Heliopsis helianthoides var. scabra brightens almost any landscape—even in poor and clay soil—with cheery, two-toned blooms in orange and yellow. "It weaves in really well with other perennials," Currey says. "I love it in a mixed planting.
Fast-growing Gaillardia pulchella attracts bees, butterflies, and birds, who feed on its seed heads. "It would be great along with the butterfly milkweed.
Buyers used to pass up Asclepias tuberosa in garden centers when it wasn't in bloom, Currey says. "But once the public realized it was such a pollinator powerhouse, it became popular. Now we can't grow enough.
Dbeckia triloba blooms profusely. "This plant will do well in a lot of different kinds of situations.
A parent plant to the more familiar Louisiana iris, Iris fulva has been gaining fans outside its original range in the Mississippi River Valley for its ability to thrive in saturated soil.
Native to portions of Canada and the Eastern and Southern U.S., Platanthera ciliaris loves peaty bogs and meadows. The orange flower blooms for about a month in late summer, producing clusters of delicate tangerine blossoms with whisker-like lower petals.
For the juiciest shade of soda-pop orange you've ever seen, check out Kniphofia pyromania. With its soft, grass-like foliage, it would be a good companion to Liriope, with its similar foliage shape and cool, spiky lavender blooms, says Conley.
Once a year, from mid- to late summer, hundreds of gorgeous Lilium lancifolium plants bloom along a winding pergola near the Tenant House guest cottage on Martha's estate in Katonah, N.Y. Profuse bloomers, tiger lilies can produce as many as 10 flowers per stem.