What’s Wrong with Orange?

Garden designer friends tell me that their clients frequently say they don’t want orange in their gardens.

Orange is the colour of the sun!!!! (I think? Best not to look right at it to find out?

And sometimes no yellow, either – but that’s hard to imagine with spring, which is when yellow zips out. Or is the ultimate sophistication to do spring in your garden in taupe?

Probably – it’s absolutely the fashion.

There is apparently a growing fashion for ‘sad beige’ for homes, clothes and even children’s toys. What do the kiddies think of that?

And garden fashion? Brown plants are definitely the thing. Brown. So says the Telegraph:

Brown flowers are this year’s hottest gardening trend

“Jake Croft, a garden designer and consultant, said more neutrally coloured flowers “will be here to stay for a few years to come. I think this shift to softer tones in planting schemes is reflective of how people want to live their lives now. I think people are looking for a slower pace of life and more balance and I think soft browns and neutral colours give off that cosy, warm, comforting feeling, as opposed to bright, in your face, clashing colours, which are evocative of a faster pace.”

It’s partly down to a paint company: “Sophisticated and lush, yet at the same time an unpretentious classic, PANTONE 17-1230 Mocha Mousse extends our perceptions of the browns from being humble and grounded to embrace the aspirational and luxe.” (Partly – you have to make allowances for the continual desperate search for copy if you’re a garden writer)

But why would we want ‘sad beige’ gardens?

Do we? Why would people not want orange, the colour of the sun??? Is it, perhaps, an issue of money and ‘class’? From Esquire: “high-end brands use beige because it speaks of something that purple and lime green do not. To us, beige means money. It is the colour of fine car interiors, the colour of five-star hotel lobbies, the colour of fois gras. And despite it being au courant right now, it seems to transcend fashion, too. It is a colour for those privileged few that are concerned only with moneyed ease and a life unbuffered by the changing winds of fashion.”

And many of us will also have observed recently that posh people do their cooking wearing white or grey.

There is something to be said for these sorts of colours, and I’ve said it myself.

There is pleasure in subtlety and winters bring home to us just how much of that subtlety we can miss. This is the time of year to love browns, beiges, taupe, green, washed out colours playing against one another in a kind of dull but beautiful harmony.

But do we want that in summer? And don’t we want a splash of ‘wow’ in spring?

Isn’t that a joy???

And aren’t some of the most exciting tulips orange???

And what about crocosmias?

Are we afraid of getting over excited?

Well, there’s one thing to think about – brown marries very nicely with orange. but don’t look for a photograph as I have no such colour trend in my garden.

What’s Wrong with Orange? originally appeared on GardenRant on January 23, 2025.

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