Winter Colour

Start planning the colour scheme of your winter garden now. To get it right plan early August and start planting by mid-August.
mauve
For autumn flowers, cyclamen and autumn flowering crocuses are a good bet.
I'm picking a deep pink and a bright pure white varieties of cyclamen. Snow at Christmas is getting to be a rarity so large bands of white cyclamen would work very well lined with deep Christmas-red ones. Going with a Christmas theme a red and white planted-pansy Santa in a wheelbarrow hitched in reverse with sleigh bells to willow reindeers... Outlined with brightly lit outdoor lights... Jeez! Next year we'll probably be lighting up the whole rooftop following the British trend to keep up with their Jonesy cousins.
peach
In the lawn I'm planting some autumn flowering crocusses, intermingled with spring flowering daffodils and narcissi. The scheme: mauve and lavender crocuses to be followed by tiny spring yellow and peach or off-white narcissi and daffodils. This isn't as horrible as it sounds. Dolce and Gabbana do a mauve and lavender tie but I'd feel sorry for the person who gets it as a Christmas gift. I'm actually working up to mauve, peach, yellow, lilac and lavender colour scheme between winter and spring if I've got the bottle but perhaps Nature will stop my well-laid plan in it's tracks.
yellow
In spring, the cyclamen borders will be followed by the pink and white Salome narcissus, pink Angelique double headed tulips, white hyacinths and some pink hyacinths.
mauve-lavender
Spring and autumn are the times to work on the lawn and it's a good time to be either removing bulbs or adding them while weeding at the same time. I find overseeding with grass seeds helps to give a thick carpet. And so what if the birds eat some seeds. I musn't forget to pick some onion sets and perhaps plant some barrel-grown potatoes in time for Christmas. I'm already a few weeks late planting but try getting the stock from Garden Centres. Suppliers are over-stretched and there's hardly anything in store. Preparation is key.
lavender
As I haven't done winter planting before I need all the luck.
Actually I find lilac too cold (who wants to be reminded of the cold in deep mid winter) so I'm switching to lilac-mauve. You'd just have to imagine these as tulips ,crocusses and narcissi. Of course the theme could be continued into the summer with roses and hydrangeas of the same hues.
lilac-mauve
In the summer I prefer hot reds,magentas,hot pinks and oranges. They seem to accentuate the heat better.Or make up for the lack of heat, so either way you're on to a winner. But plants with these colours tend to be annuals so that means starting all over again the following year.
lilac