How to Use Orange in Your Flower Garden
Orange is a color that’s not always easy to love — especially in a flower garden. It has a big personality and doesn’t seem motivated to blend in. This makes orange challenging to use well, but very exciting when you get it right.
Orange is a color that’s fun and playful, happy and outgoing. Words such as warm, vibrant, lively and energetic are used to describe the color orange. By association, orange also conveys both energy (think basketballs, tigers and monarch butterflies) and caution (traffic cones, life vests and hunting jackets). And, like the fruit, the color orange also brings to mind freshness, vitality and good health.
On the color wheel, orange is a secondary color, which means it is made by combining two primary colors – red and yellow. True orange contains no blue, so there’s nothing to calm it down. It is undiluted energy and enthusiasm.
Using Orange in a Flower Garden
Because of its energy and brightness, too much orange can be overwhelming. But used well, it brings all its best qualities to a garden, elevating it in every way.
There’s nothing calming about orange. It grabs your eyes and holds your attention. In the landscape, orange flowers seem to come forward and appear closer than they actually are.
On a bright, sunny day, most flower colors look a little washed out. But orange flowers seem to absorb the sun’s energy and glow even more brightly. This is especially noticeable in the fall, when the sun is low in the sky and the light is golden. This is when orange flowers (and foliage) really come into their own.
Getting Started With Orange Flowers
The color wheel can help you learn to love the color orange. Start with tints and shades. Tints are lighter than full strength orange, and include colors such as creamsicle, peach and cantaloupe. Flowers in these colors include the zinnias ‘Salmon Rose’ and diascia ‘Darla Deep Salmon.’ Try a melon-colored dahlia such as ‘HS Date‘ or the coral-colored calla lily ‘Natural Bouquet.’
Shades of orange are darker, and include colors such as butterscotch and terra cotta. The foliage of the canna ‘Tropicanna‘ is a lovely combination of bronze and burnt orange. Echinacea are also available in several shades of dusky orange. Another way to mute the intensity of orange is to pair it with cream-colored flowers or bronzy foliage.
Putting Orange to Work in Your Garden
If you’re ready to turn up the intensity, look to complementary colors. These are opposites on the color wheel, and when positioned side by side, they intensify each other.
Blue is orange’s complementary color, but in the garden that can be a bit of a challenge. There just aren’t many flowers that are true-blue in color. Options include gentians, cornflowers, scilla, meconopsis poppies, forget-me-nots, delphiniums and hydrangeas.
The garden of Danish garden designer Claus Dalby.
Colors that are adjacent to blue on the color wheel provide almost the same contrast. Orange looks fantastic with blue-green foliage and blue-violet flowers.
Yellow is another good companion for orange. It’s like adding a squirt of lemon to your flowerbed and will make your orange flowers look even fresher and more zingy.
Both orange and hot pink are edgy colors and using them together will give you a look that’s modern and unexpected.
Suggestions for What to Plant in an Orange Flower Garden
Here are some annuals, perennials and bulbs that have orange flowers:
Annuals
Calendulas, calibrachoa, celosia, cosmos, diascia, gaillardia, gerbera, lantana, marigolds, nasturtiums, osteospermum, poppies, thunbergia, tithonia, zinnias
Bulbs
Cannas, Fritillaria Rubra Maxima, daffodils, dahlias, gladiolus, kniphofia (red hot poker), lilies, ranunculus, tuberous begonias, tulips
Perennials
Chrysanthemum, daylily, helenium, hibiscus, iris, trumpet vine
Want to learn more about using color in your flower garden? Read Garden Color 101, How to Use Pink in Your Flower Garden, and 6 Tips for a More Colorful Flower Garden.
Thanks for this great article! It’s really gotten me thinking about new ideas!
Hi Karen — so glad! It was difficult to take a rational approach to orange flowers. My love for them is anything but!
In the very first photo, what are the flowers on the far left? I am inspired by your article and these would be awesome!
Hi Amy — If you mean the daisy-like flowers, those are Dahlia HS Date. I have been growing them for years. Love them and so do the bees and hummingbirds! The plant has dark foliage and a more open habit than most dahlias. Grows about 36″ tall, with flowers rising a bit taller. If the link above doesn’t work, you can just search for them on longfield-gardens.com
How do I get something off my order INO longer want?
Hi Roxie, you can simply call our customer service number — it’s on the website. No problem as long as you let us know a week before your order is scheduled to ship.
Incredible pictures. You must have a beautiful garden!
Hi Amy — I am so lucky to have a flower-filled life!
Great article! Your photos have inspired me to experiment with these color combinations at my easel. My art instructor reminds me often that everything in nature has orange to some degree!
Hi Barbara – So glad to hear this. I used to dislike orange, but am now a fan!
I love to use purple as a companion for orange and have found it to look great. Verbena Bonariensis with Orange tiger lilies is a great summer planting. Both carefree and self spreading but not bullies.
Hi Kathy – What a great combination! Thanks for the suggestion.
I LOVE bright clear tangerine orange flowers… nasturtiums, lilies, dahlias, poppies etc and combine them with white perennials and annuals for a bright clean crisp summer look!
Weird day to be posting about orange. Most folks are thinking strictly GREEN on St. Patrick’s day!
Ha! You are so right. Guess with these grey March days we were just craving color and forgot to check the calendar!
Thank you for this inspiration; I have recently been adding orange flowers and I can really see the energy they bring!