Top 10 Green Blooms
Your gardening friends will be green with envy once they spot these beauties in your backyard.
Stacy Tornio
While green is the ultimate gardening color, most of us think only of green leaves, sprouts and such. It’s not just a background color anymore, though. With new varieties, and even an heirloom classic, green blooms are readily available for gardeners everywhere. Go ahead and pick out a few to try in your yard.
Clive Nichols, Timber Press
Flowering tobacco
(Nicotiana, annual)
Whether you know this annual as flowering tobacco, nicotiana or tobacco plant, it’s a winner. Its tubular flowers are a hummingbird and butterfly favorite. It also blooms for a long time and works beautifully in containers.
Why we love it: Flowering tobacco offers several green-blooming options. Lime Green is one of the most popular cultivars, but keep your eye out for others at your favorite plant source, too.
Burpee
Zinnia
(Zinnia, annual)
You can find zinnias in every color of the rainbow, and green is no exception. The Envy cultivar has semidouble chartreuse flower heads. It grows up to 30 inches, does well in heat and even tolerates some shade. Burpee also has its own green variety, Tequila Lime, which does best in full sun. The blooms grow up to 3 inches in diameter.
Why we love it: The zinnia is the ultimate budget plant to grow from seed. A single packet often has 50 seeds or more. That’s a lot of bang for your gardening buck!
Proven Winners
Hydrangea
(Hydrangea paniculata, Zones 4-8)
It was only a matter of time before someone came up with a green-blooming hydrangea. Proven Winners has pretty options with both its Limelight variety and Little Lime (a dwarf of Limelight), and the soft green shades are second to none.
Why we love it: You get the best of both worlds when you plant the Little Lime cultivar—green blooms in spring change to pink in midsummer.
Clive Nichols, Timber Press
Red hot poker
(Kniphofia, Zones 6-9)
Sure, the signature color is red, but the green blooms are worth checking out, too. Percy’s Pride is a cultivar whose green-tinted blooms open to cream. It grows up to 3 feet tall in late summer and early autumn. Other good choices are Green Jade (up to 3 feet) and Lime Select (up to 3 feet), that slowly matures to a butter yellow.
Why we love it: The long, slender blooms make a big impact. They bring a distinctive shape to the garden and take naturally to borders.
Clive Nichols, Timber Press
Daylily
(Hemerocallis, Zones 3-10)
Never underestimate the power of a good daylily. There’s a whole society devoted to these plants, which come in every shade imaginable. For greens, you can go with a whitish hue like Lime Frost or venture to the dark side with Green Inferno.
Why we love it: You can (almost) never have enough daylilies. The blooms burst with color, and the foliage is fabulous long after the flowers fade.
Clive Nichols, Timber Press
Hellebore
(Helleborus, Zones 4-9)
Hellebore is a champ that tolerates a range of soils. This evergreen perennial is attractive in groups and has lovely, long-lasting flowers. For green blooms, check out Helleborus argutifolius and Helleborus cyclophyllus, which bloom in late winter and early spring. For a double bloom, try Helleborus x hybridus ‘Harvington Double Green’.
Why we love it: It’s one of your best bets if you’re looking for an early bloomer. Add it to your landscape this year, and expect vibrant color the next.
Burpee
Bells of Ireland
(Molucella laevis, annual)
With a name like that, you’d better believe there’s plenty of green to boast about. It has pale-lime leaves accenting gorgeous cup-like whorls that look like blooms. Inside are the fragrant—and, in this case, less showy—flowers. While it may not be readily available from garden centers as a plant, it’s easy to grow from seed.
Why we love it: An old heirloom favorite, it’s also a good choice for dried arrangements, looking perky for weeks.
Clive Nichols, Timber Press
Tulip
(Tulipa, Zones 3-8)
The Spring Green cultivar is a perfect addition to your spring bulb collection. Its feathered green-and-white flowers appear in late spring and can last for several weeks. Sturdy stems make it a good option for cutting. If it’s not available at your garden center, move your search online.
Why we love it: Any tulip that can last weeks gets a gold star in our book. Plus, the soft combination of green and white is heavenly in spring.
Perennialresource.com
Purple coneflower
(Echinacea purpurea, Zones 3-9)
The way purple coneflower cultivars are multiplying, we’re considering doing a Top 10 on them alone! The new green blooms available in this family will not disappoint. Look for Green Jewel and Jade; both grow up to 2 feet tall and provide abundant seeds for birds. Coconut Lime is a newer hybrid with a fuzzy center.
Why we love it: It has all the benefits of a traditional coneflower, but with a fun color.
Ball Horticulture
Petunia
(Petunia, annual)
Petunias are a staple in summer containers, and now you have even more options with varieties like Debonair Lime Green from Ball Horticulture. They shine in just about any setting or combination, so look for them at the garden center this spring.
Why we love it: Though the bloom color is more of a yellow with lime-green undertones, this is still a can’t-miss accent.