Your Home, Garden and Travel

Lately I've been coveting a color/colour chart from the Royal Horticultural Society in the UK. The chart includes 884 colors to use to correctly identify flowers.

If we used a standard color chart here in the US for flower color identification, then it would make plant shopping so much easier. It would take the guesswork out of trying to decide if a bloom color is going to be a red, red-blue, red-yellow, etc. Creating color combinations in a garden design would be so much easier!

I've noticed only one US online plant retailer using the RHS color charts, but since I don't have a color chart, I can't look up the color myself. The cost of the chart is hefty at 170GBP or $311 USD. A mini-guide is available for around $44 USD, but I still can't justify buying the RHS chart until color identification becomes standard for flower colors. I don't think the plant industry should create a new chart since there is already one in use.

Until then, I will say that my favorite flower color is magenta, as in my roses, azaleas, coneflowers and salvia that are still blooming this morning. That's as close as I can get to telling you the dominant color theme in my garden.