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, now is the time to create one. All the tints and tones of orange warm and cheer our gardens, no matter 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:
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) — a drought-tolerant, carefree, generously blooming perennial attractive to both butterflies and their larvae.
Flowering maple tangerine (abutilon) — a favorite year-round bloomer of both hummingbirds and yours truly.
Fuschia gartenmeister — the orange fuchsia that needs no cleaning. It may still be blooming at Christmastime for your hummers.
Orange New Zealand sedge (carex testacea) — widely arching clumps of beautiful rusty grass.
Other inspiring orange flowers you are sure to want in your garden are 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.
While you’re there…
While you’re out in the garden, take some cuttings from favorite plants like roses, hydrangeas, geraniums, trumpet vine, blackberries, lavatera and salvia.
Softwood cuttings are taken during the growing season from relatively soft, flexible growth. Gather 8- to 12-inch cuttings early in the day. Discard flowers, buds and side shoots. Then cut the stem into 3- to 4-inch pieces, each with at least two nodes.
Keep track of which end is the bottom and dip it in rooting hormone. Poke holes with a pencil in a rooting medium such as half peat moss or potting soil with half perlite, vermiculite, or sand, or use perlite or sand only and insert cuttings.
Enclose each container in a plastic bag to maintain humidity, opening the bag for a few minutes each day for ventilation. Place the containers in bright shade.
Some cuttings take four to six weeks to root, while others take longer. Once they have taken root and are sending out new leaves, open the bags. When the new plants are acclimated to open air, transplant each to its own pot of lightweight potting soil.
Enjoy your garden even more this summer by rooting your own plants for yourself, to give away or trade. This is how early settlers filled their gardens, too.
Jan Nelson, a California certified nursery professional at Plant Works in Ben Lomond, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. E-mail her at
ja******@ao*.com
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