Add energy to your garden with orange plants

By: Angie Coyier

Ready to pump up the energy in your garden? Grow orange plants! Let us help you find just the right shade of orange for your garden.

Orange-plants-for-your-garden-lily-garden-border: A splash of orange like the lilies here can ignite a garden border.

Designing with orange plants

Combining the energy of red and the happiness of yellow, orange is one upbeat and enthusiastic color. Trendy and hip, orange demands your attention like no other color. It is one of the warm colors and resembles fire, sunlight and heat. It is also the color most often associated with fall and harvest.

In the garden, orange plants have very high visibility and are often used to accentuate important features of a design — it can make a feature or an area of the garden advance or seem smaller and more intimate. But proceed with caution. Because of its dominating nature, you’ll want to incorporate orange into your garden carefully.

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Orange-plants-for-your-garden-border: Orange pincushion flowers bring visual excitement and energy to what could have been a more predictable border planting.

Orange plants grab attention

Orange’s energy raises your awareness of your surroundings. Want to get the attention of passersby? Try a planting of orange flowers along a public sidewalk. Here, ‘Flame Spike’ orange pincushion flowers (Leucospermum cordifolium) bring visual excitement and energy to what could have been a more predictable border planting. The unusual and stunning flowers stem from a rounded, spreading evergreen shrub and add an exotic and dramatic flair. As a bonus, the pincushion flowers are great in cut flower arrangements.

Choose your favorite plants with orange flowers & foliage

Ready to add some of orange’s energy to your borders? Here are 14 plants you may want to add to your plant palette.

‘Inferno’ coleus (Plectranthus hybrid)

Type Tender perennial (usually grown as an annual) Blooms Lavender flowers in late summer, rarely blooms, orange-red foliage Light Full sun to part shade Soil Well-drained soil Size 14 to 28 in. tall, 14 to 24 in. wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 10 to 11

‘Prinses Irene’ tulip (Tulipa hybrid)

Type Bulb Blooms Orange flowers with purple streaks in midspring Light Full sun to part shade Soil Well-drained Size 12 to 15 in. tall, 3 to 6 in. wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 3 to 8

‘Starface’ gladiolus (Gladiolus hybrid)

Type Tender bulb (usually grown as an annual) Blooms Orange with yellow centers in summer Light Full sun Soil Well-drained Size 24 to 36 in. tall, 3 to 6 in. wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 7 to 11

Sombrero^® Adobe Orange coneflower (Echinacea hybrid)

Type Perennial Blooms Orange flowers in summer Light Full sun to part shade Soil Well-drained, but also tolerates clay Size 18 to 20 in. tall and wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9

‘Cannova Orange Shades’ canna (Canna hybrid)

Type Tender tuber (usually grown as an annual) Blooms Orange flowers speckled red from late spring to frost Light Full sun Soil Well-drained, but also tolerates clay Size 30 to 48 in. tall, 14 to 20 in. wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 7 to 12

‘Cosmic Orange’ cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus)

Type Annual Blooms Loads of 2-in. bright orange flowers from summer to frost Light Full sun Soil Well-drained to lean soil Size 12 to 18 in. tall, 12 to 15 in. wide

‘Apricot Sparkles’ daylily (Hemerocallis)

Type Perennial Blooms 3-in. apricot flowers early summer to fall, repeat bloomer Light Full sun to part shade Soil Moist, well-drained soil but tolerates clay Size 15 to 24 in. tall and wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 3 to 9

Totally Tangerine geum (Geum hybrid)

Type Perennial Blooms Orange flowers in late spring and early summer Light Full sun to part shade Soil Moist, well-drained Size 24 to 30 in. tall, 15 to 18 in. wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 7

Oriental poppy (Papaver orientale)

Type Perennial Blooms Intense orange blooms with a black center in spring Light Full sun to part shade Soil Well-drained to poor Light 18 to 36 in. tall, 18 to 24 in. wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 2 to 9

Moroccan Sun Mix rudbeckia (Rudbeckia hirta)

Type Perennial Blooms A mix of orange, yellow and copper-colored flowers from early summer to frost Light Full sun Soil Well-drained, but also tolerates clay Size 18 to 20 in. tall, 18 to 24 in. wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 6 to 9

Rio Grande^™ Orange purslane (Portulaca oleracea)

Type Tender perennial (usually grown as an annual) Blooms Bright orange flowers with a yellow center from summer to frost Light Full sun Soil Well-drained Size 3 to 4 in. tall, 10 to 12 in. wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 9 to 11

‘Caramel’ (Heuchera hybrid)

Type Perennial Blooms Light pink flowers in early summer, apricot to pale yellow foliage with red undersides, leaves darker in more shade Light Full sun to part shade Soil Well-drained soil but tolerates clay Size 9 to 18 in. tall, 12 to 24 in. wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9

Patio Volcanoes® gerbera daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)

Type Tender perennial (usually grown as an annual) Blooms 4- to 5-in. orange semidouble flowers with a black center from spring to fall Light Full sun to part shade Soil Well-drained soil Size 15 to 18 in. tall, 18 to 24 in. wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 8 to 11

‘Orange Marmalade’ firecracker flower (Crossandra infundibuliformis)

Type Tender perennial (usually grown as an annual) Blooms Soft orange-red flowers in summer to fall Light Full sun to part shade Soil Moist, well-drained soil Size 18 to 24 in. tall and wide Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 10 to 11