Color is powerful: It has the potential to lift our mood, evoke our emotions and enhance our spaces inside and out.
As part of your commercial landscape maintenance contracts, seasonal color installations should not be an afterthought. Seasonal color projects — including annual plantings and container gardens thoughtfully paired with your trees, shrubs and perennials — contribute to the pride, perception and value of your commercial property. They make your property feel like home.
To create beautiful, welcoming seasonal color displays, property managers, HOA board members and their commercial landscaping partners should consider color palettes and plant selections as key components of their designs.
Classic Color Combos
Many commercial properties opt for tried-and-true seasonal color combinations year after year.
Think back to art class and the color wheel to understand why certain colors work well together in landscaping.
- Complementary: Appearing across from one another on the color wheel, complementary colors are natural accents (purple/yellow, red/green and blue/orange).
- Potential plant choice: Pair lime green coleus with bold red begonias in beds or pots.
- Primary: The primary colors — red, yellow and blue — make a bold, energetic palette.
- Potential plant choice: Trailing calibrachoa in any mix of primary hues offset one another well in hanging baskets or containers.
- Analogous: Analogous colors (neighbors on the color wheel) mingle well together in any design. They include red/orange, orange/yellow, green/blue or blue/purple.
- Potential plant choice: Plant magenta impatiens in front of lush purple salvia for an eye-catching bed combo.
- Monochromatic: Monochromatic designs use one color and its various shades and tints to create a harmonious environment.
- Potential plant combo: Layer multiple rows of petunias in various shades of pink — from bubblegum to fuchsia for a stunning focal point.
Trending Color Themes
There’s nothing wrong with traditional seasonal color displays, but some residents and HOAs are interested in going with a trendier aesthetic.
Two trending landscaping colors to consider for 2025 are teal and mocha brown, informed by hot colors from the worlds of fashion and culture.
Color of the Year: Teal
Garden Media Group’s 2025 Garden Trends Report named teal the color of the year.
“…This color bridges the realms of fantasy and reality, evoking the serene blues of Caribbean waters, the expansive freedom of vast skies and the immersive depth of virtual spaces. It aligns with evolving wellness trends, offering a calming effect that is as sophisticated as soothing … This color complements a modern palette that includes shades of blue, green, brown, orange, and gold, making it a versatile choice for any setting.”
The report shares several plant choices for incorporating teal, such as:
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Succulents, such as blue agave, Blue Chalksticks or Skyscraper Senecio;
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Allium caesium Zamin;
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Fescue, such as Beyond Blue;
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Dianella, such as Clarity Blue; and
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Brunnera, such as Jack Frost.
Color of the Year: Mocha
The Pantone Color Institute selected “Mocha Mousse” as its color of the year, dubbing it “a warming, brown hue imbued with richness.”
“For Pantone Color of the Year 2025, we look to a mellow brown hue whose inherent richness and sensorial and comforting warmth extends further into our desire for comfort, and the indulgence of simple pleasures that we can gift and share with others.”
Talk with your landscape contractor or designer about ways to incorporate this versatile neutral into your commercial landscaping. It may come in the form of tropical foliage used as a backdrop in a vibrant container or caramel-colored coral bells (Heuchera) in a shady bed. You can also incorporate various shades of mocha to your landscaping through carpentry elements like pergolas or cedar accents, hardscape materials or pots and other accessories.
Whether you prefer classic or trendy, you can wow your HOA boards, and create an environment residents love coming home to, by incorporating these beautiful combinations into your next seasonal color rotations.
Ready to elevate your property's curb appeal with eye-catching seasonal color?
Let Schill Grounds Management bring your vision to life with expertly designed plantings tailored to your space and style. Contact us today to start planning a vibrant landscape that makes a lasting impression all year long!
