shade flowers that will go with my ugly brick?

[greenqueen]

My brick is clay colors, with reds and oranges, sandy tone clay, greys and black. I'm desperate for something that will go nicely with those colors besides plain old greens and white.

ANyone out there with the same problem?

Oh, and they are in shade with some dappled sun most of the day, so basically a shade plant.

[shadowsmom]

Your brick sounds like my house! Mine has some gold bricks mixed in with the black and red/orange. I have black shutters.

I use a lot of coleus on the north side of my house. There is a wide variety of colors and it works out for me. I get the variety 6 packs that have a lot of red/green leaves, throw in a few impatiens and it looks good.

[rainbowgardener]

I'd go with blues and purples with maybe a little white for contrast. Anything in the red-orange-yellow-pink area is going to be clashy with the brick or blend in and not be visible.

Suggestions for blue flowering shade tolerant perennial flowers: anise hyssop (a great plant for bees, butterflies and making teas), bellflowers, larkspur, great blue lobelia, phlox, blue flowering hostas and/or blue foliage hostas, pulmonaria, columbine, jacobs ladder, perennial forget-me-not, balloon flower, brunnera.

[rainbowgardener]

@greenqueen: Did you like any of shadow's or my suggestions?

[greenqueen]

YES! sorry I haven't responded sooner, but life has been just crazy the past few weeks!

I have used several different coleus over the years, as rainbowgardener mentioned, they either clash or blend in if it's a good match.

I'm doing window box and a 15 ft long planter, so I need lots of plants.

So far this year I started with perennials I have in the ground. Some vinca, a blueish hosta, blue torenia, dk sweet potato vine, silvery colored lamium, white begonia, ivy, creeping charlie (the plant) and I just bought a new plant today and cannot remember for the life of me what the name is, darn it! it has dark green leaves and a purple flower.

Against my house in all other areas I use lots of bluish green or plain green leaf plants with light pastel , white or purple flowers. I use all the lime greens, yellows and hot color flowers in the back of my yard against a nice weathered cedar fence.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[rainbowgardener]

Wow!! sounds very nice!! Picture would be great!

[shadowsmom]

Sounds really pretty!

A lot of color choices just end up coming down to personal preference. Try different plants/color combos and see what you like. Sometimes an odd color really pops and may work well.