Enjoying a spectacular sunset on a warm evening in the summertime is one of life’s simple pleasures. Peach and orange tones bounce off the bottom of gauzy cirrus clouds as they streak across the sky. Combine these warm colors with varying shades of blue sky and you have the perfect color combo — opposites on the color wheel. We can’t help but ooh and aah, we have an emotional response to this particular pairing of colors.
If you don’t have a vignette or section of your garden with peach, orange and blue yet, now’s the time to create one. All the tints and tones of orange warm and cheer up our gardens, no matter what the weather. And orange flowers set off every color of foliage, from blue-gray to lime to copper.
Here’s a short list of my favorite peach and orange flowers and foliage:
- Orange hummingbird mint (agastache aurantiaca), a drought-tolerant, summer-blooming favorite of hummingbirds.
- Crocosmia, an old garden favorite with long blooming flower spikes that make good cut flowers.
- Kangaroo Paw Tequila Sunrise (anigozanthus), another long blooming hummingbird favorite.
- Canna Pretoria, beautiful variegated gold foliage and orange flowers make this perennial a classic.
- Yarrow Terra Cotta (achillea millefolium), drought-tolerant, carefree, generously blooming perennial attractive to both butterflies and their larvae.
- Flowering maple Tangerine (abutilon), favorite year-round bloomer of both hummingbirds and yours truly.
- Fuchsia gartenmeister, the orange fuchsia that needs no cleaning. May still be blooming at Christmas time for your hummers.
- Orange New Zealand sedge (carex testacea), widely arching clumps of beautiful rusty grass.
Other inspiring orange flowers you’re sure to want in your garden are mimulus “Jelly Bean Orange,” calibrachoa Sunrise or Terra Cotta, gazania, lantana, dahlia, coprosma Evening Glow, orange tuberous begonias and orange daylilies.
Combine with blue flowers, stir well and stand back to enjoy your own garden sunset.
Jan Nelson, a landscape designer and California-certified nursery professional, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Email her at ja******@*ol.com, or visit jannelsonlandscapedesign.com.
