It has been really fun reading all these comments: I'm glad so many people shared their ideas! Please note that I never said I didn't like white! I love white flowers, and have quite a weakness for white roses--'Mme. Plantier', 'Mme. Jules Bouché', 'Mme. Hardy', loving them for their great purity, coolness, and refinement. It was the question of how to use them that I was commenting on. White goes wonderfully well with cool colors, as in Alicia's photos above, and as in linrose's first photo (and all your photos are beautiful!). I love white in dark places and at dusk, as others have said: I used to have a stand of mostly white foxglove in the shade of my apple tree which was quite wonderful, and for a long time white was the only color I could tolerate in hyacinths--I still can't stomach the red violet kinds. I love pale narcissus, pale magnolias, mature pear trees with their massive white bloom. I like impure whites, along with other pale colored roses, to relieve the heaviness of more strongly colored varieties; I just think the balancing act requires a nice judgement which I don't always observe in gardens. I've certainly thought before, in a theoretical fashion, about how to design a white garden: the delicate and varied whites of roses would be wonderful with various deep greens of box and yew, and with the silver and steel and blue hues of mediterranean aromatic plant foliage. But there are ways to use white well and other ways that, for me at least, don't work, and that's what I focused on. About the Rosa foetida. Luanne, your roses are absolutely gorgeous, but I don't think they'd work: it's pure vs. impure colors again. Nor white. I like Jeri's combination too, but R. foetida is far brighter, far more intense, than the yellow rose in the picture. My own idea would be the same...what? hue? of yellow but paler, like in the paint store when you use the same combination and ratio of pigments but at lesser intensity. Same for the green; and in a different visual arrangment: that is, stripes versus the blobs of the roses, like an iris with variegated foliage, or perhaps a perennial with tiny blooms dotted through its foliage. Or a small woody plant with variegated leaves. Or one with a basal rosette and flower spikes. In violation of my own stated theory that pure and impure colors don't mix, I'm tempted to try a companion plant with pale flowers of yellowish cream--I can't quite visualize the color, but the thought is lurking. It's almost February! Spring is getting closer!! Thanks to everyone for sharing their thoughts. Melissa

My goodness, everyone has such a neat garden! What's up with that? Even the wild ones are neat! Thank goodness I didn't take any photos because I wouldn't post them anyway, lol. My gardens are way too messy. What wonderful photos! Even though I have a new-found appreciation for hot, bold colors, my heart still belongs to those pink/purple combos. I especially loved christinmk's salvia/campanula combo (gorgeous!), all of mantis' and franeli's pics, and for something a little different (for me!) thyme2dig's daylily and rudbeckia combo - love the way the rudbeckias pick up the yellow throat of the daylilies. Wow, thanks for sharing everyone. Prairie Love is right - we will need to resurrect this thread in about three months for inspiration! Dee

What an exciting morning for daylilies for me! Here's the first flower ever on First Knight. I'm thinking I really do like chicken fat.;^) First flower ever on Spiderman. First flower ever on George Bingham.(Thanks Brenda!) First flower ever on Asian Artistry. Now for some just first flower of the season daylilies. Morocco Red.....I love the black tinge in the red on this one. Red Ribbons Jersey Spider And a noid that I think may be a TC Moonlight Mascarade.

What is with all the orange hating? Tsk Tsk! I love orange, its my favorite flower color now. I also love magenta too. And lime green and black! Has anyone looked through Sarah Raven's "The Bold And Brilliant Garden"? Now she has a pallette after my own heart! Now to the colors that I cant stand: #1 White! God, I hate white flowers. Can we say, "Stick out like a sore thumb in the garden" and come on, white? I can't think of a more boring and bland color, except beige(thank God flowers don't come in biege), but it also just seems so stark and harsh and cold at the same time. And it's not really a color. Yick! #2 Pastels! What is up with these? What washed out, bland wimpiness! I don't get what is so poplular about these colors-lavender, baby pink, apricot, mauve, lilac, peach, primrose yellow, etc. its like Laura Ashley threw up!