The Gardener’s Palette by Jo Thompson

The Gardener's Palette by Jo Thompson

This book came out in 2022, and the subtitle is Creating Colour Harmony in the Garden.
Jo Thompson is one of Britain's leading garden designers. This is her second book, which was written in conjunction with the Royal Horticultural Society.

Well, the title of this book says it all - palettes - masterfully proven gorgeous color combinations for your garden.

I've found that the most challenging part of working with palettes is not picking them but sticking to them. It's usually when we experience color droughts in our garden or hit an excellent garden sale that we break with our palette, and then the garden can slowly devolve into something a little wild and wooly. 

That said, Jo's book will be a fantastic resource if you feel you're ready to make a change and take a more disciplined approach to what you plant in your flower garden. Jo is a color master - a purveyor of color palettes. She serves up 100 palette options and then identifies the plants you should scout to make your palette a reality. The photos in this book are incredibly inspiring and beautifully illustrate why the colors work so well together in a garden.

Garden's Illustrated recently shared Jo's top five favorite color combos. Her picks included the following:

Tutti Fruitti is bright magentas, and fizzing oranges delight as they catch the eye.

Sherberts offers mouthwatering sherbet colors that work softly with each other to create a feel that, at the same time, both look backward and forward, bringing with their soft tones both familiarity and excitement.

Wine, peach, and coral are a combination of colors that work together and create surprising harmony due to the surprising tones that they share deep within their petals.

Pink is a garden classic. This shade resonates in the memory. It is soft and pretty, elegant, and a color that stops us in our tracks.

Green & White: Green and white are the freshness of morning light, the elegance of midday light, and the serenity of the light in the evening. A gentle palette that is timeless in its appeal.

This book is 388 pages long and offers 100 different palette options for your garden, along with beautifully inspiring images, plant selections, and Jo's personal design preferences and tips.

You can get a copy of The Gardener's Palette by Jo Thompson and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $40.