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bahia_gw

Who likes orange?

bahia
12 years ago

Just thought I would link to some Flickr photos showing plants in my garden designs using one of my favorite colors, both foliage and flowers. Being rather near sighted, my interpretation of orange can be rather broad, if you need to squint to see the orange tones, you'll see what I mean. Hope you enjoy them...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20217462@N02/sets/72157626423563766/with/5512783663/

Comments (17)

  • acw2355
    12 years ago

    Ooooh, love the orange orchid! Thanks for posting these, you've given me ideas.

    I am fond of the subdued orange...not necessarily the screaming bright neon orange. I find in my planning I'm drawn to the subdued warmer tones; salmon, coral, and pink/orange of some deciduous azaleas. For foliage I like the oranges which come out in Nandina "Gulfstream", especially when the setting sun hits the leaves. I think of these as sunset colors and try to use that as my palette: blue-greens, soft oranges, pale yellows, with a little purple here and there.

  • feijoas
    12 years ago

    I used to be a bit anti orange (and yellow).
    I'm still not into it in my ornamental garden, but insects don't share my aesthetics, and 'out the back' where my veggies are has loads of Calendula, Tithonia, sunflowers...
    When I'm thinking some fluoroscent orange Escholtzia in my deserty front garden might be a good idea, I know times are a changin'...

  • drtygrl
    12 years ago

    beautiful! I dont like orange as a color - in my house and closet there is nothing orange - but I do love it in the garden. and your beautiful photos show why it has an important role as a color in the garden.

  • timbu
    12 years ago

    Soft tropical oranges such as these are lovely - while the color of marigolds is kinda harsh (because it clashes with the green of foliage?) - needs plenty of cool whites or grays for balance.
    In hardscape, I can't imagine orange in a classic/traditional garden (unless the surrounding nature, mountains, earth were dominated by that color as well); orange is as modern as it gets.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:27548}}

  • bahia
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I don't think orange as hardscape is necessarily modern or traditional, but it may seem a better fit in a warmer climate with stronger sunlight and bluer skies. Certainly orange is more prevalent in Mediterranean influenced cultures or Latin America. I happen to like orange in both plants and hardscape/walls/paintings, etc. I love combining oranges and greens together, and as to the harshness of an orange marigold, look to India and Hindu culture and see how they have elevated a New World plant into their religion and made it seem a perfect fit.

    here's a link to a garden I designed where I used a lot of orange, and personally I loved the result. I like to think it is more timeless than trendy, but you be the judge...

    Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/20217462@N02/4464655195/in/set-72157626121794400/

  • timbu
    12 years ago

    Your gardens are gorgeous as always; they do appear, if not trendy, at least echoing the trends of the day (and so did Versailles in its time didn't it).
    Any links to the India connection?

  • drtygrl
    12 years ago

    I think you make a good point about the quality of the light in southern areas. Here the light changes tremendously during the seasons, becoming warm yellow light with bright blue skies late august and september. Which is when, coincidentally, most people have plants that bloom orange in their gardens and add annuals that bloom in shades of orange such as mums. Its hard to imagine orange in the garden now because this time of year is filled with with grey skies, blue light and short days.

  • bahia
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Blazing orange and deep blues are two early spring colors in the California landscape, so even nature seems to feel that they aren't just colors for warmer seasons. Of course, the sky can be deep blue and bright sun even between winter storms at this latitude and elevation. I know I probably tend to take the local environment for granted and don't give it proper credit for the influence it no doubt has upon garden designers here.

    Wish I did have some easy links to use of orange in Hindu religious ceremonies, but I am thinking of the massive amounts of marigolds strung in sorts of leis(sp?) and draped over temples and statues as well as worn for decoration. I kind of like African marigolds when they are used as decoration in this fashion, but tend to shy away from planting them myself, haven't actually planted any French dwarf type or African tall type marigolds in decades... My absolute favorites for orange color are probably the Marmalade bush, Streptosolen jamesonii, and Tecoma x smithii, which both have a little more yellow to them, but here in California, can be explosively colorful at least 8 to 9 months of the year, as are the flowering Abutilons. We do get spoiled by the ease of growing flowers year round, but I wouldn't say I take this for granted, instead I seek it out and try to share the wealth...

    We can also replicate the fall foliage color thing here pretty easily, but I just don't think an entire landscape of dormant trees and shrubs fit visually with our winter growth season in a Mediterranean climate, and I actually prefer to see my flowering trees lose their leaves in the spring, when they come into flower. A lot of subtropical flowering trees tend to do that, and it makes the flowers stand out on things like Chorisia speciosa or Tabebuia chrysotricha when they bloom without any foliage, and then releaf after the petals fall.

  • catkim
    12 years ago

    Since getting into tropicals I have become totally hooked on hot colors, and orange seems to be prominent in a broad spectrum of plant types. Love it! The color orange provides such spectacular contrast and excitement in a garden (amply illustrated by David's photos), I don't know how any garden could be without it.

    The color has seeped from the garden into my everyday life as well. (rolling my eyes) Bought an orange swan chair and a few weeks ago got my orange v-neck T at Tar-zhay. :-D I feel like I am reliving the 60s, but as an adult this time around...

  • bahia
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Kim, go for it! I think orange just makes one feel happy, but I don't like wearing it unless I've got a base tan, and I know that isn't politically correct or healthy to acquire these days. I mostly stick to orange as wall colors rather than furniture, but that is just me. If I recall what I wore in the 60's, it was mostly pretty blah, lots of denim, khaki and corduroy and plaid shirts at the time here in the SF Bay Area junior high days of the late 60's.

  • karinl
    12 years ago

    We painted our house orange, so call me the converted in the congregation. I can't wear it, but I make sure I can see it around me, inside and out. Just painted the stairwell orange (sort of a creamsicle colour), and if a plant comes in orange, that's probably what I have.

    Fabulous pictures of beautiful installations, Monsieur Bahia. And Catkim, I think we need to see that chair. Not sure if I'm more intrigued by the "orange" or the "swan."

    Kairn

  • catkim
    12 years ago

    The orange swan chair, a small version of the Arne Jacobsen design from 1958:

    {{gwi:27552}}

    In the (mostly) finished room:

    {{gwi:27553}}

    It goes with the plants in the garden outside:

    {{gwi:27554}}

    I thought I resized all the pix, sorry the first is so large.

  • bahia
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    That Croton is a pefect match for the room colors inside. The room really looks inviting and comfortable, and I see you do better with indoor orchids than I do!

  • sunnyca_gw
    12 years ago

    Ca. poppies on hillsides mix with purple on way to Palmdale-beautiful. My dad planted some orange poppies few years ago & they popped up in number of places they weren't planted also, between cracks in sidewalk or by sprinkler heads! I loved them, mom not so much! They just herald spring each year even the Easter there was snow on the ground on way out to bro's,there they were in all their beauty sticking out of the snow. Never more beautiful!! Well, 3 yr old granddaughter sitting in them another year grinning, yes, that was better,she loved them & left them for others to enjoy!

  • karinl
    12 years ago

    Swoon!

    No nuances to that orange... it's ORANGE.

    KarinL
    PS is your house really this tidy?? On garden books and mags alone I could never achieve that!

  • boyd60634
    6 years ago

    Love the tithonia interspersed with deep purple dahlias.