Color Your Garden with a Color Wheel

A color wheel is a great tool for selecting complementary colors that thrill—not chill—your senses.

The concept is simple enough: The wheel is nothing more than the gradated colors of the rainbow, curled into a complete circle. Warm colors are on one side, while cool colors reside on the other. Colors that are close neighbors on the wheel complement each other in subtle and harmonious blends, while colors that are opposite each other—in particular, the primary colors of red, blue and yellow—create vivid and exhilarating contrasts.

For example, blue is opposite to orange on the wheel. These are complementary colors, which tend to be brilliant, intense and eye-catching. If you want to soften the look, move to the left or right, combining the orange with a blue-violet or blue-green for instance.

As the colors get closer to each other on the wheel, they'll be softer and have a more soothing effect.

If you get into three-color combinations, you deal with colors that are an equal distance from each other, such as yellow, blue and red. These combinations are generally appealing to the eye.