2012 Color of Year Tangerine Tango in the garden

Orange Storm flowering quince. Photo courtesy Proven Winners/ColorChoice

Fashion forward gardeners are probably wondering how they can incorporate Tangerine Tango, the Color Institute’s 2012 Color of the Year, into their landscape.

Fortunately, we have many, fashionable choices.

“Orange is very trendy now and makes for dynamic and unique mixes,” said Bill Calkins, retail business manager of Ball Horticulture, which markets Burpee, Darwin Perennials and Simply Beautiful Plants.

Here are some suggestions:

Tiki Torch coneflower. Photo courtesy Terra Nova Nurseries

Orange tones definitely are trendy in coneflowers (Echinacea) with Double Scoop ‘Orangeberry’ and ‘Sombrero Hot Coral’ from Darwin, ‘Marmalade’ from Plants Nouveau, and ‘Tiki Torch’ and ‘Tangerine Dream’ from Terra Nova Nurseries, to name just a few. These perennials sizzle with the hot tropical rhythms suggested by Tangerine Tango.

Double Take ‘Orange Storm’ is a gorgeous, thornless, deer resistant flowering quince (Chaenomeles) from Proven Winners. The shrub blooms off and on all summer and gets about 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide.

There are lots of tangerine-hue choices in the annual category, including several for shade. Rockapulco Dark Orange is a double impatiens (I. walleriana). Infinity Dark Salmon Glow and Divine Orange Bronze Leaf are New Guinea impatiens (I. hawkeri). These shade lovers will do well in pots or in the ground.

Color appropriate annuals for sunnier spots include Superbells Tequila Sunrise (Calibrachoa), which has speckled flowers and a nice trailing habit. Double Zahara Fire, a 2010 All-America Selections award-winning zinnia (Z. interspecific), has 2 ½-inch wide orange flowers. UpTown Orange Blossom zinnia (Z. marylandica) gets about 24 inches tall and wide. Both zinnias are resistant to fungus diseases.

Zahara Double Fire zinnia. Photo courtesy Ball Horticulture

For a climbing perennial vine, ‘Mandarin’ honeysuckle (Lonicera) is perfectly named for the fashion sensitive job. Proven Winners’ Orange-A-Peel, an annual black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata), is spectacular in a hanging basket.

Complimentary colors include red, yellow, green, bronze, blue, purple and white. Give a garden’s version of Tangerine Tango a whirl this summer.