Tesselaar ’s Blue Storm Agapanthus is worth growing because it ’s a high - impingement , no - folderal plant , not because it symbolise the 2016 Color of the Year “ Serenity ” – photo reference : Tesselaar Plants , 2006
Though I enjoy clip well , I ’m no fashionista . For the most part , I can brush aside the “ choker in or out this season ? ” “ jeans high-pitched or low ? ” “ vanish up or down ? ” as I ’m usually wearing weighty boot and dusted all over with the full body tan that only ground can provide . But to my horror , this dribble is starting to creep into the solidity of my horticulture world , and not only sneak , but be take gravely .
Last week I was notified via a reliable garden medium source closer to hipster than hip transposition , that Pantone , Inc. , the [ ostensibly ] well known “ dominance on vividness , ” had harbinger in a hugger-mugger European encounter that the new colors for 2016 would be ‘ Rose Quartz ’ ( a soft pinko ) and ‘ Serenity ’ ( an even softer blue ) . lead , one can only assume , to a heated lunchtime public debate over the exact color of the sky that daytime over Milan .
Tesselaar’s Blue Storm Agapanthus is worth growing because it’s a high-impact, no-nonsense plant, not because it typifies the 2016 Color of the Year “Serenity” – photo credit: Tesselaar Plants, 2006
The thought that my eyes will now be subjected to these two savorless colors for the entire run of 2016 – as retailers run to their designers to find unexampled and hideous ways of lambaste them to an unsuspicious public – actually makes the 2016 US Presidential election audio appealing .
Some kitchen are still living with the unfortunate option of the 70 ’s such as “ Harvest Gold ” and “ Avocado . ” And I ’m pretty sure that the 90 ’s “ cloud-covered ” is probably responsible for for the entire grunge drive in Seattle . If the cultural sycophants wish to subject their lavatory suite and raw legs to pastel colour , why not let them and continue to souse my hands , and head , in the soil ?
A garden style - setter sup from the coalition of Serenity and Rose Quartz on Leucophyllum frutencens .
A garden trend-setter supping from the fusion of Serenity and Rose Quartz on Leucophyllum frutencens.
It ’s not as promiscuous as that . The concept - based retail experience that is now “ the garden ” has an attached billion one dollar bill grocery store that is growing in leap and bound . If we are not advertisers , we are categorized as either influencers or followers – and no one is expected to prefer out . “ At least , ” as Douglas Adams once compose “ no one worth speak of . ”
In this particular case , my job as a garden columnist – pardon me , influencer – ( albeit of the small , unobjectionable salmagundi ) , is to help fellow gardeners – pardon me , followers – get excited about these raw colors and how they can pertain to the K of dollars of garden tat – pardon me , merchandise – that will presumably be tinted in the “ calming and compassionate ” colour of Rose Quartz and Serenity . heyday , container , tools , article of clothing , good God , maybe your next pastel pair of Wellies .
I find such consumerist gimcrack neither calming nor compassionate . or else it cry out out for a third mathematical group of conscientious objectors collectively thumbing their trowels at the establishment . If a chemical group identifier is required , perhaps it could be as simple as “ gardeners ” – a faction aweary of the rampant mercantilism in the gardening Earth , and the effort both to dumb down , yet over - complicate the processes and methods of horticulture . Seriously , if it ’s as well-off as 1 - 2 - 3 , why the Scheol do you postulate 123 different types of pruner to make the right cut ?
‘Soiled Khaki’ has been the color of the year for the last two decades around here.
‘ dirty Khaki ’ has been the colouration of the yr for the last two X around here .
Gardening is an incredibly worthwhile pursuit on level both physical and spiritual . It can be life changing for those who have lost connection to the tangible humanity around them . But it ’s also hard work , need continuous report , and it ’s often not as pretty as the sempiternal flow of text - deficient garden porn would have you believe . It may or may not be for you , but you ’ll never know unless you hold back buy the tchotchkes that make you reckon you ’re gardening , and actually put some hide , and sweat , into the secret plan .
A trowel with a Rose Quartz handle is not going to make these and other truths any sluttish , and “ influencers ” moving further and further away from the literal processes of gardening in edict to sell the latest and greatest to their “ followers ” – or bad , to gather more followers – are not doing those follower any favors .
£3.99 at a London hardware store 19 years ago and worth every penny.
£ 3.99 at a London hardware store 19 years ago and worth every centime .
There are good products out there . Certainly many are innovative and some are worth a diminished investment – even I can admit to this in the thick of my heresy . And , there are occasion such as holidays and birthdays which call for a bit of dissolution . However , I ca n’t help coming back to the fact that the 19 - class - old trowel I reach for every morning never feel the gilded jot of a crowd of secret colorist seeking the zeitgeist .
