Some spring flowers have a tendency to spread secretly, which can result in the most unusual and ever changing combinations of shapes and colours.
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Who would have thought of planting pink hyacinths with blue and apricot varieties? When planned such colour palettes seem rather risky, but when nature gets a chance, the outcome will often enough be fresh and surprising.
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Because flower bulbs can be easily re-organized and it just takes a winter of patience until the first results, the early spring garden offers a lot of opportunity for aesthetic experiments. It´s very worth (and nearly free) trying out what botanic palette fits the paint of the house wall or the colour shade of the local stone used for the garden path. As one is so much more sensitive to the pleasures of nature this time of the year (just go and visit a garden store - everybody wants to plant something now!) it is a good time for artistic decisions.
I mean, what risk are you taking? If the outcome insults your eye, you can always cut the flowers for the vase (many hyacinths i.e. have a wonderful smell, and, by the way, vases allow for even more colour combination testing!)
If you have a printer, making snippets of flower photos can be helpful to test a lot of combinations fast and in a fun way - you could even carry those outside to see how it compares (careful though as this requires a colour-managed workflow and professional quality images for good results - but as a designer you are most likely working that way anyway.)
Still, nothing compares to messing around in a garden, and while photos capture the moment from a certain perspective and angle, there´s no better time to let the eye wander than spring.
