Primroses Colour Palette for Springtime

What colour comes to mind when you hear the word 'primrose'?

I'm sure most of us associate primroses with the colour yellow - the particularly delicate, pale yellow of the wild primroses of springtime. I remember, as a child, travelling on the old steam trains in the Isle of Wight, you could look out of the window and see a 'carpet' of pale yellow! 

The wild primroses almost completely covered the grassy banks of the cuttings we passed through just before we went into a tunnel. Anywhere else, they would have been picked or even dug up for someone's garden. But it was probably too dangerous for anyone to venture down the steep slopes of the railway cuttings to pick them. So they were left in peace, to grow and multiply - a lovely sight in spring!

But cultivated primroses come in a wide range of colours!

Years ago I grew them from seed. But nowadays my lack of wide enough window sills for the seedlings, sends me off to the supermarket to buy the plants. (That's my excuse, anyway!)

I particularly like the pink-ish orange ones  - 

Sometimes I can't get enough of them all the same colour for the shelf in my front porch, so then I go for as many different colours as I can:

To me the different coloured flowers look fine - splendidly bright and cheerful! 

But when you look at all the colours together, I can't help feeling that there are too many colours, that some need to be eliminated to make a cohesive colour scheme.

So from this group of eight colours, we could pick out lots of different schemes.

I have chosen 2, 3, 4 and 6 for this traditional Islamic pattern:

But there are lots of other possibilities!

Which four would you choose?

You can save this pattern tile and experiment with it if you wish -

A Winter Colour Palette

We haven't had any snow yet, here in Abergavenny.

But we've had some very cold days, brightened by lovely blue skies and a heavy dusting of frost that sparkled in the winter sunshine.

Unfortunately, I haven't been too well over Christmas so I haven't been out and about with my camera. But here's a wintry scene for a cool and sophisticated colour palette -

It's a photo I took of the lake in Dunorlan Park, Tunbridge Wells, on an ice-cold December afternoon, before the days of the digital camera! And in spite of the freezing temperature, the hint of pink in the reflections of the setting sun, as well as the sun-shiny blue of the sky, give the touch of warmth needed to use this as a colour scheme for all sorts of design projects, even for home decor.

Here are some patterns I've created using this scheme - 

Dunorlan Park Quirky Polkas

Dunorlan Park Chevrons

Dunorlan Park Stripes

I think they have a distinctly Mid-Century feel and they are high-resolution .png files (20" x 20", 300 dpi). 

So please feel free to download them if you have a use for them - enjoy!