A huge 80 per cent of people admit their mood improves when surrounded by colourful plants, according to research from PlantforLife, an HTA initiative that aims to help people get the most out of their garden.
Yet more than a fifth wish they could be braver and have the confidence to experiment with colour.
"Planting hot colours creates an exciting and intense mood, while opting to plant cooler colours can radiate feelings of restfulness and calm," explains celebrity gardener Chris Collins.
Most people think colour is important in the garden, yet 76 per cent don't think about the way colours can work together or the hues they are planting, the research found.
PlantforLife has produced Colour Me, Colour My Garden, a guide that matches personalities with colours. Follow these tips to make your garden reflective of you.
Romantic
You love life and see the good in everything. Swaying towards pinks and pastels, creams and ivories.
Your palette might include the shrub Fuchsia "Tom Thumb", which flowers all summer and looks good surrounded by pink roses or poet's jasmine (Jasmine officinale). Other choices could include Magnolia grandiflora "Exmouth", an impressive cream-flowered shrub, underplanted with bluebells.
Vivacious
You are confident and bubbly. You like bold colours including azure, tangerine, coral and cobalt blue.
Suitable plantings would be French marigold (Tagetes "Safari Tangerine") with zebra grass or plantain lily, and Grace Ward (Lithodora diffusa), an evergreen that produces bright blue flowers in summer and is perfect cascading over walls, planted near Anemone hupehensis "September Charm", which produces soft pink flowers in late summer, and sea holly with its blue hues.
Mysterious
You lean towards deep reds and aubergines, metallics and splashes of purple.
Good plantings include the rich blue perennial Delphinium "Blue Nile" with the lantern tree (Crinodendron hookerianum), an evergreen shrub that has dark, glossy green leaves and red flowers. The blues of viola and larkspur would also suit your colour palette, along with the silver-grey foliage of mugwort (Artemisia "Powys Castle") and the reddish purple hues of the smoke bush (Cotinus "Grace").
Sultry
Your favourite colour is black but you also like subtle, soft shades of charcoal and stony taupes. There will be statement colours such as red to add pizzazz to your planting schemes.
Good choices include lilyturf (Ophiopogon planiscapus "Nigrescens"), known for its grass-like black leaves in summer, lilac flowers and black fruits, providing stunning colour contrast with the annual Scotch marigold (calendula), with its dark orange, daisy-like flowers, which needs full sun. A Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) such as "Bloodgood" may also feature in the sultry garden scheme but don't plant it in direct sunlight as the leaves burn easily.
- Colour Me, Colour My Garden can be downloaded free from www.plantforlife.info/colour
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