, oranges and scarlet red, delphinium blues and rich violets, yes even cerise pinks, look wonderful. Even here, though, move into the shade and these colors no longer look so impressive. Maybe it's partly because lighter colours tend to brighten up shady places and are more striking to the eye in shade.

My least favorite color ever is in a bearded iris that I bought from a catalogue. The picture showed an iris with soft creamy standards and pale, luminous blue falls, both with some veining in a darker blue/violet color. In my sunny garden this flower looked utterly bleached and faded, like a pale papery almost transparent bloom with faded beige standards and muddy lilac falls. A real disappointment. I'll be moving it into a more shady position this summer and see if it looks any better there. Corrie

Corrie,

I had the same thing happen with my Irises. I bought a bunch of leftovers at the garden center a couple years ago. They were labled purple, but the blooms were a yucky greyish brown with a just a little purple. Kind of like the color of old, spent flower blossoms, or dirty old chewing gum.

Mine are already on the shady side of the house - just a few hours of sun in the morning. I think I may dig mine up and throw them out. I never thought a flower could be that ugly, especially an Iris.

my worst color for flowers? the color that screams back at me ........im dying im dying........other than that i like them all.

Karen, so sorry to read your posting. I really hoped it was just that they didn't like the bright sunshine but if yours aren't looking good in the shade, it's more than likely that these won't either. Sorry for your unhappy experience with them, since irises are one of my favorite (and so easy and forgiving) flowers. Wishing you much better luck with the plants you're sure to be adding to your garden this summer! Corrie

Well...on the subject of least favorite colors...that would be yellow, orange and peach! But...my husband on the other hand LOVES these colors! (Go figure!) So, by the front of the road next to the driveway as you come in, we have Knifophia (hot pokers), yellow iris, Rudbeckia, and perennial sunflowers. These are tempered with the Rosemary plants and a few other small blue flowers that I could find.

Also, last season, I planted a new garden that is REALLY a challenge....a "Peach of a Garden" (..for a peach of a husband) Corny, no? It has some pale yellow flowers in there as well...that is a garden in progress for the time.

And for those of you who don't like darkly colored flowers...(I have never planted any before this) I now have created a "Dark Side" garden. (Chocolate cosmos, dark-leaved sweet potato, black clover, black iris, a dwarf dark-leaved plum, a dark-leaved Lysimachia, some dark carnations.
For annuals I used some dark-leaved basils and some "Crystal Palace" lobelia. Actually this garden is a lot more colorful than I thought it would be. Oh, and Tropicanna, and a pretty true blue salvia with dark foliage.) There are more, but I just don't remember now. I think I will add one of those green rudbeckias - just for fun! If it isn't fun, it just isn't worth doing. Considering all of the challenges that we have to go to to garden anyway (pests, weather, hard soil, sore bodies, annoying cats, mosquitoes, deer, gophers, etc.)
Oh, and for the ones who didn't like white flowers, I have a "White Daisy Garden" (shastas, various asters, boltonia, flea bane, montauk daisy, english daisy, chamomile, tanacetum niveum).

So I will close in saying, still, my least favorite colors are golden yellow, though I AM quite fond of pale yellow, like the 'Moonlight' broom...and maybe bicolors in iris. I Do prefer the solid colors. I never liked peach colored flowers before, 'cause they never seemed to go with anything, but they sure do like having a garden of their own! They are still looking for more companions, though...

Regards,

Evelyn

Mauve...I'd have to say mauve. In my opinion nothing looks good with mauve.
But as far as all the other colors, even orange and red. While I may not like a bed full of either of these colors, I like them both in small doses ...yellow two! It just depends on what you companion plant them with.

I'd have to say black is not a favorite either, although I do kind of like those smokey purple colors, especially with either splashes of orange or with bright pinks, or with deep purplish reds.

Eileen