Bright colors are a great way to freshen up your garden design. Orange flowers in particular will add some sizzle and visual excitement to your yard's palette. Orange has even more impact when paired with bold red or yellow flowers. Or you can soften orange by a contrasting it with blue or purple flowers. Here are some of our favorite orange flower garden ideas.
Lantana
Perfect for those hot spots in your garden, lantana (Lantana camara) thrives in the heat while producing beautiful flowers. Plus, its bold blooms attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinators to your yard. Grow it in containers, hanging baskets, or along the edge of a flowerbed.
Bloom Season: Summer to fall
Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil
Size: To 1 foot tall
Zones: 10–11
Fritillaria
Looking for something unique for your garden? Fritillaria (Fritillaria imperialism) brings dramatic flair with its orange flowers crowned in a tuft of leaves. Plant it at the back of a border to repel hungry critters with its skunky scent.
Bloom Season: Spring
Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in well-drained soil
Size: To 4 feet tall
Zones: 5–8
Blackberry Lily
Another unusual specimen, the blackberry lily produces showy orange flowers followed by clusters of berries. This beauty is often called leopard lily due to the red spots on its blooms. Although the plant is short-lived, it will reseed itself for your future enjoyment.
Bloom Season: Early to mid-summer
Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil
Size: To 3 feet tall
Zones: 5–10
Helenium
Get a big bang for your buck with the long-lasting blooms of helenium (Helenium autumnale). Its prolific orange blooms are attractive to butterflies and will be the envy of your neighborhood. Deer must think these flowers are too pretty to disturb because they tend to avoid this plant. This perennial also makes a great cut flower.
Bloom Season: Late summer to fall
Growing Conditions: Full sun in medium to wet soil
Size: To 18 inches tall
Zones: 4–9
Iceland Poppy
Add an element of enchantment to your cut flower garden with an Iceland poppy (Papaver nudicaule). This cold-climate poppy unfurls rich orange hues and delicate petals that resemble ruffled tutus. Its tall stem and cup-shaped blooms will fill your vases beautifully.
Bloom Season: Spring to early summer
Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil
Size: To 15 inches tall
Zones: 4–8
'Klondike' Cosmos
Easily grown from seed, 'Klondike' cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus) offers waves of brilliant orange throughout the summer. This dwarf annual produces lots of semi-double to double blooms. Attract butterflies to your garden with these daisy-like flowers that often reseed themselves.
Bloom Season: Summer to fall
Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil
Size: To 18 inches tall
Zones: 2–11
Asiatic Lily
The intense orange blooms of Asiatic lilies (Lilium Asiatic hybrids) harmonize with white, pink, pale orange, or blue summer flowers. These lilies usually bloom before fragrant Oriental lilies. Grow these plants by bulbs and look forward to beautiful flowers with large petals, anthers, and stamens.
Bloom Season: Summer
Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in well-drained soil
Size: To 3 feet tall
Zones: 4–8
Butterfly Weed
Once you identify butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) you'll likely won't forget its showy flowers and hairy stems. Clusters of flowers on these lanky orange-blooming plants attract droves of butterflies. Unlike other milkweed plants, this perennial does not have milky-sapped stems.
Bloom Season: Late spring through summer
Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil
Size: To 30 inches tall
Zones: 3–9
Red-Hot Poker
Brush-shaped, tubular flowers characterize red-hot poker (kniphofia hirsuta). This heat-hardy perennial looks beautiful in the front of a mixed border, rock garden, or container planting. Its varied combinations of red, orange, and yellow flowers attract hummingbirds.
Bloom Season: Late spring through summer
Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil
Size: To 21 inches tall
Zones: 4–9
California Poppy
Bring instant color to your garden with California poppy (Eschscholzia californica). Plant California poppy seeds on hillsides, vacant lots, or in country gardens, and celebrate summer as their gleaming orange petals unfurl. You'll love watching this annual's flowers close up in cloudy weather and at night.
Bloom Season: Late spring to early summer
Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil
Size: To 15 inches tall
Zones: 6–10
Abutilon
This tall, billowy blossoming annual, also called flowering maple (Abutilon × hybridum), belongs to the mallow family, making it a cousin of hibiscus. Its crepe paper-like blooms and leaves that look like the foliage of a maple tree will steal the show in borders or in containers. Before cold weather arises, bring this plant indoors for overwintering.
Bloom Season: Spring
Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 4 feet tall
Zones: 9–10
Calendula
Enjoy the flower power of calendula (Calendula officinalis), an annual that keeps up its show throughout the growing season. Line your walkways and garden beds with the chrysanthemum-like blooms or add them to the edge of your vegetable garden to deter hungry critters. You can also flavor soups, salads, or rice dishes with this edible flower that's known for its vivid color.
Bloom Season: Spring to fall
Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil
Size: To 2 feet tall
Zones: 2–11
French Marigold
Plant French marigolds (Tagetes patula) and you'll have brightly colored flowers throughout the entire growing season. Whether you choose single, semi-double, double, or crested varieties, these fragrant annuals are wonderful additions to garden beds and borders. Grow these pretty plants with marigold companion plants to attract pollinators and repel pests.
Bloom Season: Spring to frost
Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil
Size: To 1 foot tall
Zones: 2–11
Daylily
Give some flower power to your garden to produce beautiful blooms year after year with daylily (Hemerocallis). This tough-as-nails hardy perennial commonly produces a succession of colorful blooms on its stalks. Each of its individual flowers generally opens for one day. Plant a variety of daylily varieties for an all-season flower show.
Bloom Season: Spring and fall
Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil
Size: To 3 feet tall
Zones: 3–10
Tropical Hibiscus
When you want big flowers and showy blooms in your garden, plant tropical hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis). Its crepe-paper-like flowers are 5 to 12 inches across and unfurl during high temperatures. Prune your hibiscus plant to get the best flower show in late summer and to ensure blooms keep coming in the fall.
Bloom Season: Spring and fall
Growing Conditions: Full sun in well-drained soil
Size: To 15 feet tall
Zones: 9–11
Nasturtium
Add the funnel-shaped orange flowers of nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus) to your yard. This sun-loving annual's blooms stand out among its eye-catching round leaves that resemble miniature lotus leaves. Whether you plant mounding, trailing, or climbing cultivars, you can add its edible blossoms to salads or other dishes for color and a light, peppery flavor.
Bloom Season: Spring to fall
Growing Conditions: Full sun in slightly acidic, well-drained soil
Size: To 10 feet tall
Zones: 2–11
Canna
It's easy to add bold textures to your garden when you fill it with the orange flowers of canna (Canna). This low-maintenance tropical landscape plant is bursting with color with its flower spikes atop dense stands of lush foliage and leaves. Plant cannas from rhizomes you've either purchased fresh or dug up and stored from the previous growing season.
Bloom Season: Summer
Growing Conditions: Full sun in moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 8 feet tall
Zones: 7–10