JUNE 14, 1900. 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



71 



COLOR HARMONY, 



I have noticed several criticisms on 

 the lack of color harmony in the • 

 planting of flower beds. I have my- 

 self seen beds in vi'hich I could feel 

 that the colors were badly contrasted, 

 but I couldn't explain why or say pos- 

 itively what colors would harmonize 

 perfectly. I have also seen the ques- 

 tion of color harmony mentioned 

 quite frequently in your "Retail Flor- 

 ist" department. Can't you give us 

 something by which we can be guided? 



A. H. 



The most useful and instructive 

 matter on this subject we have ever 

 noted appeared in a book entitled 

 ■■'Ihe Beautiful Flower Garden," by F. 

 Schuyler Mathews, published by 

 Messrs. W. Atlee Burpee & Co., the 

 seedsmen, Philadelphia. With the 

 permission of Messrs. Burpee & Co. 

 we reprint the matter below together 

 ■with the "color wheel" designed by 

 Mr. Mathews. 



Colors must be harmonious or e'.se 

 they will lose their value; we all have 

 an idea about which ones will look 

 well together, but we have no practi- 

 cal knowledge of the way to bring 

 them with their infinite variations 

 into harmonious company. My little 

 diagram may possibly help in bringing 

 about a clear conception of perfectly 

 simple color harmony. 



The wheel indicates sixteen com- 

 monplace colors, which (theoretically 

 speaking), when mixed together in 

 certain proportions, will producs 

 white. Although red, blue, green and 

 yellow comprise what are called the 

 primary colors, my twelve additional 

 ones are simply extensions right and 

 left of these, and furnish those fam 1- 

 iar hues which we constantly meet 

 with in the flower garden. 



I do not propose to explain any elab- 

 orate color theory, but I wish to show 

 how by the aid of my simple little di- 

 agram we may arrive at some unmis- 

 takable truths of harmony and discord. 

 The eixteen colors are: 



VioJet, Golden yellow, 



Ultramarine blue. Golden orange, 

 Blue, Orange, 



Turquoise blue. Scarlet. 

 Emerald green. Red. 

 Yellowish green, Crimson, 

 Greenish yellow. Magenta. 

 Yellow, Purple. 



Now, for colors which will harmo- 

 nize with each other, we may read on 

 the list above and on the wheel those 

 which are exactly opposite in their 

 relative positions; for instance, yel- 

 lowish green and crimson. The colors 

 which conflict with each other lie at 

 exactly right angles on the wheel and 

 at every fifth one on the list. Begin- 

 ning haphazard with yellow, therefore, 

 we may read the discordant colors a?, 

 yellow and scarlet, or yellow and tur- 

 quoise blue. Of course, I mean that 

 we can choose any color on the list. 



count it as one, and find the discord- 

 ant fifth in either direction. 



One fact more regarding harmony as 

 illustrated by the wheel, and wc have 

 compassed the fundnmental principle.? 

 of color in a nutshell. 



There are two kinds of color har- 

 mony; one is contrast! ve, as, for in- 

 stance, blue and orange, and the other 

 is analogous, as, crimson and ma- 

 genta. In a word, those colors which 

 are near neighbors to each other aro, 

 as a rule, quite agreeable to the eye, 

 and the ones which are radically op- 

 posite in appearance we instinctively 

 feel are never complete out of each 

 other's company. Actually bluo is 

 more complete with a patch of orange 

 beside it, because it looks brighte '. 

 Crimson and magenta are, so to speak. 



two points of view of red when it is 

 more or less influenced by purple. For 

 colors, then, which aie by their rela- 

 tionship harmonious, read on the 

 wheel any three which lie side by side, 

 or on the list, three which occur in 

 succession. 



If we accept th'.s simple formula as 

 a safe guide as far as it goes (it is not 

 very far-reaching), we may be sure of 

 committing no error when we arrange 

 the highly colored flowers in our gar- 

 den beds. 



But it is necessary to understand 

 exactly what the color is which we 

 call red, or blue, or yellow. For the 

 sake of something tangiole I shall 

 call the Portia carnation pure red, the 

 zenith blue of the sky pure blue, and 

 the wild mustard at its yellowest best, 

 or the lemon-colored African mari- 

 gold, pure yellow; the outside surface 

 of the buttercup's petal is also near 

 the pure yellow. The scarlet runner 

 is exactly an orange-scarlet, the Pres- 

 ident Hyde chrysanthemum is a psr- 

 fect golden yellow, and the bluest 

 bachelor's button is blue inclined 

 toward the ultramarine tone. There 

 ■ are powerful tones of purple in the 

 cinerarias ranging right and left 

 toward crimson and toward ultrama- 

 rine blue; the daffodils give us a 

 wealth of golden orange, and also yel- 

 low tints reaching as far as greenish 



yellow, and among the petunias we 

 may find varieties crimson and sol- 

 ferino in hue. 



A perfect knowledge of the individ- 

 uality of a certain color is, without 

 doubt, a matter of education. 'When 

 once we know that the scarlet vermil- 

 ion of the artist's paint-box or the 

 Madame Crozy canna is pure scar'.et, 

 when that color is before our eyes tor 

 days in succession and our memory of 

 it is established beyond doubt, then 

 we may be sure that we hold in our 

 hands a key which will unlock the se- 

 cret door of all knowledge of color. 



There is another thing, however, 

 which will greatly impede any ad- 

 vance in acquiring a perfect knowl- 

 edge of colors; that is, a strong preju- 

 dice in favor of or against some par- 

 ticular hue. Who among us can say, 

 "I have no favorite color, and there is 

 not a single one which seems to me 

 ugly?" It is quite natural that we 

 should have preferences and dislikes, 

 but it is nevertheless a fact that these 

 will sometimes give rise to prejudice 

 and blind us to the beauty of a certain 



color. 



# * ♦ 



No one can make a mistake by com- 

 bining any color with white. What is 

 most distressing in those mixtures of 

 color which make us turn our eyes 

 away, is the crudeness of uncompro- 

 mising scarlets, yellows, pinks, blues, 

 magentas and purples; if all these 

 were separated into distinct groups, 

 each group having a liberal intermix- 

 ture of white, undoubtedly we would 

 not feel so distressed. 



IN JERSEY.J 



Liberty dwells in West Hoboken. 

 Here at E. G. Asmus' Liberty flour- 

 ishes grandly and reigns supreme. 

 Several houses have been planted with 

 this grand rose with a view of having 

 them in prime condition by conven- 

 tion time; they are looking very ele- 

 gant now. Mr. Asmus informs us the 

 sale was enormous; it was impossible 

 to supply the demand for grafted 



Over at Rutherford there's a place 

 that ought to be called Bay Tree hill 

 instead of Carlton hill, for here Bob- 

 bink & Atkins and Julius Roehrs seem 

 to have gotten up a monopoly in bay 

 trees certainly more of them can be 

 seen here than in any other part of 

 the country, and they are specially fine 

 this year. If there is any young firm 

 around New York that deserves more 

 credit than another it is that of Bob- 

 bink & Atkins. They seem to be alive 

 to all the wants of the plant trade, and 

 they have accomplished wonders in a 

 short year or two, tor in addition to 

 building several model plant houses 

 and sheds, they have planted out over 

 twenty acres of everything suitable to 

 a first class nursery trade. They are 

 making a specialty of collections in 

 tea roses, dahlias, cannas and general 

 herbaceous stock, and later in the sea- 



