Every year the hugely influential trend team at Pantone decide on a key colour, one that reflects leading fashion and style trends, and also one that reflects our current emotional mood.
These colour trends show up in our homes, our cars, our clothes - and our gardens.
For 2022, Pantone has selected a soft deep purple-blue, which they call Very Peri.
Looks like at Australian Plants Online we were ahead of the trend with our Pashing on Purple post back in October! The deep periwinkle blue is both warm and cool, familiar and fresh, extrovert and introvert. As Pantone puts it :
"As we move into a world of unprecedented change...Very Peri brings a novel perspective and vision of the beloved blue color family...yet at the same time with its violet red undertone, Very Peri displays a spritely joyous attitude that encourages creativity"
Very Peri Plants
Very Peri is a colour that works beautifully in gardens - many favourite garden plants such as (of course) periwinkle, plus lavender, hydrangea, and sage, flower in this shade.
It has an added advantage for us gardeners - it's an adaptable colour; strong enough to stand alone, and gentle enough to complement, not clash, with other garden flowers.
For instant on-trend garden style, plant these and you'll be instantly stylish in 2022!
Flowering Groundcovers
Starting low-down, there are several flowering groundcovers that will grow to form a carpet of periwinkle-blue across your garden borders.Top : scented violets (Viola odorata), native violets, bugle (Ajuga), and periwinkle (Vinca)
Above: morning glory (Convolvulus ), geranium Rozanne, fanflower (Scaevola). and blue eyed grass Devon Skies (Sisyrinchium)
Lavender
Lavender is an easy choice for this colour trend - it's a perfect match for the Very Peri shade, and you can dial up the intensity or soften it down, depending on the variety of lavender you choose. Bees and butterflies love this colour; one reason you'll find your lavender a-buzz in the warmer months!
Herbaceous Plants
These plants will mix and mingle very well with lavender in your garden beds. They're generally a similar height, like similar growing conditions, and flower in similar ways on long stems. They also provide a welcome snack for passing pollinators.Above : catmint (Nepeta), liriope, flowering sage (Salvia), and plectranthus Cape Angel Purple
Small Shrubs
Want still more Very Peri plants to encourage joyous creativity - or create a calming purple heaven in your back yard? You got it! There's lots of choice, especially in small shrubs.Top : Barleria, coast rosemary (Westringia), evergreen hydrangea (Dichroa), agapanthus
Above : hebe Inspiration, yesterday today tomorrow (Brunfelsia), Duranta Geisha Girl, hydrangea. TOP TIP : if you want periwinkle blue hydrangeas and Dichroas you'll need a soil that's slightly acidic. Alkaline soils create pinker flowers in mutable hydrangea varieties.. Test your soil with a simple pH test kit to make sure.
Very Peri Colour Palette - Wellspring
Pantone suggests several colour palettes - combinations of colours - to use Very Peri to best advantage. We've selected on in particular that is perfect for adapting into gardens.
Wellspring pairs three shades of forest green and a silvery ice-blue with two shades of mustard and two of rich purple. It looks both classic and modern, simple yet rich. Pantone calls it "a holistic and harmonious blend of nature infused shades".
Pantone claims that the Very Peri shade was inspired by digital art, but we think in this Wellspring colour palette it draws clear inspiration from a much older source. Used in this combination, it reminds us very much of Art Nouveau, Post-Impressionist, and Pre-Raphaelite artworks around the end of the 1800s and the early 1900s.
