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 Zone 5 Record low -23F Summer 100F +