Talking about color and the use of color in the garden is one of those things that tends to put people in defensive/hostile mode because it's difficult at times to clearly describe what exactly one means when talking about color and the use of color in the garden. So things get misinterpreted or overly simplified as each person brings their own biases and interests to interpret what was said. There is (an annoying :-) ) tendency in some quarters to dismiss color - particularly flowers - as a sort of frivolous, unimportant 'icing on the cake' element in designing a garden. That sort of dismissal of color irritates me greatly. But it also irritates me when the 'any color goes with any other' sort of line is thrown out as an oversimplification. Because the perception of a color can very much depend on what color it is partnered with. Change the partner and you change the effect. So, for me, how I use color in the garden/where I place a particular plant depends on what effect I want to create there. In my early gardening days I went through the polychrome 'anything goes' color phase but became unhappy with that because I began to see, as GP1 said above: ' "Too much color is the equivalent of no color at all". It becomes like a street lined with billboards each competing for attention and no color stands out. ' Now I try to think through what I need to do to create a desired color effect. I don't always get it right - and it can take years to gradualy change the plantings to get to where I want to go - but it has made a noticeable improvement (to me at least!) in my gardening outcomes. GP1 - as a trained artist, you (and the gardening artists in your neighbourhood) probably intuitively use color in your gardens to create desired effects whereas for plebes like me it's something that requires deliberate thought and 'misses the mark' more often! :-) Playing with color to create effects is fun - and not limited to gardening :-) Below is a picture of DH wearing a 'tumbling blocks' sweater I knit about 17 years ago. I was aiming for an 'autumn leaves' color effect. Not perfect by any means but it's still one of his favorite sweaters. The link below is to a Google image seach that shows other sweaters of the same design in different color combinations (the fifth one is DH's sweater....) so you can see how different the sweater looks depending on what colors are used and how they are combined. And that brings me to the issue of 'rules' and styles etc. 'Rule' is one of those words that also immediately gets one's back up because most of us don't particularly like the idea of being ruled! :-) Styles tend to imply a lack of originality - a 'follow the herd' sort of mentality and we all want to be thought of as individuals. But understanding what a particular 'rule' is trying to achieve, and the consequences of breaking it is useful when assessing whether it helps or hinders what you are trying to achieve. 'Rules' can be a sort of distilled 'wisdom'/short cuts that can be useful in getting you where you want to go without having to reinvent the wheel each time! Styles, in a gardening sense, are often a response to particular times, places, cultures environments, etc. Understaning why they are/were popular can be very useful in helping you decide which styles - or elements of a style - can be used or adapted to positive effect in your own garden. That's one of the reasons I like to read widely in garden history - the more I know, the clearer I see what appeals to me and how to achieve it. Certainly my interests and tastes have changed over time but change is a constant in the garden so I'm always looking for ideas that I can incorporate - harmoniously - in the garden. The constant that drives my garden is the desire for it to have a peaceful and harmonious feel while still being a vibrant space. Here is a link that might be useful: tumbling block sweaters

THANK YOU FOR YOUR NICE COMMENTS, ALL... that little chipmunk has been around awhile, and I'm constantly chasing my cats to keep them away from him! We have lots of chipmunks, red & gray squirrels, mice, moles, birds, & frogs which all fall prey to Cosmo...he is ruthless! Nemo just brings them to me ALIVE, and drops them at my feet as a gift, so I believe I've met this little chippy a time or two! Nemo knows his "mama" will get mad at him if he kills them, so I could be working in my garden and he'll come drop a squirrel or bird at my feet! He's my good boy. iris gal, I agree...that little bee does look like he's off to bed! I thought he was just the cutest little thing, with his legs sticking out of the rose (and his little bottom!). Celeste

Awwwww, such wonderful and cute photos Jim! Sparky, Candy and the Cats (Lacy and Cagney)are looking very cute. Best side? Elmo is looking dazzling to me! His pink and blue feathers are so pretty- I call it mother-of-pearl colors! and Elmo looks very happy and content now in his new cage, LOL! It's hilarious when birds show a lot of expression in their faces, and that looks like one happy bird to me! You told me he was throwing a feathered fit when you swapped out his cage, or did you just give up and put him back in his old one, LOL! Jim, I may have to sneak in one photo here of my indoor-growing Gemini obsession, LOL! oh, my goodness, the flowers are so uncharacteristic of my usual lumpy roses! I shouldn't have put up the early ones of Gemini because those ones keep getting bigger and bigger and more and more pretty each time I look at them. This is crazy! Those blooms are as large as my outdoor blooms. Who would think that indoor roses can continue to bloom so large and so nicely. Gemini is as stubborn and resilient as a rose can be. Here is one sample photo, but the other 3 I'm posting back to my lumpy thread, LOL!

Grandma, do you mean take down the high shelf and hang the banner up where it was? If I hung it about a foot from the 10ft ceiling it would still terminate with about a foot behind the headboard...is that what you mean? I am not sure I would do that....The shelf is not something we put up, it is not easily removed, and would require extensive drywall repair, etc. I don't love shelves like that generally, but it is the same weight and profile as the 12" of crown moulding and looks very integral. I have blue and white porcelain displayed there that would have no other home. I have thought about using the small round table next to the chair, will try that. As to the plates, there are currently 16 displayed in the room now, but i have many more and could make an entire wall behind the bed with them. I am not sure the plates and the banner would make the right kind of grouping on a wall as they seem mutually exclusive in terms of content. I guess, having just read that, I should either keep the plates and forget about the banner or buy the banner and pack the plates away.