Orange you loving orange in the garden?

With apologies to Yolanda Elizabet, and other gardeners who aren't a fan of this colour...we're back for another round with orange plants. Kicking off the display is probably the only orange-foliaged plant I can think of (outside of autumn); the coleus Sedona, which is very warmly orange in colour. There's at least one other orange-foliaged coleus out there, but its name eludes me.


Next to my beloved 'Green Envy' coneflower, the orange coneflowers from Itsaul Plants are among my favourites. This is Sunset, which has done very well in our garden; we added Sundown this year, which I find has a bit more pink in it, but is still a fine plant. WEll, let's be truthful here...I never met a coneflower I didn't love!


You may be familiar with Anagallis, or blue pimpernel (if not, you will be when I post my hymn to blue flowers soon). This is a newish hybrid, 'Wildcat Orange' which I also just love. It works well planted with 'Wildcat Blue' or 'Skylover' anagallis, or just about any rich, blue flower. Like the blue varieties, its flowers close in cloudy or wet weather, explaining the common name 'Poor Man's Weatherglass.'


Another annual that rocks my container plantings is portulaca, as I mentioned in the previous ode to orange. This is a named variety, but I'm not sure if it's from the Yubi or the Hotshot series from Proven Winners. All I know is that I love the way the pink and orange combine, sort of like my beloved annual ice plants.


Probably the first sign of orange in the spring, although some might quibble that this is more of a red. It's Diane witchhazel, Hamamelis--I was so excited to finally get my hands on it and get it into the front garden, as I'm very partial to witch hazels and yet didn't have any in the yard.


A new offering in Gaillardia is 'Oranges and Lemons', growing in my friend Ramona's garden. Gaillardia like a little better drainage than most of my garden can provide, especially over winter, so I haven't yet tried this one, but I've lost plenty of others over the years. Errrr...sometimes, I'm quite sure I've dug them out in spring, mistaking them for a weed! Next spring, however, I have plans to try this plant in one of the better-drained sites in the garden.


Past posts, and fellow bloggers, have extolled the virtues of helenium, or Helen's flower, sometimes curiously called sneezeweed. This latter name apparently comes about because of a former use of the plant's dried leaves as a snuff substitute, or so I read in one of my gardening books. I''ll just enjoy it as a long blooming, and late-season, perennial star, whatever colour it comes in.


Here's Venidium again, this being the 'Flame' cultivar. Its sister cultivar, 'Wine', was in the last garden bloom day report, but the cold weather has finally made it surrender. This is a wonderful annual, tough, longblooming, and floriferous. I haven't tried saving or growing it from seed, and maybe I should have. Keep working on me, those of you in the Garden Bloggers Seed Exchange, and I'll probably end up doing more seed-saving and planting!


This is Diascia, or twinspur, which used to be only available in some shades of pink and rose. They were nice enough, but when I saw this one, 'Pumpkin', well, I had to have it. There are Apricot and coral varieties too, but I find them rather tepid, at least in the diascias; this, however, has been a stellar performer, in a container along with 'Black and Blue Salvia', 'African Sunset' Thunbergia, and a hot fuchsia callibrachoa. Not surprisingly, hummingbirds and butterflies flocked to that planter, too!


This sweet pea was growing in someone else's garden, and she didn't remember which one it was; but it had wonderful fragrance as well as these glowing flowers, so we suspect it was not one of the newest cultivars. I'm no authority on sweet peas, however, so please don't take that as gospel truth.


To cool your orange-seared irises, a little heavenly blue...which leads me to wonder, of course, why there isn't an orange morning glory?