Garden Flower Gardens 10 Orange Flowers That Will Make Your Garden More Vibrant These bold beauties are the ultimate yard accent. By Ann Hinga Klein Ann Hinga Klein Ann Hinga Klein covers breaking news for The New York Times and writes about people and the environment for a variety of national publications. In her more than 40 years of reporting, she has never met a topic she could not cover. She is currently focusing on the urgent issues of environment and soil health. Editorial Guidelines Published on July 26, 2023 Trending Videos Photo: herreid / GETTY IMAGES If you love the color orange, consider adding a pop of it to your garden, where it can break up all-white beds or complement other bold brights like fuchsia and red. Orange flowers are also the ultimate yard accent: They command the eye (and serve as a focal point for a part of your landscape you want to highlight) and provide a welcome contrast to the stretch of verdant, lush lawn you work hard to maintain. Adding orange flowers to your landscape doesn't just have aesthetic benefits. You'll also make a few pollinators happy in the process. Butterflies find orange among the most attractive hues in nature, according to the National Wildlife Federation. Ready to add a few of these statement bloomers to your space? Ahead, Douglas Conley, a garden coordinator with the Matthaei Botanical Gardens at the University of Michigan, and horticulturist Shannon Currey with Izel Native Plants name some of their all-time favorites. 12 Green Flowers to Grow in Your Backyard 01 of 10 Burning Hearts Orthosie / GETTY IMAGES Heliopsis helianthoides var. scabra brightens almost any landscape—even in poor and clay soil—with cheery, two-toned blooms in orange and yellow. "It weaves in really well with other perennials," Currey says. "I love it in a mixed planting. And it has striking, almost burgundy-colored foliage, especially in cooler climates." Zones: 3 to 9Size: 3 to 4 feet tall x 12 to 18 inches wideGrowing conditions: full sun; likes well-draining, dry to medium soil, but tolerates a wide range of soils and will tolerate drought Find Your Garden Zone Here 02 of 10 Indian Blanket kuarmungadd / GETTY IMAGES Fast-growing Gaillardia pulchella attracts bees, butterflies, and birds, who feed on its seed heads. "It would be great along with the butterfly milkweed," Currey says. "Both like well-drained, rocky, or sandy soils." Consider it along a pathway with a sandy base, where it will thrive and also reseed. Zones: 3 to 10Size: 1 to 3 feet tall x 1 to 2 feet wideGrowing conditions: sun; well-drained soil Discover More Fast-Growing Plants for Your Garden 03 of 10 Butterfly Weed McKinneMike / GETTY IMAGES Buyers used to pass up Asclepias tuberosa in garden centers when it wasn't in bloom, Currey says. "But once the public realized it was such a pollinator powerhouse, it became popular. Now we can't grow enough," she says. More to love about this orange milkweed variety: It's easy to grow. And while most people only associate it with monarch butterflies, which need it for egg laying and larvae support, this perennial feeds a wide range of other pollinators, too, including hummingbirds and bees. Zones: 3 to 9Size: 24 to 48 inches tall x 12 to 24 inches wideGrowing condition: full sun; excellent drainage 04 of 10 Coneflower "Prairie Glow" magicflute002 / GETTY IMAGES Also known as brown-eyed Susan (not to be confused with black-eyed Susan!), Rudbeckia triloba blooms profusely. "This plant will do well in a lot of different kinds of situations," Currey says. "It'll take dry soils or moist soils, and it's also deer resistant." And while each orange flower won't live more than four or five years, "Prairie Glow" will reseed on its own. "People get a little shy about short-lived perennials," she says. "But there are some fantastic ones that are well worth having. It's well worth replenishing them or allowing them to reseed." Zones: 4 to 8Size: 3 to 4 feet tall x 12 to 18 inches wideGrowing conditions: full sun 05 of 10 Copper Iris EvaKaufman / GETTY IMAGES A parent plant to the more familiar Louisiana iris, Iris fulva has been gaining fans outside its original range in the Mississippi River Valley for its ability to thrive in saturated soil. "This is a beautiful iris," Currey says, adding that this late spring orange flower will give you a nice succession of blooms with other perennials that also love wet or moist soils, including New York ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis), hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos), and Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium). Zones: 5 to 9Size: 2 to 3 feet tall x 1 to 2 feet wideGrowing conditions: full sun to part shade; fertile, consistently moist to wet soil 06 of 10 Orange Fringed Orchid GracedByTheLight / GETTY IMAGES Native to portions of Canada and the Eastern and Southern U.S., Platanthera ciliaris loves peaty bogs and meadows. The orange flower blooms for about a month in late summer, producing clusters of delicate tangerine blossoms with whisker-like lower petals. If you have acidic soil and a boggy site—maybe a pond or stream—it's a fun option to try. "We're not all going to have the site conditions for this one, but it is pretty widespread from Ontario to Florida," says Conley. Zones: 4 to 9Size: 12 to 36 inches tall x 12 to24 inches wideGrowing conditions: full to partial sun; peaty, boggy soil (adapts to drier soil as long as soil is damp during flowering) 07 of 10 Red Hot Poker "Pyromania Orange Blaze" Bandolinata / GETTY IMAGES For the juiciest shade of soda-pop orange you've ever seen, check out Kniphofia pyromania. With its soft, grass-like foliage, it would be a good companion to Liriope, with its similar foliage shape and cool, spiky lavender blooms, says Conley. Zone: 5 to 9Size: 24 to 30 inches tall x 18 to 24 inches wideGrowing conditions: sun; almost any soil 08 of 10 Tiger Lily KenWiedemann / GETTY IMAGES Once a year, from mid- to late summer, hundreds of gorgeous Lilium lancifolium plants bloom along a winding pergola near the Tenant House guest cottage on Martha's estate in Katonah, N.Y. Profuse bloomers, tiger lilies can produce as many as 10 flowers per stem. Conley is a fan of this hardy, exotic-looking perennial, too. "We have one right outside our courtyard at the main entrance to the house that might be our most anticipated flower of the year," he says. Zones: 3 to 9Size: 3 to 5 tall x 7 to 8 inches wideGrowing conditions: full to partial sun; moist, well-draining soil 09 of 10 Trumpet Honeysuckle sunti meechai / GETTY IMAGES Birds, bees, and hummingbirds love the coral-orange blooms of honeysuckle Lonireca sempervirens "Magnifica," Conley explains. A native honeysuckle, it can handle pruning but doesn't require it (unlike its invasive cousin, Lonicera Japonica). "If you've got a trellis or an arbor, you can tuck it in with a clematis and they'll cover different colors and blooming times," he says. Zones: 4 to 8Size: 4 to 7 feet tall x 4 feet wideGrowing conditions: full sun to light shade; prefers moist, well-draining soil but can handle drought 10 of 10 Turk's Cap Lily aimintang / GETTY IMAGES Lilium superbum grows wild in the mountains of North Carolina, a few hours' drive from Currey's home in Durham. "It's very dramatic looking, almost like an Oriental or Asiatic lily, with multiple blooms hanging from upside down," she says. "It's almost like it's not real." In the home garden, Turk's Cap Lily creates an amazing focal point as well as a food source for pollinators. Zones: 5 to 8Size: 4 to 6 feet tall x 6 to 12 inches wideGrowing conditions: full sun to part shade; well-draining medium to wet soil How to Create a Thriving Pollinator Garden Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit Sources Martha Stewart is committed to using high-quality, reputable sources to support the facts in our articles. Read our editorial guidelines to learn more about how we fact check our content for accuracy. Attracting butterflies - garden for wildlife. National Wildlife Federation.