NO Orange Flowers, EVAH!
For some reason I have never liked the color orange. I hate being a color snob and I realize that there is no real inherent difference between one color and any other (they are all results of particular light wavelengths and orange falls right between red and yellow two colors that I happen to like very much!). As an artist I also realize that there are thousands of different shades of orange, that intensity and hue are variable, that there can be very pleasing combinations of colors with orange and that any color changes depending on the colors beside it and the color of light reflected upon it. You know what? I still don't like orange!
So, when I was planning my flower beds I was very careful to control the color palette in the garden and of course I forbade any orange flower of any kind to be within 30 yards of my gardens. I designed a lovely pink bed, a yellow and blue one. I copied a garden from Garden Design that would match my yellow house exterior and maroon door. (For that one I spent a fortune on expensive plants that never grow and never seem to bloom). The result for all of these gardens has been utter mediocrity. My pride and joy has been a white and red garden in the front yard. I carefully planted red pinks and white daisies and balloon flowers. There are daylilies and lilies in shades of red and white and four different peonies with matching shades. Here are some pictures of that particular garden.
Even though all those lily bulbs were clearly labelled RED - this is what I got. As you can see, nature has a mind of its own and seems detemined to stamp out prejudice through integration. It seems to be working. I wonder how orange marigolds would look in the front of the border.
12 comments:
so now that they're there, and blooming, do you like them?
i love daylilies. someone planted some amongst the trees in our park, and they bloom and bloom and bloom.
but it's funny how flowers change color underground. my blue delphiniums this year came up white. nobody at the nursery could explain why.
Orange is good when it's flowers. Orange is not good when it is pee.
It has its place.
Orange marigolds in the front border...and how 'bout some of those lovely dark-maroon-almost-black hollyhocks to bring up the rear?
Then again, I had pink hollyhocks turn white.
Flowers---cpuld it be that they are like mood rings?
Hi, Laurie, I collect Daylilies and have dozens of varieties. I'm working on liking the orange ones (They grow wild on our property)
Min - Yeah - Blue pee is better
Neroli - I think I can guess the Hollyhocks - they are biennials which means they die every two years and regrow from seeds. Gregor Mendel could explain exactly why pink changed to white and which genes are dominant and recessive.
Orange is not a favorite color of mine either, but when Mother Nature does things she always seems to know what she's doing.
Hmm, You credit Nature with greater wisdom than I, I jus can't see the cockroach as the act of a wise being. Thenthere's the tape worm, the dog tick and yellow fever!
Your garden is lovely;)
sorry it didn't turn out the way you intended.
Thanks for the compliment on the garden. I keep working at it!
One of the most beautiful wild flowers ever is a tiger lily.
... so, when I see a orange day lily, the enchantment of my childhood love of tiger lilies draws me to them.
Love them... absolutely love them.
Orange is not my favorite color either. Although the tiger (day) lilies are rather ubiquitous, my Enviromental Science professor said the orange in wildflowers is the least common color.
I have hundreds of daylillies. I planted the orange ones in only two places and yet, this year they are everywhere. I think they have erased some of my other colors. Do you know if this is possible? I am really sad to see only orange!!!
Anonymous,
What has most likely happened is this - your yellow and orange day lilies have cross-pollinated and as your yellow ones have died out they have been replaced by the next generation. The orange ones are the original wild day lilies. I suspect their genes are "dominant", so the new plants tend to "revert" to type and be orange. That is also why I seem to have so many orange flowers in my rural area flower beds (I believe).
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