Uninhibited in the Garden

There are probably things you will do in the garden that you wouldn't dare do anywhere else. Or at least there are things you're more willing to contemplate doing there. Something about the garden seems to free us from our otherwise inhibited selves and allows us to break loose, to experiment - to dare to have fun. And sometimes in doing so you become freer in other parts of our lives as well. At least it works that way for me.

For instance - how many of us would dare to use orange in the living room? Not just a small vase, or a few small squares in a patchwork pillow pattern, but a big splash of it? And then, to add to the effect, would you then dare to use a color like grass green to accent it? Maybe toss in a bit of red and maybe a smidgen of blue just for fun?

It sounds almost too brave to contemplate.

And yet how many of us have admired a huge stand of orange daylilies with their red throat markings, running along the border of a grass green lawn? Of course in our yard, given the drought-ridden summers we've had lately it's more often a ribbon of orange edging a patch of buff colored straw - but you know what I mean.

I've admired that ribbon of orange and green since we first saw it in bloom when we bought this house nearly 20 years ago. So why did it take me nearly that long to decide that it might look all right in the house as well? At first I felt like donning sunglasses every time I passed the bright calendula orange woodwork in my pantry and worried that my husband would decide that I had finally gone over the edge.

But he liked it.

Of course he also loved the garden where I had a nice big patch of velvety black taro (Colocasia esculenta 'Black Magic' partnered with Asiatic lilies of a sort of diamond-dusted gold. I liked it to - and would have liked it equally well with bright lipstick red lilies, or even pale blue delphiniums - as I happen to like the combination of ice blue, white and black. But does that mean I'd like a room that uses black as its major color and then accents it with gold, or red or blue?

Well - we can but try. And our all black powder room with its bright white accents and baroque gilt mirrors and chandelier has been a smash hit with everyone who has seen it. In fact those in the know just smile when a newcomer emerges from that powder room and announces to a gathering of people that "You just HAVE to go to the bathroom!" (Of course those not in the know merely look puzzled.)

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