The Power of Flower Colour in Landscape Design

The flower industry is a fashion industry with seasonal demand dictated by fashion colours and design influenced by social mood. In city landscapes, the opportunities to shift with fashion are limited. Displays of annuals can be impressive yet are expensive and often wasteful.

Designed urban landscapes more commonly rely on perennial plants that provide consistent seasonal colour. The colour choices can be selected to respond to and shift the emotions of people who enjoy time in the gardens. Research on colour in landscapes reveals crucial insights for design.

Findings from Therapeutic Garden Research

Research¹ into flower combinations for therapeutic garden design revealed that orange flowers strongly uplift mood, and this effect persisted even when mixed with 50% blue. However, blue’s relaxing effect was delicate, significantly diminished by just 25% orange. For maximum relaxation, pure white flowers were most effective, surpassing blue, though blue and white-blue combinations also ranked highly. Purple proved less relaxing than blue or white.

Results indicated that all-white flower combinations were the most relaxing. Interestingly, these same white combinations also ranked as one of the most uplifting among the cool colour palettes. These powerful findings strongly suggest that a garden primarily featuring white flowers could be incredibly effective as a healing space.

Designing with Intention

Designers are recommended to create “rooms” in gardens with separate areas dominated by cool colours for relaxation, and sections with warm colours (at least 50%) for uplift. Importantly, the study also noted a preference for open green spaces without flowers, especially among those with high nature engagement, suggesting the fundamental role of foliage in design. Simpler, monochromatic colour schemes were also often favoured. This study was limited in being an online questionnaire, with the possibility that screen colour was not uniform amongst respondents and that the research could not fully capture the emotion from a direct connection with nature.

Cultural Contexts and Colour Preferences

Also relying on online images, research in China² aimed to quantitatively explore public preferences for flower colours, investigating how factors such as nature experience, emotions, and demographics shape these choices to inform future urban green space planning. Recognising that nature significantly boosts human health and that flower colours are a key visual element influencing aesthetic enjoyment and well-being, this study looked more intensely into specific colour preferences.

In exploring public preferences for flower colour, the study revealed that blue was the most popular, followed by white, while deep orange and deep pink were generally disliked. White flowers, despite being “colourless,” proved excellent complementary materials, enhancing preferences when paired with other hues. People in negative moods preferred blue or green, while older individuals and those with multiple income sources preferred red, yellow, and orange tones.

Tailoring Colour to the Setting and Demographic

These findings provide valuable insights for urban planning and landscape design. For general public spaces, a variety of colours will cater to diverse preferences. Vibrant hues are more suitable in spaces designed for older or more affluent demographics. In therapeutic settings, blue, white, and green are ideal for stress relief, especially for those with negative moods. Conversely, nursing homes might benefit from warmer colours such as yellow, red, and purple for emotional upliftment, with white as an excellent complementary colour, and deep orange and deep red being used sparingly.

The authors concluded that the driving factors influencing flower aesthetic preferences include emotions, age, economic factors, and nature experience, with emotion identified as the predominant influence.

Colour as a Visual Shortcut for Biodiversity

Urban meadows are gaining traction as an alternative to traditional mown grass in public green spaces, offering significant benefits for both biodiversity and human wellbeing. Understanding what makes these meadows most effective for people and wildlife can inform design choices. A study in Luton³, UK, examined eight annual meadow mixes, varying in plant species and diversity of flower colour. Public questionnaires and invertebrate surveys revealed that meadows with a higher diversity of flower colour consistently produced a more positive aesthetic response from the public. This suggests that a vibrant, varied palette is an important factor in making urban meadows visually appealing.

Interestingly, people seemed to use colour diversity as a proxy for species diversity, as actual plant species diversity did not directly drive human response. People didn’t directly perceive plant species diversity; instead, they used the diversity of flower colours as a visual cue for how many plant species they thought were present. This means that showcasing varied colours is more impactful for public perception than simply having many species.

While plant species diversity did impact invertebrate results, with higher numbers of certain taxa found in low species diversity meadows, high flower colour diversity emerged as the priority for maximising both human enjoyment and observable pollinator abundance.

Colour for Pollinators and People

In the UK, incorporating late-flowering non-native species such as Coreopsis tinctoria further enhanced the appeal of meadows and provided vital resources for pollinators over a longer season. Landscape and environmental professionals rated meadows significantly less colourful and attractive than the general public. This indicates a potential difference in aesthetic appreciation, with the general public valuing flower colour diversity highly for aesthetic enjoyment. However, this research suggests that for urban green infrastructure, focusing on vibrant, diverse flower colours is key to creating engaging, ecologically rich meadows.

A Design Balancing Act

These research findings highlight an important paradox: while general principles about colour and therapeutic responses exist, designers must also account for personal preference. The recommendation for horticultural design practices is clear: provide a variety of colours and colour combinations in different parts of a garden or park. This allows individuals to gravitate towards the hues that resonate most with their personal emotional landscape, maximising the overall well-being benefit.

Colour as a Tool for Well-being in Horticultural Design

By understanding both the generic emotional responses and the nuances of individual preference, professional flower growers, florists, and city decision-makers can collaborate to create truly supportive and restorative environments. The success of horticultural design lies beyond cultivating beauty and extends to harnessing the immense power of colour to enhance human health and happiness.

1. Liwen Zhang, Nicola Dempsey, Ross Cameron, ‘Blossom Buddies’ − How do flower colour combinations affect emotional response and influence therapeutic landscape design?, Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 248, 2024, 105099, ISSN 0169-2046, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2024.105099.

2. Shen S, Yao Y, Li C. Quantitative study on landscape colors of plant communities in urban parks based on natural color system and M-S theory in Nanjing, China. Color Res Appl. 2022; 47(1): 152-163. https://doi.org/10.1002/col.22713

3. Hoyle, H., Norton, B., Dunnett, N., Richards, J.P., Russell, J.M., and Warren, P., Plant species or flower colour diversity? Identifying the drivers of public and invertebrate response to designed annual meadows. Landscape and Urban Planning, 180. pp. 103-113, 2018. ISSN 0169-2046 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.08.01.