I'm with you, I thought hot colors were already in.

I am a longarm quilter and see a lot of fabric and color choices on the quilts my customers bring me. I have started to notice a move away from the richer jewel tones towards a palate of brighter/neon colors.    

lol, since I started working with natives, the majority of my garden is pretty much just that, natives and exotics that don't look too out of place with the natives. So no, I don't really follow trends too much. Even with the annual color pots and the few beds I do up in similar annuals and bulbs like dahlias and such, I don't really follow the current trends much, most of the time I am more interested in what will attract critters than what the current "in" thing is.

My own sense of aesthetics is probably dated I guess. I do like the purple and variegated foliage stuff, and in the pots like mixing a few things with shocking foliage to highlight the things I am planting to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. But more often than not, I am just as happy with a few carefully selected color foils, and highlight the flowers for the year. So, I have a nice purple striped wandering jew (you know, the old standard house plant, have NO idea what the scientific name is, lol), and last year I put starts of the grassy white striped spider plant in my hanging baskets with the 'Marinka' fuchsia. They never did get big enough to produce runners (I tend to forget to fertilize things enough for the pots, lol), and I left them outside so they are probably mush now, though they survived the first snow fall oddly enough.

My sister also regularly gets florist type plants that I try and work into the garden when I can. Last year she kept getting those miniature roses, which do surprisingly well in the garden if you can get them transplanted before they keel over in those tiny little pots they stuff them in. We have one that starts a nice bright pink and ages to a coral tone I really rather like, I hope it survives the winter. We also have a white one that shades to pink asa it ages in cooler weather which is pretty too, for those that like the pastels. Its goes well with my candy flower, making a nice rather romantic cotton candy kind of pairing. An old fashioned johny jump up jumped in with them last year, and I liked the contrast of the simple pink candyflower and blousy drousy pale mini rose with the cheerful little prankster with its bright yellow face and dark purple edges.

But for the most part, I tend to look for one or two plants each year and plant mostly the same "backbone" of old favorites- pansies in a rainbow of color and sizes for my sister, and to add the flowers to salads occasionally, Salvia coccinea for the hummers, I move around seedlings of candyflower (Claytonia sibirica) if they don't come up where I want them, and usually look for older varieties of Lantana camara for the butterflies, or old fashioned verbena (which is getting harder and harder to find). A dahlia or two usually makes it in at some point, I usually look for ones where you can still see the center so there is at least some hope the insects can find some nectar in them, lol. And fuchsias often get bought on impulse, lol. Ecclectic, and not necessarily bought to make a fantastic show together, so I end up with some... interesting combinations sometimes *grin* but isn't that the fun of gardening?

... how awful it tasted.

It sounds nutritious though!

I've always been an independent. If I like it, thats what I get. Seems like doing it that way, I've always ended up with plants that go well together.

I love walking down my short paths and having a bright spot catch my eye, no matter what color it is. I also like the cool quiet greens of our native plants. And, there is nothing brighter than a white trillium sticking its head out among all that green!

If you work it right, they will all fit together one way or another.

No comment on the "drink"...

I had a feeling most here are not really trend followers. I think died in the wool gardeners wouldn't be tied to what is "in" at the moment.

How about hot (as in fantastic) new plants? Do you have to have it? I know sometimes I get plant lust bad. My pocketbook has to wait though, if it's too expensive.

It occurs to me that this is a different discussion, because we are talking about plants, instead of something like say, clothes (fashion) or even furniture. In those industries, "designers" control so much of what we see... especially the big name designers. When they decide a certain color is "in", they have the sway to get the manufacturers not just of the clothes themselves, but of the materials the clothes are made from, to produce cloth and other materials in the colors and styles they want. Most big name designers these days go to the manufacturers and design whole lines of cloth and other materials in the colors and patterns they want to use, which are then marketed both directly and indirectly through the clothes or furniture they are also designing. Even if it doesn't come from the designers signature lines, the dyes are expensive, for example, so much of the rest of the manufacturers lines will be in similar colors, and ones that match or "go with" those colors. So we get trends where certain colors and even fabrics become the signature for that era or style.

It's a little different with plants. Garden designers rarely have much if any say in what plants are being produced. Unless they also have their own nursery where they are not just propagating older plants but actively hybridizing new ones, they pretty much grow and buy what they use form other nurseries. Magazines follow trends and may focus on what is "in" among a certain set of designers, but it doesn't seem to hold the same sway as it does with fashion industry designers. Maybe as you say it is because gardeners are more independent, or maybe it is also a reflection of the fact that clothes for the fashion conscious don't seem to last more than a season or two, while gardeners tend to try and keep favorite plants around forever if they can, lol, so anything new has to not only deal with the old plantings, but look good with them. Lol, I guess you could look at it like with a garden, you have to look at the whole closetfull, not just one outfit at a time, or in other words one plant at a time.

So I think trends are harder to pinpoint and "market" in gardening circles. There are more social trends, like moving toward xeriscaping options or native plants, using more edibles in ornamental landscaping, and what exactly constitutes a "kid friendly" garden... but for the most part, specific colors of flowers and all that doesn't really seem to be as important in gardening as it is in other things.

I'm so relieved at the return of intense color to our palette, it's been tougher and tougher to find grey and white tones to subdue my natural golden tresses.

Neon in the garden has it's place, but my "exitement" this year was stumbling across scented snap dragons.

Happy Spring! With three inches of white stuff bending my Ceanothus...

Tom

Ooo CJoy, you just made me salivate with the discription of your new Sambucus. You can bet I'll be looking for it in the nursery's I frequent.

btw, could you pass on the name of it for me?

Interesting article,Debbie, and he points out one of my favorite gripes: The: I, ME, MY focus. "I am watching ME in My mirror!" DH, an English teacher, was known for underlining those repeditive words on his student's papers!

Phlox, The sambucus was purchased at Portland Nursery and
it is Sambucus racemosa, Sutherland Gold.

Because I work at a Garden center and help with the buying, I do pay attention to the trends. This year, I read, its about vivid colors, and I believe its true. Callibracola,common name Million Bells, Cherry Star (hot pink with yellow star), Sweet tart (pink and yellow)and Blackberry and Coralberry Punch will be the hottest plants from what I've seen. Last year it was the Black and yellow petunias like Phantom paired with a chartreuse. Chartreuse plants (like the Wilma cypress and 'Gold and Pearls' Bacpoa) continue to be very hot, as well as the very dark foliage plants. Orange is still hot also.
Of course not everyone follows these trends, and I hope they don't. I think of it as my job to get people to be more creative and to figure out what they like and what pleases them. I also think that you should think about where the plants will be placed and what kind of mood you want to create. Sometimes you want excitement, sometimes we want calming. One year I had a black and chartreuse container where I needed a calming touch and it just irritated me.