Some colours such as blue, green and purple seem to recede and can give the impression of greater distance, whereas warm colours such as yellow, red and orange seem to bring the objects forward. Painters and gardeners use this illusory effect to create more space or command attention elsewhere. The carotenoids produce the red, orange and yellow spectrum of colours - they absorb light in the 400nm to 550nm range. For instance chlorophyll a absorbs light in the violet and orange spectrum and therefore can reflect blue, green, yellow or red light. It is mostly the green that is reflected, because least of it is absorbed.
Plants are mainly concerned with gaining energy from their light source via photosynthesis.
There are many tones of green in plants because some of the green light is masked by carotenoids. In gardening, green should be viewed as a colour in its own right and not ignored as only a background colour. Wild flowers and natural planting schemes don't have clashing colours, so it is well to study the colour schemes of the countryside. To a scientist, snow is white because it reflects all wavelengths of light. Really it is the brain filling in the complementary colour.