Forest Flower 🌺

A nature-inspired Neovim colorscheme for mindful programming.

For developers who code in long sessions and value eye health, natural aesthetics, and conscious focus.

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Night Theme

Day Theme

Screenshot taken from my personal config

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✨ Features

• 🎨 Nature-inspired palette - Warm, organic colors from flowers and twilight skies
• 👁️ Eye health optimized - Moderate contrast for 8+ hour coding sessions
• 🌓 Day & Night variants - Seamless theme switching with dedicated colorschemes
• ⚛️ Enhanced React/JSX/TSX - Distinct colors for components, hooks, and attributes
• 🎯 Full LSP & Treesitter - Modern syntax highlighting for all major languages
• 🎨 Lualine theme - Matching statusline integration
• 🔧 Highly customizable - Override colors, highlights, and behavior
• 📦 100% Lua - Fast, lightweight, no dependencies

🚀 Quick Start

Minimal setup:

vim.cmd.colorscheme("forestflower")

With lazy.nvim (recommended):

{
  "YajanaRao/forestflower",
  priority = 1000,
  lazy = false,
  config = function()
    vim.cmd.colorscheme("forestflower")
  end,
}

That's it! For advanced configuration options, see the Installation section below.

📖 Installation

Using lazy.nvim (basic):

require("lazy").setup({
  {
    "YajanaRao/forestflower",
    priority = 1000, -- load first so everything can inherit
    lazy = false,    -- force load during startup
    opts = {         -- override any default (all shown below)
      background = "medium", -- "soft" | "medium" | "hard"
      transparent_background_level = 0, -- 0 | 1 | 2
      italics = false,
      disable_italic_comments = false,
      sign_column_background = "none", -- "none" | "grey"
      diagnostic_text_highlight = false,
      diagnostic_virtual_text = "coloured", -- "coloured" | "grey"
      diagnostic_line_highlight = false,
      show_eob = true,
      float_style = "bright", -- "bright" | "dim"
      contrast_audit = false,
      on_highlights = function(hl, palette) end,
      colours_override = function(p) end,
    },
    config = function(_, opts)
      require("forestflower").setup(opts)
      vim.cmd.colorscheme("forestflower")
    end,
  },
})

LazyVim specific

If you are using LazyVim and want this to be your colorscheme, create (or edit) a spec file:

-- lua/plugins/colorscheme.lua
return {
  {
    "YajanaRao/forestflower",
    priority = 1000,
    lazy = false,
    opts = { background = "medium" },
    config = function(_, opts)
      require("forestflower").setup(opts)
      vim.cmd.colorscheme("forestflower")
    end,
  },
}

Minimal setup

vim.cmd.colorscheme("forestflower")

Day and Night Variants

Forest Flower provides dedicated colorscheme variants for quick theme switching:

-- Switch to night theme (dark)
vim.cmd.colorscheme("forestflower-night")

-- Switch to day theme (light)
vim.cmd.colorscheme("forestflower-day")

-- Use default (respects config, defaults to night)
vim.cmd.colorscheme("forestflower")

These variants only override the flavour setting while preserving all other user configurations. This allows easy switching with the :colorscheme command or keybindings:

-- Example keybindings for theme switching
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>td", "<cmd>colorscheme forestflower-day<cr>", { desc = "Theme: Day" })
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>tn", "<cmd>colorscheme forestflower-night<cr>", { desc = "Theme: Night" })

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
background	string	"medium"	Hardness of base background: "soft", "medium", "hard"
transparent_background_level	integer	0	0: normal, 1: editor bg transparent, 2: more UI chrome transparent
italics	boolean	false	Enable italics for keywords etc.
disable_italic_comments	boolean	false	Force comments non-italic
sign_column_background	string	"none"	"none" or "grey" background for sign column
diagnostic_text_highlight	boolean	false	Fill diagnostic virtual text background
diagnostic_virtual_text	string	"coloured"	"coloured" or "grey" diagnostic virtual text colour
diagnostic_line_highlight	boolean	false	Background highlight for entire diagnostic lines
show_eob	boolean	true	Show end-of-buffer tildes
float_style	string	"bright"	Floating win bg lighter ("bright") or darker ("dim")
contrast_audit	boolean	false	Run contrast audit and report via vim.notify
on_highlights	function	noop	(hl, palette) mutate final highlight groups
colours_override	function	noop	(palette) edit raw material-ish tokens before roles applied

Override examples

Darken selection, tweak palette & add custom group.

require("forestflower").setup({
  colours_override = function(p)
    p.primary = "#98c379" -- change primary accent
  end,
  on_highlights = function(hl, palette)
    hl.MyTitle = { fg = palette.primary, bold = true }
    hl.MySelection = { bg = "#445566" } -- custom selection bg
  end,
})
vim.cmd.colorscheme("forestflower")

Contrast audit

Enable contrast_audit = true to receive a summary of WCAG-ish contrast ratios for core roles. Useful while theming or adjusting roles.

React/JSX/TSX Highlighting

Forest Flower provides enhanced syntax highlighting for React, JSX, and TSX with distinct colors for better visual differentiation:

Visual Hierarchy:

• 🔴 React Components (PascalCase): Coral #dd7878 - Components like <ChatWidget>, <Button>
• 🔵 HTML Tags (lowercase): Cyan #74c7ec - Native elements like <div>, <span>
• 🟠 JSX Attributes: Orange #f6c177 - Props like onClick, className, css
• 🟣 React Hooks: Purple #c4a7e7 - useState, useEffect, useCallback
• 🟢 Strings: Green #a7c080 - String values and text content

Example:

import { useState } from "react"; // Hook import

const ChatWidget = ({ config }) => {
  // Component (coral)
  const [isOpen, setIsOpen] = useState(false); // Hook (purple)

  return (
    <FrameWrapper css={styles}>
      {" "}
      {/* Component (coral), Attribute (orange) */}
      <div className="container">
        {" "}
        {/* HTML tag (cyan), Attribute (orange) */}
        <ChatButton onClick={toggle}>
          {" "}
          {/* Component (coral), Attribute (orange) */}
          Open Chat {/* String (green) */}
        </ChatButton>
      </div>
    </FrameWrapper>
  );
};

This creates a clear visual hierarchy that makes React code easier to scan and understand at a glance.

FAQ

Q: Treesitter highlight group names changed? A: Forest Flower maps both legacy TS* groups and new *@* captures; you can safely migrate gradually.

Q: Can I safely link to Red/Green groups? A: Yes. These generic groups deliberately persist for plugin compatibility.

Q: Light mode? A: Use :colorscheme forestflower-day for the light theme or :colorscheme forestflower-night for the dark theme. You can also set flavour = "day" in your config, or use :set background=light before loading.

Q: Soft background washed out with transparency? A: Try transparent_background_level = 1 only, or move to medium hardness.

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🎨 Design Philosophy

Core Values

Mindful Focus
Conscious attention, relaxed intensity, sustained presence. Colors that support deep work states without artificial stimulation.

Health-First
Warm tones and moderate contrast reduce eye strain. Optimized for 8+ hour sessions - because your eyes matter more than trends.

Nature-Inspired
Colors drawn from flowers, plants, twilight skies. Vibrant yet organic, distinct yet harmonious. Never synthetic or mechanical.

Timeless Simplicity
Minimum visual noise, maximum clarity. Natural colors don't go out of style.

Color Architecture

Palette Philosophy:

• UI elements = Environment (sky, earth, natural light)
• Syntax tokens = Flora (flower-inspired names for memorability)

Structure:

• Warm golden undertones throughout (twilight-range temperature)
• Distinct syntax colors for clarity (biodiversity principle)
• Layered surfaces for depth (forest floor to canopy)
• WCAG AA compliant for critical text

Specific values: See lua/forestflower/core/colors.lua

Design Principles

✅ Natural Colors Only
Forest greens, sky blues, flower purples, sunset oranges, earth tones. No neon, electric, or corporate branding colors.

✅ Warm Over Cool
Golden/amber undertones. Never cold, clinical, or harsh grayscale.

✅ Sustainable Contrast
Moderate contrast for 8+ hours without headaches. Health over "maximum pop."

✅ Timeless Over Trendy
Resist UI fads. Nature-based palette designed for years, not months.

What This Is

A health-conscious, nature-inspired colorscheme for mindful programmers. Not for everyone - and that's intentional.

What This Is NOT

• Maximum-contrast "productivity theater"
• Trendy corporate aesthetics
• Chasing design fads
• For quick context-switching or short sessions

Decision Framework

Before changing colors, ask:

1. Natural? Could this exist in nature?
2. Healthy? Does it support 8+ hour sessions?
3. Mindful? Calm focus or artificial stimulation?
4. Timeless? Will this feel dated in 2 years?

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💡 Inspiration

• everforest (obviously)
• NeoSolarized.nvim
• Tokyo Night