Repeated plantings of Vanilla Strawberry panicle hydrangea planted along the perimeter of the property carry the eye throughout.

The power of pink in the garden

There’s something to be said about sticking to a palette of pinks in the garden. Delicate pinks, especially when paired with creamy whites and chartreuse greens, provide a sense of softness and elegance. But add splashes of vivid pinks and bright magentas and the temperature gets cranked way up. That’s because combining contrasting pinks creates visual excitement. Plus, pink goes with almost every other color in the spectrum. In fact, the color pink can enhance almost any garden, a lesson Trisha Burdick learned over many years of trial and error in her zone 4 garden in Wayzata, Minnesota.

How to use pink in the garden

Pink is one of those colors that can enhance almost every garden, as long as you know what kind of pink you’re dealing with.

• Warm pinks (coral and blush) tend to be calming and easy on the eye. Teal blue is warm pink’s complementary color (opposite on the color wheel). Plants with blue green flowers or foliage will always make good companions with warm pinks. Blue-gray and olive green also look especially good with warm pinks.
• Cool pinks (fuchsia and hot pink) are more energizing and edgier. They look great paired with violet, burgundy and purple. For a more vibrant combination, pair cool pinks with oranges and yellows or lime green. Turquoise blue, minty green and navy blue also pair well.

Trisha Burdick from Wayzata, Minnesota in her beautiful pink hydrangea garden.

Hort homework

“When we purchased this property in 1991 we could have never imagined how it would be transformed over the many years of landscaping,” says Trisha. “To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning and I never even planned on becoming a gardener.” But Trisha rolled up her sleeves and started doing her homework. Take a tour of the results of years of trialing different combinations of hard-working plants and get inspired to indulge in the delights of a color themed garden. Pink, after all, isn’t just a color, it’s an attitude.

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Visitors are greeted at the front entrance of the house by Quick Fire panicle hydrangea surrounded by a skirt of chartreuse hakonechloa grass.

Plant performance

Trisha faced a heavily wooded lot crawling with invasive buckthorn (originally introduced to Minnesota from Europe in the 1800s as a popular hedging plant). “It was almost impossible to grow anything with so much shade and the nasty buckthorn,” explains Trisha. “After researching how invasive buckthorn can be, I started work on removing it,” she says. “It turned out to be a big project that involved a lot of broken shovels.” After clearing the backyard of their 1-acre property, Trisha started researching trees, shrubs and perennials for northern gardens. Slowly, she began to carve out various gardens around their home, experimenting with which plants performed well over time. Panicle hydrangeas, such as Quick Fire above, are now a staple.

Soothing focal point ‘Annabelle’ smooth hydrangea provides the pomp the elegant water fountain focal point deserves.

Trial & error

It’s been a process of trial and error. “Over the past 25 years I have worked my way through our entire property, changing and adding many beds,” she says. “The gardens have expanded and evolved, with many plants being moved or even removed.” The fountain is a focal point of the backyard — from indoors and out. When she sited it, Trisha made sure she could see it from almost every window in the back of the house.

Don’t be afraid to move plants

Like most of us, Trisha cannot resist picking up new plants whenever she visits a nursery or garden center, which can pose a problem with a garden already packed with plants. “I never look at a space and then buy a specific plant. I always buy the plants that appeal to me the most and figure out where to put them later. If I have to discard a plant or a group of plants to add in the latest and greatest new finds, I will do so. It’s trial and error and sometimes I have to move plants around more than once to find the perfect spot.”

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The backyard is anchored by a firepit surrounded by comfortable seating and backed with a stand of ‘Pink Diamond’ panicle hydrangea.

Color magic

The design element that is consistent in Trisha’s garden is the color pink. “I love pink,” she insists. “It is bright and cheerful and puts people in a good mood.” She includes a variety of pink shades in her garden. This provides a sense of consistency and visually ties the landscape together. A pink color scheme is easy to create. That’s because pink — the pastel form of red — is one of the most common colors found in the world of flowers. Pink pops in the landscape and looks good in both sun and shade. Plus, people tend to have a positive emotional response to the color pink.

Play with pink

With the wide range of plants that come in shades of pink, there are endless combinations of pink hues and shades to play with, from romantic soft pinks to attention-grabbing magentas. A good lesson Trisha learned: Don’t be afraid of bold magenta. You can see she repeats pots of bold mandevilla throughout her garden to bump up the garden’s energy.

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Pots of pink zinnias and mandevilla lead visitors along a pathway toward Vanilla Strawberry panicle hydrangea in a tree form.

Consider bloom time & flower shape

Trisha learned to consider bloom times, as well. Spring starts with a parade of pink peonies that last for more than a month (she has more than 50 different varieties), before giving way to the bright pink coneflowers and finishing off in late summer with pink-blooming hydrangeas you see in the gallery below. She grows pink annuals throughout the season. The pots of mandevilla and zinnias will bloom from spring to fall. If you are unsure about how colors will look together, visit a greenhouse and place the pink plants alongside plants of various other shades to get a better idea of how they may look combined together in your garden. Also consider mixing the forms or shapes of the flowers. Think about a collection of common daisy-type flowers like coneflowers and tickseed or bell-shaped flowers like bellflowers or balloon flowers. For a spire effect, consider delphiniums, hollyhocks and foxglove.

A gardener’s work

Now Trisha can take a break and admire her work. Of course there is beauty in the detail of every flower. Just look at the fascinating way Quick Fire panicle hydrangea is changing color. But according to Trisha, “The most pleasing aspect of the garden is to really stand back and look at it as a whole. It’s fun for me to think about how it can be improved and how to make the changes that keep it interesting and fresh.”

Pink hydrangea cultivars for your garden

Want to get the look of this beautiful pink hydrangea garden? Find Trisha’s favorite pink panicle hydrangea cultivars in the gallery below.