Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
dyhgarden

Orange Flower debate

DYH
15 years ago

I wrote about giving orange flowers a chance in the garden. As I thought, it's a controversial color -- a bit like school bus yellow.

If you want to join the debate, you can leave comments on my blog. Join the fun! :-)

Of course, one of my readers hates magenta and my garden is based on magenta -- so that will be tomorrow's story!

Great color debates for winter time boredom!

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: Give Orange Flowers a Chance

Comments (55)

  • schoolhouse_gw
    15 years ago

    Most of the orange in my garden comes from tulips in the Spring and what I call "ditch lilys" that bloom later. For some reason, I'm not keen on pairing it with red. Purple, but not red.

  • PRO
    Nell Jean
    15 years ago

    Count me in. I have a whole bed devoted to mostly orange. I have a whole bed devoted to mostly magenta, too, but they can't 'see' one another.

    Nell

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    15 years ago

    I'm a big orange fan as well - all shades, including peaches and apricots. They are paired mostly with burgundies, purples and bronzes. Some of my faves are Geum 'Mango Lassi', Phygelius 'Funfare Orange', Agastache rupestris, A. 'Apricot Sunrise', Eremerus 'Cleopatra', an unknown Asiatic lily I call "canteloupe", Rhodo 'September Song' and 'Jelena' witch hazel. And then there's assorted orange daylilies and oriental poppies. And I tend to lean heavily to similar toned roses: 'Just Joey', 'Polka', 'Apricot Nectar', 'Westerlund' and 'Abraham Darby'.

    And when I grew them (they take up too much room), the bearded iris 'China Dragon' was about the best orange flowered perennial you could hope for. I may make room for that one again.

  • midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
    15 years ago

    Given the pics shared, how could you not love orange!!!????

    Nancy.

  • christinmk z5b eastern WA
    15 years ago

    Count me in as another gardener who uses orange. I have never been able to resist any plant, so naturally I would have a few orange colored flowers.

    Here is what I have in orange and its various shades:

    Agastache 'Apricot Sprite' & 'Coronado'
    Belemcanda chenensis 'Freckle Face'- this has not done much for me, maybe next year.
    Chrysanthemum 'Bronze Cussion' love it the rusty orange shade!
    Lot's of Geum (Avens) that are orange. Mine are: 'Borisii', 'Cooky', 'Coppertone', 'Fireball', 'Mango Lassi', and 'Pumpkin'.
    Helenium
    Helianthemum 'Ben More' LOVE this plant!
    Hemerocallis, several kind including the one schoolhouse mentioned, H. fulva
    Kniphofia
    Lonicera sempervirens- wonderful vine!!
    Papaver 'Double Tangerine Gem'
    Primula 'Ken Dearman'- peachy orange
    Tulip 'Orange Emperor' and an unknown Parrot Tulip
    Zauschineria- looks like a fuchia
    I also have several orange roses, like 'Blaze of Glory', 'Carding Mill' (a dud here), 'Marmalade Skies', 'Tamora', 'Tuscan Sun', and 'What a Peach'.
    And don't forget the Crocosmia and Gallardia!
    CMK

  • schoolhouse_gw
    15 years ago

    I would love an orange bearded iris. China Dragon, you say?

  • frogview00
    15 years ago

    Oranges come in all shades, hues, and intensities in our garden.
    Jim

    {{gwi:635769}}
    {{gwi:635770}}
    {{gwi:635771}}
    {{gwi:635772}}
    {{gwi:635773}}
    {{gwi:635774}}
    {{gwi:635775}}
    {{gwi:635776}}
    {{gwi:635777}}
    {{gwi:635778}}
    {{gwi:635779}}

  • libbyshome
    15 years ago

    There's orange but then there's peach, apricot, salmon, coral, Terra-cotta etc. etc.
    My pic from above is an orangy yellow.

    What flower is the true hot orange of an orange?

  • DYH
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    WOW! I went out to dinner and wrote tomorrow's blog. Came back and here are all these GORGEOUS orange flowers!

    Cottage Gardeners Rule! â¥

    Cameron

  • PRO
    Nell Jean
    15 years ago

    Well, despite a sound trouncing in some quarters, Tithonia was a hit with butterflies in my garden last summer. It's a myth that it's drought resistant. It wants regular watering or the leaves turn into a crispy critters. It wants deadheading with sharp shears at just the right point.

    Tithonia, Bengal Tiger canna and orange Marigolds were among my best summer oranges. Oh, and the Zinnias, the Zinnias!

    It seems that the springtime oranges are softer -- apricot daylilies, LA lilies, 'pink' daffodils, sherbet colored poppies. As the weather gets hotter, so do the orange shades.

    Nell

    I'll put orange flowers in the Gallery tomorrow.

  • natal
    15 years ago

    I wouldn't be without Mexican Flame vine. It blooms summer through ... well, a couple of mine still have the occasional bloom. And ... it makes a great cut flower.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:635757}}

  • token28001
    15 years ago

    Not mine, but I have these in the yard.

    {{gwi:635780}}

    I also have truly orange cosmos.

  • little_dani
    15 years ago

    I had dug lots of bright orange canna from a flowerbed, and asked my neighbor would she like some flowers.

    "What kind?" She asked.

    "Never mind", said I. I can't imagine asking "what kind?", I just say THANK YOU! THANK YOU! so much!

    That is how I got my orange and yellow bed. I used the orange canna for the basis of the bed and added yellow lantana, cestrum, angel's trumpet, zinnia, BES vine, Mexican flame vine, tithonia, and an unknown yellow rose. I think it is probably the prettiest in the whole garden.

    Bring on the orange flowers!

    Janie

  • PRO
    Nell Jean
    15 years ago

    Okay, so I put the pics next door in the Gallery. Those are some of my favs.

    I left off the double orange breadseed poppy because it was a huge pic, and I don't have a good pic of flowering pomegranate. I left off Salmon Sheen Daylily which won the Stout Medal in 1959 and blooms all summer. I didn't find the orange tulips, either.

    Orange just goes on and on.

    Nell

    Here is a link that might be useful: More Orange Flowers

  • token28001
    15 years ago

    I forgot about red hot pokers. Mine haven't bloomed yet.

  • schoolhouse_gw
    15 years ago

    Forgot about the pokers, too. My clump has been growing for years down in one of the sunken gardens, and I love when it blooms and brings just that touch of warm glow under the semi shade of the Serviceberry shrub. I cut off spent stalks and it will send up new ones.

  • dottyinduncan
    15 years ago

    Is Serviceberry the same plant as Saskatoon Berry?

  • lgslgs
    15 years ago

    I was never keen on orange flowers until I grew calendula. Now I'm hooked. In the early spring when the world is all green calendula somehow manages to fit in perfectly.

    {{gwi:635782}}

    Lynda

  • FlowerLady6
    15 years ago

    Top picture Cape Honeysuckle

    Bottom picture Flame Vine

    FlowerLady

    {{gwi:635784}}

    {{gwi:635786}}

  • PRO
    Nell Jean
    15 years ago

    Did anybody besides me see the trend here? The farther south you go, the hotter the orange colors in the garden.
    PNW folk have peach, apricot, salmon, and coral, where the winters are mild and so are the summers.

    Now, what about the Magenta Garden?

    Nell

  • nckvilledudes
    15 years ago

    There is another Geum called Mrs. Bradshaw's geum. I had it for several years planted beside a pink hardy geranium. Talk about color contrast, but I liked it and for me that is what matters.

  • schoolhouse_gw
    15 years ago

    dottyinduncan - I don't know.

  • DYH
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    {{gwi:635787}}

  • schoolhouse_gw
    15 years ago

    {{gwi:635790}}

  • frogview00
    15 years ago

    I am loving and drooling seeing these photos and the way y'all use orange in the garden. Fabulous!!!!!
    All the ideas you are sharing. More please? (sheepishly)
    jim

  • Annie
    15 years ago

    "nckvilledudes,

    I have Mrs. Bradshaw. Love her bold red-orange flowers and fuzzy leaves.

    Edna, love your orange roses. They are my mother's favorite rose.

  • aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
    15 years ago

    Dotty I found this info, according to this Saskatoons are a type of Serviceberry. Glad to see you've wandered over here, welcome to the forum. Stick around I'm sure you'll like it here.
    Dottyinduncan lives south of me and north of Libby on Vancouver Island, this is the gal who gave me my start of Queen of the Night, the scented night blooming cactus that Nell shows pictures of, making us all drool and me slightly envious.

    Annette

    Here is a link that might be useful: Saskatoon/Serviceberry

  • pandorasgardens
    15 years ago

    I love all of these flower photos, but I have to ask Jim (frogview00) if your 4th picture is a tithonia or some other type of flower. I love that color... coral/peachy looking with the rounded petals and yellow fluff in the middle! Is the photo color true to the plant? Is there a particular variety? I think it's gorgeous!

  • frogview00
    15 years ago

    Pandora.....I should have labeled all the photos, so I'll list them here
    1. crocosmia (don't know the name)
    2. Tea Rose, Clementina Carbonieri
    3. Mexican Hat Flower and HT Mrs. Aaron Ward
    4. Dahlia (no name from Wal Mart)
    5. crocosmia Lucifer (its floppy, so its going)
    6. Day Lilly Olympic Gold
    7. canna (don't know the name)
    8. Belamcanda
    9. Gallardia

    1. Tree Peony Kinkaku (Sold to me as orange, I waited three
      years for a bloom)
    2. Tea Rose Mrs. Oakley Fisher.

    I guess I'm not a very good gardener as I don't care about names or Latin names or what it is. It just has to give me visual affect and be trouble free.
    Now, on to searching last years photos of magenta. Thats a tough one.
    jim

  • pandorasgardens
    15 years ago

    Thanks, Jim for IDing your lovely photos! As you say, on to magenta.... It's so much fun seeing photos based on color scheme. Now I want even more beautiful plants!

  • token28001
    15 years ago

    Jim, Forget the names if you like the plants. I've got things out there I can't name by latin name. I can barely remember the common name. It took me 4 months to remember the name of a hibiscus that I purchased this spring. I keep thinking it's Antique something. It's actually Turn of the Century.

    And those liles, they're ditch lilies to me. I think some people call them tiger lilies. They grow in the ditches here. Ditch lilies.

  • frogview00
    15 years ago

    Token......We inherited ditch lilies with the house. I cannot get rid of them! They keep coming up from the foundation.

  • token28001
    15 years ago

    My mom used to have a huge row of them. It took her years of pulling those tubers to get rid of them. Now, I'm transplanting them out of the woods here to fill in the space in front of my retaining wall while my seedlings grow. I wintersowed a bunch of Stellas and some unknowns on Solstice. I'm guessing two years til they bloom? I just can't see paying $5 for a daylily that is already blooming from the store.

  • frogview00
    15 years ago

    Don't people divide lilies down there? I've been known to knock on doors and ask for a piece or cutting of something.We give things away all the time.
    jim

  • token28001
    15 years ago

    The people in this town are odd. My neighbors won't even wave. The ones that do are usually gossiping about whatever they think you're doing. And god forbid you let a female friend move in for a few months. Suddenly, you're married. So no, they don't give things away. We don't even have a gardening club. And most of the nicer houses seem to have landscapers rather than doing it themselves. Odd little town.

  • schoolhouse_gw
    15 years ago

    {{gwi:635792}}

    frogview, I also bought a yellow tree peony that when it finally bloomed (I waited what seemed forever)it looked just like yours. Now, it is a single dark pink color! The grafted Kinkaku(?) must have frozen. If that happens.

  • frogview00
    15 years ago

    Rest assured that GW is the best garden club you could belong to. No dues. No covered dish to make and no gossip and no politics!
    I must admit,I have been met with rifles when scavenging way out in the middle of no where at small cemeteries and old home sites. Hey, ya gotta die sometime. lol

    jim

  • frogview00
    15 years ago

    Schoolhouse
    yes, and your flowers droop to. I hope mine goes to a single. I really think it is borderline tacky (and with droopy blooms).
    jim

  • midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
    15 years ago

    Well Jim, yeah, ya gotta die sometime, and if you are already in a flower-filled cemetary, well, what the hey!!

    Re: ditch lilies, they are tough as old boots and hard to get rid of, but boy they look good when in bloom everywhere. I never knew this as a child, but in Ontario they have been called 'King Billie's Lilies', due to the fact they bloom on or around July 12th - Battle of the Boyne, don't you know!!

    Nancy - whose grandfather belonged to the Orange Lodge,

  • frogview00
    15 years ago

    Nancy......here I thought I wasted a whole day waiting for my car to be fixed and I got a history lesson.Had to Google Battle of the Boyne. Way cool!
    Do gardeners in your area use "King Billie's" a lot in their gardens. Especially urban?
    Jim

  • pfmastin
    15 years ago

    Cosmos sulphureus...a workhorse in my Eastern NC garden from spring until frost.
    {{gwi:635793}}From My garden, June 2007

  • midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
    15 years ago

    Ditch lilies are pretty much what we call them ..nothing else...just that....

  • Annie
    15 years ago

    Jim,
    if you really plan on getting rid of those Crocosmias, I would be glad to adopt them and give them a good home.
    Let me know.

    Annie

  • flora_uk
    15 years ago

    I am confused by the term 'ditch lilies'. It's not a term I know and some of you appear to mean Lilium, some Hemerocallis and some Crocosmia. Have I got that right? Can you clear this up for me, please?

    The photo shows naturalised Crocosmia on the coast of North Devon, England. Taken last August. They are a nightmare to get out of your garden and where people have thrown them out they have settled down in many parts of the UK and Ireland, especially in Western coastal areas.
    {{gwi:635795}}

  • schoolhouse_gw
    15 years ago

    {{gwi:635797}}

    Scientific Name: Hemerocallis fulva
    Common Name(s): common orange daylily, Day lily, ditch lily, tiger lily

  • token28001
    15 years ago

    That's the one. The common orange daylily. They grow in the ditches here alongside the road. Once you have them, it takes an act of God to get rid of them.

  • Annie
    15 years ago

    What a B_E_A_U_T_I_F_U_L nightmare!
    I love seaside flowers. What a spectacular view!

    My grandmother's family was originally from old Devonshire and moved to Wexford, Ireland. In the late 18th century, they came to America and settled in Virginia and Maryland. My branch ended up in California by the early 1850s, and hence, that is my native state. One of the grand-Aunts had tons of Crocosmias and I have always loved them since my childhood. The soil there was rich and deep with the leaf mold from the live oaks and sycamores. Awesome soil.

    I have a little bungalow style country cottage in Oklahoma now. It is situated upon a high ridge of sandstone and the only moist places I have are right up against my Koi pond and around the two smaller "reflecting pools". They wouldn't spread far on my arid, sandy soil. That is where I hope to establish them with my yellow flags. That would be a great combo of color.

    I bought some bulbs several years back, but they were too dried out by the time I got them planted, and did not grow. I will try again.

    Jim, perhaps you could make some of those twig wickets to set over them or perhaps make a hurdle (wattle) basket to set around them to keep them from flopping over. It would be a shame to remove such beauties from your garden. You could even use an old (or new) natural wicker basket with the bottom removed as a substitute. Secure it to the ground with some sturdy sticks. I think it would look really lovely. ~ just an idea. :)

    I was working outside yesterday, having one of our warms spells in midwinter, and discovered dozens of Bread Seed Poppies are already up. Just the tiniest plants now, but they will grow into tall plants and produce huge Red-Orange poppy flowers in mid-to-late spring. I love them. I transplanted some of the Black and Blue Salvia back there this fall, and that will look awesome when they are both in bloom this spring. I love ORANGE and red-orange flowers with blue flowers. It is a great color combination. Monet-style.

    Annie

  • PRO
    Nell Jean
    15 years ago

    I don't grow Tiger Lilies, but here's a link to Tiger Lilies at Floridata, so now we have pictures of Ditch Lily (hemerocallis), Crocosmia and Tiger Lily (lilium).

    The way to get (almost) rid of Orange Daylilies is to crowd them out, either by mowing, or by planting a tougher thug. Lycoris (red spider lilies) are tougher than ditch lilies. So is liriope.

    Nell

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:635759}}

  • token28001
    15 years ago

    I have oodles of red spider lilies. I mixed them in with my ditch lilies. I hope I didn't do a bad thing. I want both.

  • flora_uk
    15 years ago

    Thank you schoolhouse. I am now enlightened.

Sponsored
Grow Landscapes
Average rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars8 Reviews
Planning Your Outdoor Space in Loundon County?