LIFESTYLE: RHS unveils list of plants to match Pantone’s Colour of the Year 2024

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has compiled a list of plants to correspond with Pantone Color Institute’s Colour of the Year 2024.

 ‘Peach Fuzz’ was the colour selected for the 25th year of the programme, which the Institute believes conjures an image and feeling of “our desire to nurture ourselves and others. It’s a velvety gentle peach tone whose all-embracing spirit enriches mind, body, and soul.”

For gardeners planning to use this signature colour there is no shortage of peachy tones and textures to be found in horticulture, whether in the delicate petals of spring favourites such as Narcissus ‘Waldorf Astoria’, or the late summer beauty of Dahlia ‘Labyrinth’, or even indoors on a flowering cactus.

‘Peach Fuzz’ was found to be a match for colour 26D in the RHS Colour Chart – the tool for documenting plant colour worldwide. Curators of the RHS Herbarium have matched Pantone Peach Fuzz to a list of plants which can be grown in a range of spaces, big and small. Gardeners can experience the warmth and joy of ‘Peach Fuzz’ simply by introducing a few of these top ten matches into their gardens and homes:

1. Chrysanthemum ‘Salmon Enbee Wedding’: a half-hardy perennial that grows to 1m in height, with divided foliage and sprays of single flowers whose rays are yellowish-pink tinged with light coral pink, and creamy-yellow on reverse.
2. Dahlia ‘Labyrinth’: a tuberous-rooted perennial with dark green foliage. Its large, flamboyant flowers, up to 20cm across, have peachy petals, gently curled and twisted to reveal the darker pink undersides, and are produced from mid-summer to the first frost.
3. Kniphofia ‘Toffee Nosed’: Ideal for sunny banks and borders these exotic looking hardy perennials have slender leaves and ivory flowers turning a light toffee brown at the tips. Flowers between June and September and grows up to 100cm.
4. Lilium rosthornii: a Chinese lily, with soft golden-orange blooms, which has only become available in recent years. Easily and readily grown in light- or part-shade in a humus-rich soil. 
5. Narcissus ‘Waldorf Astoria’: A double daffodil with large flowers in mid spring. These have three rows of broad, white petals, interspersed with shorter, pinky-orange corona segments. Enjoys full sun or partial shade in a moist but well-drained position.
6. Potentilla fruticosa ‘Daydawn’: A spreading, bushy deciduous shrub to 80cm tall, with small, pinnate leaves and saucer-shaped pale yellow flowers tinged yellow and pink, from early summer to early autumn
7. Rebutia ‘Apricot Ice’: a hybrid rebutia cactus, comprising barrel-shaped stems with soft, hair-like spines, and large, star-shaped orange blooms, which fade to apricot-pink. Easy to grow and makes a great beginner’s houseplant.
8. Rhododendron ‘Hanger’s Flame’: a dazzling and lightly scented variety of the much loved shrub, with orange flowers that feature a slightly more golden tint on the upper lobes. Flowers in May and June.
9. Rosa JOIE DE VIVRE (‘Korflociol’): A small shrub reaching about 60cm in height. It flowers repeatedly through the summer and autumn. The scented blooms are double and rosette in form with a peachy pink and cream colour. Needs a moist but well-drained position in full sun.
10. Verbascum ‘Tropic Sun’: A tall perennial – reaches up to 1.5m – developing from a rosette of large leaves. The flowers are yellow flushed with peachy-orange with a red eye.

For more information about the RHS herbarium and plants detailed above visit www.rhs.org.uk