Peach fuzz is the 2024 color of the year, according to Pantone. Each year, Pantone picks a color as a snapshot in time, trying to connect with our emotions and deep-seated feelings. Peach fuzz is a hue not really pink and not quite orange. It captures our desires to nurture kindness, compassion, and connection, all while trying to reach a peaceful and more meaningful future.
There are gardeners across the United States, as well as in other countries, who use the color of the year as their basis for a yearly plant palette. Choosing to pick flower colors which are and which compliment the color of the year in their annual beds, containers, and decorations around the house. My mother-in-law has a habit of changing her annual container each year to match a certain color. Sometimes she uses the color of the year, sometimes its something she likes from a magazine.
Colors from the color of the year program may be difficult to match, because plant palettes are more subdued than the bright hues of paints and computer generated colors. But you can capture the essence with similar shades and complimentary colors. Use shades such as buttery yellow, pastel green, bright orange, soft pink, light blue-gray, and cinnamon.
Annual Flower Power in Peach Fuzz
Before I get into too many complementary colors, I should go over the plants which are similar in color to peach fuzz. Annual colors are mainly going to be in the flowers which are blooming, from May to October. These flowers will fill into containers, beds, windowboxes, and more.
What I like to do when putting together plants for my client’s annual flower program, is to pick the main focus flower, and place complementary plants around it. I do this at the nursery, in the greenhouses, long before planting them. This is so I can get the color palette right before planting. You should do this too, instead of just picking random flowers and trying to figure out how they go together when you get home.
There may be more variety in annual flowers with the color peach fuzz, than in perennials and shrubs. With new breeding programs, there is a plethora of flower colors to choose from. As always, my recommendations are for the Central Great Plains Region. However, you are free to use my ideas anywhere you are in the world.
Annual Flowers in Peach Fuzz
This color is very similar to what I would describe as cantaloupe, the Jenny Lind variety, which is a creamy, orange-peach color. Start with that, and build the rest of your beds and containers around it.
Thrillers
- Strawflower ‘King Size Salmon’
- Snapdragon ‘Potomac Orange’
- Zinnia ‘Benary’s Giants Salmon Rose’
- Zinnia ‘Queeny Orange Lime’
- Salvia ‘Peach Pink’
- Zinnia ‘Zinderella Peach’
- Coleus ColorBlaze ‘Sedona Sunset’
- Calla Lily ‘Be My Main Squeeze’
- Coleus ‘Alabama Sunset’
Fillers
- Calendula ‘Cantaloupe Mix’
- Calendula ‘Pacific Apricot Beauty’
- Carnation ‘Chabaud Giants La France’
- Nasturtium ‘Tip Top Apricot’
- Sweet Scabious ‘Fata Morgana’
- Agastache ‘Summer Breeze’
- Geranium ‘Grossersorten’
- Bidens ‘Campfire Flame’
Spillers
- Black-eyed Susan Vine ‘African Sunset’
- Purslane ‘Mojave Sunset’
- Lantana ‘Luscious Marmalade’
- Supertunia ‘Persimmon’
- Superbells ‘Coral Sun’
Complementary Plants for Peach Fuzz Annuals
The above lists of plants are just a sampling of what may be out there. If you check out your local garden center or nursery, they may have more things in the color of the year. Choosing these plants can give you an edge up on your neighbors, who may be doing the same old color mix from last year. Put some bling in your spring with the color of the year!
For such a color as peach fuzz, I would recommend using colors of annuals in your containers and bed that both complement and highlight. For example, use dark leafed plants and complementary soft colors to enhance the overall appearance of the creation. One such example I can think of is a tan container with King Size Salmon Strawflower as the thriller, Coleus Newly Noir as the filler, and Lantana Luscious Marmalade as the spiller. But this is just my example. Do your thing in your garden.
Thrillers
By using peach fuzz flowers as the filler instead of the thriller, you can gain a lot of height and bring more focus to your containers or garden beds. I like to use grasses as the thriller in both beds and containers for many of my clients.
- Purple fountain grass ‘Vertigo’
- Millet ‘Purple Baron’
- Purple fountain grass ‘Rubrum’ (the flower heads of this grass are similar in color to peach fuzz)
- Purple fountain grass ‘First Knight’
- Salvia ‘Rockin Blue Suede Shoes’
- Salvia ‘Golden Delicious’
- Calla Lily ‘Be My Darling’
Fillers
- Wormwood ‘Silver Bullet’
- Superbells ‘Double Amber’
- Superbells ‘Double Chiffon’
- Sedge ‘Toffee Twist’
- Dahlia ‘Mystic Illusion’
- Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’
- Shamrock ‘Charmed Wine’
- Sea Cabbage ‘Angel Wings’
- Persian Shield
Spillers
- Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’
- Ipomoea ‘Sweetheart Red’
- Ipomoea ‘Black Coffee’
- Lantana ‘Luscious Golden Gate’
- Supertunia ‘Mini Vista Midnight’
- Supertunia ‘Latte’
- Purple Spiderwort
Perennial (and Shrub) Peach Fuzz Power
Sometimes, I wish that I had the ability to transform a broader landscape with perennials and shrubs each season. The only place I could really do that would be at a botanical garden. But I live too far from any of those. And I do not want to move close to a large city. I love the country life! If I did work at a botanical garden, I would plan to put in perennial and shrub beds each season that utilized the color of the year, to better promote a plant palette of diversity.
Roses are probably the best shrubs for using the color peach fuzz, but there are wide variety of perennials too, with flowers or leaves in that color tone. Revolving or permanent beds can include grasses or shrubs as the thriller, perennials or annuals as the filler, and perennials, groundcovers, or annuals as the spiller.
Shrubs & Roses
Like I said before, roses highlight the best category for shrubs, being mostly reblooming, and having a wide variety of colors available. But there are a variety of other shrubs with good landscape value for the Central Great Plains which have either flowers or leaf color in peach fuzz. You can put in whole groupings of either, but I would rather you choose no more than 5 to 7 plants per mass. Because of disease and insect concerns in the landscape, mass plantings need to be limited on number to avoid a mass loss due to an unforeseen pest.
Roses
- Drift Series – Apricot, Coral, Peach
- Knockout Series – Coral, Orange Glow
- First Editions – Above and Beyond Climbing
- Easy Elegance Series – Coral Cove, Sweet Fragrance
- Oso Easy PW Series – Mango Salsa, Paprika, Italian Ice, Sunorita
- At Last shrub rose
- Flavorette Honey Apricot
Shrubs
- Spirea ‘Magic Carpet’
- Diervilla ‘Kodiak Fresh’ & ‘Kodiak Orange’
- Dogwood ‘Prairie Fire’
- Ninebark ‘Amber Jubilee’
- Ashleaf Spirea ‘Cherry on Top’
Perennials
With perennials, you must utilize them in a way that provides continuous color. As most perennials have a shortened bloom period, it is important to stagger them in the landscape to provide season long color. By planting perennials singly, as in a foundation planting, you limit the ability to have long periods of continuous color, unless you plan to have long or large sweeps of annual beds on the perimeters. I prefer to make my perennial beds at least 6 to 8 feet deep or more. By doing so, I can create a long appearance of blooms by having plants that bloom successively in each season.
- Agastache ‘Apache Sunset’, ‘Kudos Gold’, & ‘Meant To Bee Queen Nectarine’
- Mum ‘Campfire Glow’ & ‘Peaches and Cream’
- Maltese Cross ‘Dawn Sky’
- Yarrow ‘Desert Eve Terracotta’ & ‘Firefly Peach Sky’
- Coneflower ‘One in a Melon’, ‘Supreme Cantaloupe’, & ‘Fresco Apricot’
- Heucherella ‘Buttered Rum’
- Daylily ‘Apricot Sprinkles’ (there are hundred of varieties of daylilies with peach fuzz coloring)
- Red Hot Poker ‘Hot & Cold’
- Coral bells ‘Peachberry Ice’ & ‘Georgia Peach’
Complementary Plants for Shrubs and Perennials
Again, just as with annuals, I like to mix dark leafed grasses and shrubs among other plantings, to highlight the lighter shaded plants. This works well for a lot of reasons. But the main thing is to have contrasting colors. Contrast is actually complementary.
Grasses
- Big Bluestem ‘Blackhawks’ & ‘Red October’
- Blue Grama ‘Blonde Ambition’
- Feather Reed Grass ‘Karl Foerster’
- Miscanthus ‘Morning Light’ & ‘Bandwidth’
- Switchgrass ‘Hot Rod’, ‘Heavy Metal’, ‘Northwind’, ‘Ruby Ribbons’, & ‘Niagara Falls’
- Little Bluestem ‘Prairie Blues’, Twilight Zone’, & ‘Blue Paradise’
- Fountain Grass ‘Lemon Squeeze’
Shrubs
- Smokebush ‘The Velvet Fog’ and ‘Winecraft Black’
- Elderberry ‘Black Lace’
- Weigela ‘Midnight Sun’, ‘Wine & Spirits’, & ‘Tuxedo’
- Diervilla ‘Kodiak Black’
- Ninebark ‘Ginger Wine, ‘Little Devil’, ‘Coppertina’, & ‘Summer Wine’
- False Cypress ‘Haywire’ & ‘Cedar Rapids’
- Bluebeard ‘Beyond Pink’d’
- Beautyberry ‘Pearl Glam’
- Butterfly Bush ‘Pugster Blue’
- Hydrangea ‘Invincibelle Mini Mauvette’
- Arborvitae ‘North Pole’, ‘Fluffy’, & ‘Anna’s Magic Ball’
Conclusion
Using Pantone’s color of the year, peach fuzz, can be a an enjoyable way to spice up your gardening year. Plan to use varying shades of this color in your annual beds and containers, as well as adding it to the landscape.
Happy planting!
