Color perception
James Waddick (Fri, 23 Jan 2004 13:57:39 PST)

Dear All;
Color perception is altered by many factors. I won't go into
all such as angle of the sun, time of day, what's blooming next to it
or other; just a few words.

True colors: People often write about 'black flowers' violas,
iris, etc. but all you have to do is get a small piece of black
construction paper and place it side by side with most black flowers
and their 'blackness' fades to dark red, purple, blue or other very
distinct shades. The same is true for red and blue especially.

The Royal Horticultural Society publishes a (very expensive)
Color ( I mean Colour) Chart with the Dutch Bulb Growers. These are
standards used in many serious color descriptions such as violet blue
89-B, blue 102-A. Each color sample is about 2 1/2 x 1 1/2 half
inches and has a circular hole about 1/2 inch across. The color
comparison is made by placing the color sample so it can viewed
through the hole in the chart - there are no interfering colors to
distract or 'alter' the color being checked.
It is fairly amazing to confirm a specific color using the
charts and then view that same color independent of the sample. They
can very different from each other.

In the garden we rarely get a pure color in a large area, but
a mix and blend of similar shades or contrasting colors. All this
makes it very hard to tell an orange flower in one part of the garden
to a deep yellow one elsewhere. The best approach is to take two
samples and hold them side by side against a neutral back ground
(green foliage is especially bad for this).

So one person's yellow is another's gold or even orange. And
it is surprising how few 'true' colors there are in the garden.

Best Jim W.
--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
E-fax 419-781-8594

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