Temple Square Gardens Featuring Blue-Violet

Blue-violet is my favorite color in the garden.  It seems to work with every other color and adds serenity to the color scheme.  In my garden it is the glue that holds various color schemes together and connects different areas of the landscape.  The photos in this post feature gardens at Temple Square that go heavy on this great color.  Above blue-violet petunias, verbena and purple African daisies rub shoulders with mini white zinnias and upright 'Karl Foerster' grass.



This mix of annuals and perennial grasses surrounded a large rectangular pool to the east of the temple.  There are quite a few pools, fountains, and other water features around Temple Square.   



Here is another shot of the annual/grass mixture around this pool.  Upright 'Karl Foerster' contrasts with the softer fountain shape of Pennisetum grass.  Orange and yellow zinnias add some pizazz to the soft shades of blue-violet.



Rose-like pink lisianthus fit into the mix well.  The small flowers at the bottom right corner are nierembergia.  I could remember most of the annual flower names but had forgotten that one.



At the west of the pool, this garden bed makes good use of chartreuse and black sweet potato vine foliage.  The vine's bold texture contrasts well with the feathery fountain grass and linear spikes of Salvia farinacea.  I love these areas where trees and statues add structure the lower annual plantings. 



This view of the bed shows the black and chartreuse sweet potato vines, violet verbena and salvia, lavender petunias, deep pink geraniums and coral-pink zinnias. 



A statue of Brigham Young is surrounded by pale pink annual vinca mixed into the pastel color scheme of violet-blue, green-yellow (chartreuse), and orange-red (coral).  Those last three colors balance around the color wheel and work really well together in this bed.  Green hydrangeas anchor the corner of the area.



Oakleaf hydrangeas in the upper right corner add bold texture and contrasting size to this composition.  A few of the flower beds at Temple Square are seas of mounded annuals, and those seemed boring to me even if I liked the color scheme.  I preferred the beds with differing textures and forms mixed together.



Here is a final shot of an area in front of the north visitor's center, to the west of the temple.  Deep reddish-maroon coleus and magenta petunias add some drama to the color scheme seen in the previous photo.  That dramatic deep color, the cheerful corals and the exuberance of the chartreuse sweet potato vine are held together by soft blue-violet.  Gotta love that workhorse blue-violet.