If Orange is the New Black …
If orange is the new black, then at this moment my front garden is very fashionable. For now the blues of early June have given way to an orange July.
Orange is supposed to be a difficult color – too bright, too strong, so you’re not supposed to have too much of it. But I like it. It’s a warm, exciting color.
The most notable source of orange in my driveway border is the butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). I love this plant. Not just the color, but the unusual shape of the individual flowers. It’s a host plant for monarch butterflies, of course, but also for queen butterflies and gray hairstreaks. And it’s a nectaring favorite for all kinds of pollinators.
Butterflyweed is an easy plant that forms big clumps. All the flower power in these pictures is from just two plants. You might notice one of them is a straight orange and the other is a brighter yellowish orange. The bloom period is very long, especially if you deadhead the umbels before the seed pods form.
Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia) is the other source of orange in this border right now. Only the first few blooms are open at this moment, but many more are coming and they will last until frost. Tithonia has a deeper orange with more red mixed in.
Mexican sunflower is an annual that likes heat and sun. This year I mixed a lot more annuals into the Driveway Border and I’m happy that I did. They offer lasting color, of course. But more than that, many annuals like Tithonia and annual sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) have strong, upright stems that help the floppier perennials stand up straight (or straighter, anyway).
Not everything in the Driveway Border are orange right now. That could be a bit too intense. Fortunately there are the soft, curvy blue spikes of Culver’s Root ‘Fascination’ (Veronicastrum virginicum). Judy says they look weird, but she likes them. The soft blue is good for balancing all that orange.
There’s also ‘Prairie Sunset’ early sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides), with it’s yellow flowers and purple stems and leaves. I like this plant, but it seems just a bit sickly this year.
And I shouldn’t forget the soft yellow of ‘Italian White’ annual sunflower, as well as the yellow and maroon rings of another sunflower whose name I can’t remember.
The other annuals were not as successful. The Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’ just hasn’t put out many flowers. This is my second try with ‘Black and Blue’, and I’m not giving it a third chance. There is also Mexican petunia (Ruellia britoniana), which has done well but tends to get swallowed up by bigger plants. It’s more successful in containers. Both of these annuals were supposed to provide more balancing blue in this border.
Across the driveway, in the Crabapple bed, there are lots of orange Asiatic lilies. About ten years ago I planted an Asiatic lily “naturalizing bulb mix”. Most of the descendents of those bulbs are orange, though there are some yellow, red, and one magenta. At the suggestion of some readers, last year I limbed up the ‘Donald Wyman’ crabapple at the center of this bed.
All the plants beneath (including the lilies) seem much happier now. Duh. This was one of those things that requires someone else to suggest but that seem obvious after you do it.
Oh, also adding to the orangefest are the ‘Empress of India’ nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus). I’m growing them in containers this year. They’re supposed to be red, but they look orange to me. I’ll write a post on the front garden containers soon.
That’s all for now. Do you like orange flowers? If so, what are your favorites?
gardeninacity 
Your garden is looking terrific–I love the impact of the orange flowers. Too bad the Black and Blue isn’t performing well for you. Mine isn’t doing much this summer but it’s too dry and hot for it right now. I hope it will perk up again in the fall.
Thanks. I don’t know if I should be doing something more for the ‘Black and Blue’, I have seen it perform well at the Chicago Botanic Garden. But my general approach is, if it isn’t working, try something else.
What a spectacular collection! I particularly love your combination of Culver’s root and Tithonia – they work beautifully together.
Thanks, I like the contrast of shape as well as color.
I love the orange! Saw some clumps of the butterfly weed close to the road at Bartel Grassland today. I can’t remember the sunflower either…but it’s beautiful.
I just saw your post. Other than the birds present, how would you compare Bartel to Goose Lake Prairie?
Bartel has fewer trees, for one. All the trees are at the extreme edge, indeed, they regularly remove any forbs or trees that start to grow. Bartel is restored habitat; Goose Lake Prairie is for all practical purposes relatively undisturbed. At first sight it might seem like they are both grasslands and very similar but I was surprised, maybe because I’ve been paying more attention to plants and dragonflies, at how much the two places differ. Also Bartel has no water feature directly on it. There is a heron rookery somewhere nearby, but the location is obviously off limits.
Your garden/orange flowers are looking really pretty! I like orange. In my previous garden I was trying for a color scheme of periwinkle blues and melon colors. Every soft, shell pink or melon colored bloom ended up being “road cone red”. And most of the periwinkles looked closer to violet. So, it didn’t look like I’d wanted it to, but I ended up liking it AND reusing a lot of the orange flowered plants later on.
And the orange probably went pretty well with your periwinkle blues.
I adore orange. But this year, I don’t seem to have much in my garden yet. I’m waiting for several Crocosmias to bloom, and I lost my favorite Agastache ‘Acapulco Orange’. Your Asclepias is lovely in multiple ways, and I’d have it if I had room. My very favorite orange flower is Clivia miniata, and it’s blooming now, but indoors!
I have never grown Crocosmia, and have only the blue species Agastache. Next time some space opens up I should think about those.
What a beautiful garden – wonderful photos! Orange is a colour I have grown to love. I always went for the safer pastel colours until one of my Senior Gardeners introduced me to the wonders of the hotter colours.
I’ve always liked really bright colors. Subtlety has never been my strong suit.
I never used to care much for orange & yellows (with a few exceptions), but they ARE growing on me. I have some very un-fancy orange lilies that grow near some Russian sage & I love the orange & bluish combination… Thanks for introducing me to the Culver’s root. I may need to go find me some 🙂
We have some “limbing up” to do here at Gatescroft. I’ve been putting it off…. It will make such a difference.
Limbing up is fun. I enjoy the creative destruction.
Lots of color, and that is a good thing! I have a fair amount of orange from a variety of day lilies. I’m pretty easy to please because I enjoy any type of flowering plant that isn’t white and doesn’t need to be removed with a shovel. 🙂
I hear you! But I do like some white flowers.
Very summer-like colours indeed. Things are looking beautiful. I think sunflowers are just the happiest. They can’t help but warm up your heart.
As someone once said, sunflowers are like smiles.
I love all your orange flowers. The Asclepias is gorgeous. It ‘ s funny how one’ s taste changes. I used to hate orange flowers and now I love them. I love them with bronze or cinnamon foliage and I love them with blue now, although once I would never have dreamt of such a thing, Gertrude Jekyll would be appalled.
Veronicastrum’ Fascination’ is gorgeous. ‘ Culver’ s Root’ ?????? Who makes these weird names up? Thank goodness for Latin so that we all know what we are talking about.
It’s a good thing I didn’t know about Gertrude before I put in the current mix of plants. We also call Asclepias tuberosa “Chigger weed”, which sounds a lot worse than Culver’s root. I don’t suppose you have chiggers in England.
No, and we don’t have Culver’s either. Just as well, I don’t like the sound of either of them.
I was just informed that the common name was inspired by a Dr. Culver, who prescribed the root as a laxative.
Just the sort of thing he would do with a name like that.
I have very few orange flowers in my garden, but yours are lovely.
Thank you!
I like orange, especially marigolds. Unlike your experience, I’ve had trouble getting butterfly weed to grow in my heavy clay soil, but finally have had some success. I too have an Asiatic mix of the same colors (I think they were promoted as “tiger” lilies because of their spots – which makes no sense since tigers are striped). Then there are the “ditch” lilies – tall day lilies that provide great background around this time of year.
Prairie Nursery in Wisconsin has a butterflyweed for clay. Check out their website. http://www.prairienursery.com.
Enchanting! The orange just sings to me! I am now longing to see my old garden with the butterfly weed! Bravo to you for growing it and making the butterflies happy! I can just imagine the pleasure you get to walk among all those beautiful blooms! Thank you for taking us for a virtual walk through!
You’re welcome! Perhaps you should just plant one milkweed plant in your vegetable garden. Maybe just a tropical milkweed like A. curassavica.
You mentioned in a comment I did not note the Butterflyweed I showed and I said I was featuring it soon. I see you had the same plans. Orange is a color I save for summer, when the profusion of color is what the season is about for my garden.
Orange is definitely a summer color, except for the orange leaves of fall.
Yes there’s lots of orange at the moment! Different Day Lilies, Knifophia tec. But not the trumpet vine I’m waiting to see fill the walnut tree.
I’m still waiting for my daylilies. Soon though!
I love orange flowers. They’re so energizing. My favorites are tiger lilies, tithonias, nasturtiums, and whatever they’re now calling Belamcanda chinensis. I’m growing some butterfly weed from seed this year and so far it is doing fine. Trying to coddle it for this first year.
Believe it or not they’ve decided Belamcandia is now an iris and they are calling it Iris domestica. And the species name doesn’t even make sense to me.
i love orange flowers especially when they have burgundy foliage like some dahlias & cannas. Crocosmias are probably the most numerous of the orange flowers in my garden. Your nasturtium picture has reminded me to plant some next year!
Definitely. I think of nasturtiums as a west coast kind of flower.
I planted a ton of butterfly weed in a hot, dry bed in front of my house, where it’s thriving, and I love the look of it. But I can’t for the life of me figure out what to plant next to it! Any suggestions for a native, summer blooming, hot-n-dry loving, wildlife attracting, woodchuck resisting, orange matching plant?
Well, you could try grasses like switch grass, prairie dropseed, or little bluestem. Coreopsis would give you yellow flowers at about the same height. Purple coneflower or yellow coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) would be taller. Sky blue aster would come in with blue flowers as the orange coneflowers go to seed. There are lots of options!
I do like orange in the garden it makes such a statement. I love that Veronicastrum, I grow a similar one called Apollo. Another great plant for the pollinators. Glad to read that Judy likes it too. Oops, almost forgot to comment on your lilies, what an eye catching display and I’ll bet they are just loving the extra space you’ve provided for them.
I didn’t know about Apollo. There’s another blue cultivar I think called Inspiration.
Love them! Especially the lilies. My favourite orange this year is my Echinacea “Orange Passion”. I think everyone will be tired of me going on about it but I absolutely adore it! 🙂
I think this is the first time I have heard you talk about it, so it’s ok with me!
You have some beautiful orange flowers blooming, I love them all especially as they are so good for wildlife. The culver’s root is wonderful too….I agree, orange is wonderfully warming.xxx
Goes well with hot weather!
You don’t see many orange wildflowers in this area. I’ve always liked Helenium but I’d like to try some butterfly weed. I’ve never seen it growing here.
According to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center it’s native range includes New Hampshire, but I suppose it is uncommon.
Like Chloris I used not to like orange much but now I have a fair bit of it. It is a very cheerful color which I think looks better in bright sunshine. Too much of it though can be overstimulating!
I really like your ‘Italian White’ annual sunflower.
I think ‘Italian White’ is my favorite annual sunflower, even though it is really more of a pale yellow.
I love orange and think your Asclepia is looking very happy indeed. Always wanted to try Tithonia, maybe next year. I have Cosmos sulphureus, Euphorbia griffithii Fireglow, Zinnia, Hemerocallis and Punica.
I’m not growing the C. sulphureus this year, but have in the past. I do grow orange zinnias which are another favorite of mine, and I have orange daylilies that have yet to bloom.
Everything looks so vibrant!! I like all the lilies together there. All that colour really makes a statement right now. Lovely combinations. Makes me want to add somethings to my garden.
That area is rather quiet before and after the lilies, but packs a punch when they are blooming.
Your orange flowers are pretty Jason. The unknown sunflower is similar my Gaillardia, also I love montbretia (crocosmia) and some spirea with golden leaves.I think your Asiatic lilies suit very well to other plants.
It is similar to Gaillardia, though much taller!
Too clever. And so gorgeous. I cannot get my butterfly weed to flower for some reason. I always blamed the monarchs for eating it to the ground each year but this year they didn’t visit and it still hasn’t bloomed. A mystery. But it was nice to see yours! I have been slowly adding more yellows — love the soft buttery shades — and orange into my garden. Not on purpose but it has just been happening. One surprise for me was how well some shades of pink work with some of the more gentle shades of orange. I would never have predicted that.
When the Joe Pye Weed blooms we’ll see how it goes with the not so gentle orange of the Tithonia.
I love orange…I have a stunning orange coneflower, poppies and daylilies, but my fav is butterflyweed which I am seeing growing more on the side of the main interstate…and of course spreading nicely in my garden.
I bought a butterfly weed yesterday, and planted it in front of my sherbert- colored Lullaby Baby day lily. I’m so excited to see how the combination really “pops!” I have orange-y nasturiums coming nearby, and a huge, purple Tradescantia. I think this is the prettiest garden I’ve had since I started! Can’t believe this is the first time I’ve bought butterfly weed. Hope it comes back next year ( I am in Maine.)
Butterflyweed is hardy to zone 4, so you should be OK. Glad to hear from another orange-lover.
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