Happy New Year and with the turning to a new calendar year, comes many traditions of forecasting . As this winter gets firmly established, placing us in its icy grip, the weather is not what I am about to forecast. I thought it would be more fun to talk about forecasting of colour, and believe it or not, this is Big Business as it translates to what motivates people to purchase, everything from fashion, to home décor, lifestyle and Yes even in gardening!
The Pantone Colour Institute out of the U.S. is a consulting service that forecasts colour trends and advises companies on colour in brand identity and product development – it is global marketing machine and once a year this Institute chooses a colour of the year. Looking forward to the future , engendering creativity and ingenuity, Pantone’s 2018 colour of the year is Ultraviolet .
According to Pantone, ultraviolet is a colour that “ communicates originality, and visionary thinking”. It renders too, almost a cosmic image or a mystical feel, and many who look to the heavens may ponder if one day we may live beyond this planet we call Earth , given the fight for resources we wage everyday. It will take creative ideas to ensure that day does not come too soon, or alternatively, that we get there safely – ultraviolet personifies in colour, this type of “out of this world” thinking.
If you are like me and love to press the reset button on your garden plans with a new gardening season ahead , I will be looking to incorporate this colour into our outside spaces, ( because here in 2017 we had our fill of red and white). Expect that a hot selling plant this year will be Petunia Headliner Night Sky , whose blooms are the poster plant for this year’s colour with its vibrant purple- blue hue and Milky Way starry white blotches, and our favourite Supertunia Bordeaux. As gardeners, it may become a goal to incorporate more purple – blue plants either through flower colour or foliage in a garden bed, or container. Check back for future blogs on plants that we will be growing this season that will provide that pleasingly purple look to keep your outdoor spaces right on trend.
Purple will show up more in our foods that we eat as well, and according to the 2018 Garden Media Group report, purple veggies, high in anthocyanins, are all the rage – beets, purple cauliflower, purple kale, cabbage, eggplant and blackberries will have “foodies” on the lookout to deepen the colour on their plates.
Purple is often a colour embraced for its artistic symbolism, think musician Prince or David Bowie. And a a colour that suggests mindfulness, a pleasingly private place that many people will seek out, to escape from our overstimulated, techno – crammed world. Our need for “breathing room” is becoming more important today, and it is this mindfulness that is” top of mind” for 18-34 year olds who are now making mental health a priority, as published in the 2018 Garden Media Report. Again this is truly important and interesting stuff, and something that will be discussed in a future blog, and how gardening both indoors and out, has captivated this demographic to achieve this end.
So if you did not know how important colour is to our societal conscience, just observe how purple will parlay its way into all forms of media over the coming months – after all, with all of this wintry white, we are buried in now, it may be nice to envision a bit of colour as we put another log on the fire.
