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pixie_lou

Coral Flowers

pixie_lou
12 years ago

People in our town are hanging up coral colored bows in memory of a recent murder victim. My daughter wants to go a step further and plant some coral colored flowers in her garden. I want a perennial. I don't want day lilies or roses. (If I can be really greedy, I'd like it to be deer resistant.) Any ideas?

Comments (7)

  • ginny12
    12 years ago

    Coral bells--Heuchera

    Impatiens

  • ginny12
    12 years ago

    Try posting this on the Cottage Forum. It is just the kind of question they would reply to. Maybe title it "Coral flowers in remembrance".

  • NHBabs z4b-5a NH
    12 years ago

    For this year she may be able to find some coral-blossomed fuschia, impatiens, million bells/Calibrachoa, geraniums, Diascia, Nicotiana, or other annuals and tender perennials, or even some coleus with coral tones in the foliage.

    For bloom in future years I have seen several coral peonies, quince, and deciduous rhododendrons and azaleas for the spring. There are tulips and daffodils with coral blooms. The tulips may not return beyond a year or two, but the daffs will be perennial.

    In later spring and summer, some of the newer Echinacea have coral tones, but I would check with the perennial forums to see which ones are long-lived. There have been several threads on which ones are good about returning. I have seen coral bearded iris as well. Dahlias, which would need to be dug up every fall, include coral shades and will bloom throughout the summer until frost in my experience. Some of the selections of the native honeysuckle vine, Lonicera sempervirens, are coral in tone.

  • deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
    12 years ago

    Lychnis x haageana 'Lumina Salmon' is a pretty plant that I saw at our local nursery and the bloom was a very pretty coral. Hardy to zone 3.

  • NHBabs z4b-5a NH
    12 years ago

    Pixie Lou - My apologies; I seemed to have missed both that it needed to be perennial and preferably deer resistant. I've grown a coral colored mullein (Verbascum). I'm pretty sure that they are unpalatable to the deer along with the daffodils and maybe the echinacea.

    I forgot to add in my first post that many of the tender perennials like fuschia, impatiens, geraniums, and coleus can be planted in pots, trimmed back and brought in for the winter and then either used to start cuttings or trimmed back, hardened off and reused next year. There are coral colored begonias that could be used this way also.

  • pixie_lou
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanx for all the recommendations. I was at Russells today, list of recommendations in hand. They had tags for lots of these plants up, but none on the shelf. The only perennial with coral colored flowers we found was Achillea - and my daughter politely told me that the flowers were ugly.

    Since nhbabs enlightened me to the possibility of annuals - so we can have the color this year - we ended up with some coral colored impatiens. As we garden shop in the fall, I'll see if my daughter is still interested in a coral colored plant, and if so, we'll continue to look.