Orange seems to be a colour many gardeners shun in favour of the easier to control pinks and blues of a traditional English garden. But orange is a wonderful colour, especially in spring. It can be woven among golds, or used as a clash with purple or blue, or blended into sunny red and gold, or it can just add a golden glint.

The two plants in the picture positively glow together and, although taken on a Chelsea display last year, this combination could thrive next to each other in rich soil and good light. The deciduous Japanese Hakone grass is very graceful and the form in the picture is Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’. This is a completely golden form. However, gardeners usually grow the more-available variegated forms like the green and gold ‘Aureola’ and the cooler, creamier striped ‘Alboaurea’.

Stylish garden designers like Tom Stuart Smith favour the plain-green species H. macra and this has been used in many award-winning Chelsea gardens in recent years. ‘Nicholas’ is a taller form that reddens up in autumn, although not as graceful. The pictured variety, ‘All Gold’, is just beginning to become available.

It is saved from being over-brash by a hint of red found at the tips of the leaves. This colour spreads as cool autumn weather cuts in. ‘Stripe it Rich’, a sport of ‘All Gold’, has white-striped leaves and is more suited to dappled shade.

The touch of orange in this picture is provided by a heuchera called ‘Tiramisu’ and I’m growing several new ones in the ground this winter. They are still looking great and seem to have relished the hard weather. ‘Tiramisu’ has red-veined, golden-yellow foliage that deepens to orange in summer – given good light.

I intend to plant an orange grass-like plant called Libertia peregrinans ‘Gold Leaf’ close by. This New Zealander, which is found naturally on sandy soil, also seems to be untroubled by the cold weather. The drier and hotter the conditions are in summer the brighter the spiky leaves become.

The real touches of orange will arrive at the end of April when the nodding flowers of Geum ‘ Prinses Juliana’ start to appear. This should flower at the same time as the dark tulip ‘Queen of Night’. Together they should look decadently rich – and both can be used in shade and still perform.

Geums are not grown enough in gardens, probably because they need regular division every third year or so to prevent them losing vigour. The earlier flowering geums tend to be moisture loving plants with nodding subtle pink, lemon or apricot flowers.

‘Bellbank’ is a coppery-pink with cream overtones. ‘Beech House Apricot’ is a warm egg-yolk colour and ‘Lionel Cox’ is a pale-primrose. All are good in shade.

‘Prinses Juliana’ (bred in 1923 – presumably in Holland) has the same gently nodding flowers but in a strong orange. She must gave some hybrid blood from the brighter sun-loving geums.