Red,orange and yellow flowers???

Question

I have a long flowerbed that runs the length of my back porch and would like to plant it in red, orange, and yellow. Any suggestions? Some ground cover in between might be good as well.Please tell me what time of year the flowers will grow, as I am a novice.

Thanks

Answer 1

Nasturtiums are annuals that are inexpensive and very easy to grow and come in those colors. YOu can buy a seed packet of those colors mixed or each color separately. nasturtiums grow late spring through fall and you can even eat the flowers and leaves in salads. The leaves are very lush and the flowers as well so it would make an excellent groundcover. What kind of sun exposure do you get in this bed? If it is sunnymost of the day nasturiums will do well, also Iris which are perennials and come in many colors, bloom early summer, daffodils bloom throughout spring, and crocosmia are late summer and fall, In a shadier bed I would suggest daylilies bloom all summer, and ranunculus.***

Answer 2

Oh, boy!!!

I put in a red, orange, and yellow flower bed years ago, and was it exciting and HOT!!!

First, of course, you want to get some real backbone in your bed, so invest in some really great Canna hybrids. There are fire-red Cannas and mandarin-orange Cannas and sunny yellow Cannas. Don't forget to get some with showy and bizarre foliage...you want this bed to be as tropical and bizarre as possible!!!!

Start some really hefty Castor Bean plants (Ricinis). There are a lot of different hybrids in varying shades of chocolate, bronze, and metallic burgundies. Get that bold structure in there: when plunging into hot, wild color, you need to back it up with fantastic form.

Oh, start some Bronze Fennel, as well. One of the loveliest things i EVER planted was some large bronze fennels with Rose "Sunsprite" glowing bright golden through the smoky, feathery fennel foliage...look into red, yellow, and orange Rose hybrids.

Feverfew (Chrysanthemum Parthenium) is easily and cheaply started in yellow or white-and-yellow.

Dahlias come in shades of brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges.

So do Gladiolus.

Tithonia "Torch" is a 4' annual with bright orange flowers.

Don't forget the plain old-fashioned Sunflower and the Autumn Shades smaller flowered types.

Many Salvias offer fine scarlet displays. Salvia Coccinea is great...whack it back and it will keep sending up heads of bloom.

Helenium (sneezeweed) blooms in golden and rusty shades...

Gaillardia (blanket flower) has flowers with rusty red and yellow. There are both perennial and annual sorts.

Coreopsis also comes in both perennial and annuals. The annual, Coreopsis Tinctoria, is an  outstanding plant for midsummer color and very easily grown, each plant offering different spotted, patterned yellow to mahogany flowers, any where between a foot and a half to two and a half feet tall.

Don't forget to add some contrasting color that will really set off your color scheme. Verbena Bonariensis is a nearly leafless plant with purple flower heads seeming to float at 3 to 4 feet among your plantings...purple seems to move on in and make yellows and oranges even more vibrant.

Salpiglossis is not one of the easiest plants to get going, and then it must be staked, but when they bloom you forget all the trouble they required. Velvety flowers are sort of reminiscent of petunias, but in bizarre color combinations, such as purple streaked with gold; rusty orange striped with yellow. Well-grown, these plants are easily three feet tall and, planted en masse, are incredible show-stoppers.

Maltese Cross (Lychnis Chalcedonica) offers startlingly scarlet blooms.

Alstroemeria Aurantiaca has vibrant tangerine lily-like flowers with black tiger-stripes in their throats. Which reminds me, don't forget lilies, of which there are yellow, red, and orange hybrids....

Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan) is going to be one of the workhorses of this garden. There are both solid golden types and others with mahogany markings, all with large brown or green cones.

Daylilies also come in solid colors and fascinating combinations of all these shades....and exciting combination is orange daylilies interplanted with the Kansas Gayfeather, Liatris. Yummy!!!

For a climber on a wall behind your bed, there is the sweet Canary-bird Vine, which is a type of Nasturtium, and very easily grown from seed.

Centaurea Macrocephala blooms with very large yellow thistle-like flowers, with the added bonus of seed heads that beg to have little craft-store eyes glued to them for amusing Tiki-Men.

Chocolate Cosmos is worth the price tag...plant it at the front of your bed. Deep chocolate blooms will offer the added bonus of being able to inhale bittersweet chocolate as you tour the garden.

Amaranthus Erithrostachys (Prince's Feather) is a stunner with deep burgundy foliage topped with deepest black-maroon feathery spikes at three feet tall; Love-lies-Bleeding, another Amarnaranthus, is easily started with a pinch of seed in each cell of six-pack; successively transplant until you have a comfortable 4" pot and then plant at least 15 to 20  of the 4" pots in a 2 to 3 foot spot, and then stand back and watch this bizarre plant grow to about 2 and a half to 3 feet tall with dusty crimson tassels and epaulets. Enchanting.

Other annuals I have used include Venidium Fastuosum, the Monarch of the Veldt, with 4" orange composite flowers with a large decorative black center; Gazania; Zinnias (plant a few of lime green hybrid "Envy" to provide a cool counterpart to your hot colors. Likewise lime-sherbet-colored Nicotiana Langsdorfii.

California Poppies, Nasturtiums,  French Marigolds in oranges and yellows and Mahoganys, and combinations thereof,  make fine drifts for the front of your bed.

Tigridia is a bulb with spectacularly gorgeous orange, red, yellow, or bright pink blossoms. Although each bloom lasts but one day, this plant is totally worth growing...you will be hooked.

Well, i hope i have given you a few ideas on what you can put in a red and yellow and orange bed.

Most of these plants are easy to collect seed from yourself to really cut down on the cost in the succeeding years. It is expensive at first: try joining a national gardening society with a seed exchange and you will find seeds at a fraction of the cost and even less if you become a seed donor, yourself.

Answer 3

The time the flower will bloom is dependent on the breed of plant and the weather conditions. For example primrose is more apt to bloom in cold weather. Golden Carpet Sedum (low growing ground cover) is also a winter bloomer. Other flowers bloom in the early spring, while other flowers may bloom in fall. Check with your local cooperative extension to see what grows best in your area, and if what you would like to grow grows best in full sun, or part sun with part shade.