I Didn’t Know I Needed Orange Flowers

I didn’t know I needed orange flowers until I planted some in a container that I see every time I look out the kitchen window.

And I find myself smiling at how bright and cheerful they are.

I’ve already exclaimed about how on fire I am for Celosia ‘Flamma Orange’ which is on the left in this picture.

Next to it in the center is a double-flowering snapdragon, DoubleShot Orange Bicolor, which, like the Celosia, I grew from seeds sent to me by All-America Selections.

And peeking out over there on the right is a plant I purchased when I saw its little orange flowers just barely showing amid a mass of green foliage. I thought it might be a nice addition to a container full of orange flowers.

It is new-to-me Crossandra, also known as firecracker flower, a tropical plant native to India and Sri Lanka. I’m obviously growing it as an annual but I see that sometimes people pot it up and grow it inside as a houseplant which means that later this summer I will need to think about possibly digging it out of that container, giving it its own container, and bringing it inside for the winter.

Isn’t that how it is with gardening? You don’t think you need something, like orange flowers, and then you grow some and you think how you really did need them.

Then you realize one of them is a tropical plant, so now you need to at least think about potting it up to bring inside for the winter. Or in the words of my friend, Marianne Willburn, author of Tropical Plants and How to Love Them, I need to decide if my relationship with Crossandra is going to be just a summer romance (which will end with it in the compost pile after succumbing to the frost) or will it be a long-term commitment (which will continue with it potted up in its own container and introducing itself to other plants in the sunroom?)

Regardless of what I decide to do with the Crossandra, I have decided I need a bright spot of orange flowers in a container on my patio every year! What took me so long to figure it out? That’s probably a topic for another blog post…

(No, I will not explore what happens when you plant a firecracker flower next to a “Flamma Orange” celosia with DoubleShot snapdragons all around. It sounds explosive and dangerous, like someone is drinking while setting off fireworks, but there they are…)

(Yes, I did write up a list of orange flowers for Family Handyman. The snapdragon and the crossandra didn’t make that list but if I rewrote it the list today, they most definitely would. Feel free to suggest other orange flowers I should grow, either in a container or out in the garden.)