It's helpful to look to the seasons for inspiration; each one has a personality and a colour scheme of its own - an instant, perfectly formed colour palette right there outside your window.

SUMMER

This season has two faces - the rich, jewel- Like colours of hot pinks, yellows, purples and ruby- reds while the herbaceous borders reach their prime with spring greens moving to richer hues. The flip side is the colours that have become washed out over time, fading as the season goes on. They have a romantic feel with a muted, pared-back colour palette that might include the soft pinks of garden roses, elegant off-whites and delicate peach and apricot.


AUTUMN

The intense colours of autumn provide a perfect combination played out in the canopy of the trees as leaves take on tones of burnt ochre, copper and red. Celebrate the harvest and its earthy colours of straw, pumpkin-orange and butternut squash.

WINTER

This season offers us the perfect neutral palette of an endless amount of muted shades from the murky grey blues of a winter sky and ghostly whites and silver of birch tree bark to the brooding dark greens of evergreens such as rosemary and yew. Winter is a lesson in using colour sparingly - it's there if you look: the cheery yellows of mahonia, witch hazel and winter aconite as well as the soft pink of daphne and bold red of dogwood.

SPRING

This season is full of optimism and has a freshness that other seasons can lack. The vivid acidic greens of the flush of new growth are a welcome sight after winter. Spring combinations have a lightness and a vibrancy to them and might include lime greens, primrose-yellow and hyacinth-blue as well as the soft blush of spring blossom.

- Content reference from Clare Nolan (Author) - In Bloom