It often happens that when a certain color combination appears in your garden, it is simultaneously found on a number of different plants. For me, at this time of the year, it’s orange and yellow. The flowers of eight species and the succulent growth of another display this sunny combination to ogle during May, if not beyond.

Let’s start with a lantana variety whose flowers are dappled with orange and golden yellow. Where would we be without lantana? It is the most reliable ground cover when it comes to constant color and a minimal water requirement. My parkway consists of it entirely, and it is never, ever watered. Here, a note about plants that completely cover the ground is in order. Once you have created a vegetative carpet over the earth, even plants that are classified as water-needy may demand little, if any, irrigation. Watering of potato plants, for example, is recommended every three to four days due to their shallow roots. However, the foliage of my plants is close enough that the mulched ground is always in the shade and so, except in very hot weather, a single weekly soaking is sufficient.

Peruvian lily (Alstroemeria species) is another example of a plant that, when allowed to spread over the ground, is transformed from a rather water-needy selection when it stands alone in a corner of your flower bed to an occasionally watered vegetative juggernaut. Among my carpet of Peruvian lilies stands a clump of the Third Harmonic variety. Ostensibly orange, its middle petals with black markings are invariably yellow. Peruvian lilies create a living mulch that minimizes evaporation of moisture from the soil surface. And should you suffer a midsummer breakdown of your irrigation system, there is no need to worry; even if your Peruvian lilies die back down to the ground, their rejuvenation will come in the form of new skyrocketing shoots, ascending from their resilient rhizomes, when watering resumes. A bonus: As cut flowers, Peruvian lilies last up to two weeks in vase arrangements.

Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus), another ground cover, has flowers that are yellow or orange. Once you plant nasturtium, you’ll always have it, and some plants will always be in bloom. It yields an abundant crop of fat seeds that drop in place and sprout reliably. When plants get out of control, they are easily pulled up and spread as mulch, whereupon their leaves and semi-succulent stems rapidly decompose.

The California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), as it self-sows over the years, becomes a ground cover, too. Although flowers emerge orange, the top margin of their petals turns yellow over time. If your garden is without California poppies, you are missing one of the botanical world’s most precious delights. California poppy has the greatest international presence of our native plants. Its sunny, chalice-shaped blooms and delicately laced, blue-gray foliage are a match second to none. And here’s the thing: You don’t have to do anything to maintain or facilitate the spread of these flowers. In my case, they have spread from my front to my backyard without my personally transporting their seeds.

Moving on to roses, I am fortunate to have planted the orange and yellow Judy Garland two decades ago. She is a floribunda rose with matchless vigor and disease resistance. Large clusters of blooms are produced in spectacular fashion, especially now during her first wave of bloom. The first crop of roses on any reblooming type — from hybrid teas to floribundas — in any year is always the most abundant. In our part of the world, that crop may appear from late winter to late spring, depending on pruning practices and weather conditions.

Now we come to an Abutilon variety known as Fruit Salad. Its bell-shaped petals are a deep orange, while its clapper — a stalk that terminates in its reproductive organs — is yellow. I have had this plant for nearly three decades. Abutilons flourish in half-day sun but should be sparsely watered, and their downfall is unnecessary pampering. Foliage resembles miniature maple leaves, and so the plant has earned the appellation of flowering maple. Texturally, flower petals resemble the thin covering on a Chinese lantern, which is another of its common names. The scientific name, however, is derived from Arabic and points to its Middle Eastern, dry climate habitat that is akin to ours.

One of the most floriferous plants in my garden is the cigar or firecracker plant (Cipher ignea). Its small, cylindrical orange petals terminate in yellow. The cigar plant flowers so heavily that shoots have been known to bend under the weight of their blooms. Hummingbirds flock to it. It will flower profusely if soaked with a hose once a week. Leaves are dark green and diamond-shaped, and it prefers full sun exposure but will perform well enough in partial sun, too. Propagation is by shoot-tip cuttings and is easily accomplished in spring or fall. Mature height and girth are 3-4 feet.

A final orange and yellow flowered plant in my garden — flower calyces are yellow, while petals are orange — is Dyckia (DICK-ee-uh). This plant is so uncommon that it does not really have a common name, although it is sometimes referred to as “saw blade” due to the dangerous, razor-sharp teeth on its leaf margins. My particular plant has dark burgundy foliage, although other noteworthy varieties have silver leaf blades, and I do mean blades.

Not to be outshone by the orange and yellow flowers in its vicinity, my Sticks on Fire variety of Euphorbia tirucalli — with its glowing orange and yellow succulent stems instead of leaves — takes a central place in my front yard. This plant, I must admit, has been planted ad nauseam in our city and has become a blight in the eyes of some serious plant watchers. Reluctant to part with it nevertheless, I cut it back to within a few inches of the ground even now and then and it springs back up with irrepressible vigor.

If you have a plant with orange and yellow colors — or any other color combination, for that matter, that strikes your fancy — send its story to joshua@perfectplants.com. Your questions and comments as well as gardening conundrums and successes are always welcome.