A green thumbs up to the green flowers
You'd think there's enough green in a garden, considering most have at least a patch of lawn. Shrubs, trees, and other plants all have green leaves. There must be a thousand shades, but how about green flowers?
I've grown many green flowers over the years — annuals and perennials. And like leaves, there are many shades. Impressive, is hydrangea 'limelight,' with my shrub now larger and taller than me. When it first blooms, the large, cone-shaped, green tinted white flowers glow in the dark.
I once grew an echinacea called green twister. It was an interesting plant that had green streaks on the petals. It wasn't as robust as other varieties and it succumbed to aster yellows, a disease spread by leaf hoppers, which can happen to any echinacea. When diseased, the flower produces a ring of small, distorted flowers that are completely green. After a couple of years, we parted company, unlike the old hellebore that's been with me for decades.
The downward pointing flowers that appear as soon as the snow has left in spring are a soft green. If they could raise their heads, they'd be more impressive as they tend to get lost among the foliage.
Also a pale green, if slightly yellowish, is lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis). The flowers are tiny, formed in clusters. This plant comes with a warning — it's not on an invasive species list here, but it can be aggressive. I have it beside the pond and keep a close eye on it because it self-seeds freely. I do like it, even though I'm tempted to remove it before it becomes someone else's problem when I exit my garden, as we all must at some point.
A lovely green plant that won't be troublesome because the bulbs (corms) must be dug and stored over winter is a gladiolus called 'Green Star'. This green variety, and there are others, has typical glad flowers, except they're frilly. There are a few zinnias in shades of green, still on the lighter side, more chartreuse, I'd say. 'Envy' is a variety that can be easily grown from seed. Fill a flower bed with it and it will have an impact.
One of the greener flowers I've grown from seed and enjoyed is a little more unusual and certainly green — green enough to be called Bells of Ireland, except it's hardly emerald green. It holds its colour well and is floriferous, each bellshaped flower clinging tightly to a spikelike main stem. Give it its own space and this one does stand out.
The reference to Ireland is only because the flowers are green. The botanical name is Moluccella laevis and it's native to Turkey, Syria and the Caucasus, so no chance of it blooming here for Saint Patrick's Day. It's a knee-high annual and it hasn't 't self-seeded or been a problem in my garden. It does best in full sun, but prefers cooler temperatures and lower humidity, so it will grow best when summers aren't too hot and sticky.
Other plants with green or greenish flowers are chrysanthemums, a dianthus called 'Green Ball' and a tulip called 'Green Power.' There are many more plants with flowers in varying degrees of greenness, but the Bells of Ireland is a winner for me. A note of caution here: in catalogs and especially online, colors are sometimes enhanced, and if seen in a floral wedding bouquet, they could be dyed.
One plant that does have true green flowers, at least at the edible stage, is broccoli — but I doubt it will have the neighbors green with envy.