Green Flowers Make an Interesting Addition to the Garden

We tend to associate green in the garden with foliage, but there are flowers that supply that same color. They can be combined to great effect with dark-leaved plants, or those with variegated foliage. Here are some of our favorite options:

Hellebores with green flowers

The stinking hellebore puts up green flowers in early spring.

Among the hundreds of hellebores on the market, you'll be able to find some green-flowered options, such as 'Green Gambler' and Helleborus argutifolius 'Sliver Lace', with beautiful silver-flocked leaves and large creamy green flowers (USDA Zones 4–9). Or look for the species H. foetidus, called the stinking hellebore. It has light green blossoms and blue-green leaves (Zones 5–9). 'Snow Love' hellebore has outward-facing flowers that change from white to green with time.

Green zinnias

Some zinnias flower in solid green, while others show a mix of warm colors tinged with lime.

Try 'Green Envy' or 'Benary's Giant Lime' zinnia for lush green flowers. The Queen series of zinnia offers varieties splashed with green, including 'Queen Red Lime'. Zinnias are annuals typically grown in full sun, but some gardeners report better color from the green selections if they are kept in part shade.

Nicotiana with green flowers

Nicotiana 'Starmaker Deep Lime' blooms heavily but remains small and suited to a container.

Flowering tobaccos are ornamental plants in the Nicotiana genus. Nicotiana alata 'Lime Green' is a three-foot, bushy perennial in USDA Zones 8–10, grown as an annual elsewhere. It often self-sows. It blooms for a long time, with trumpet-shaped chartreuse flowers. The species Nicotiana langsdorffii has a similar size but its pale green flowers are more drooping. For a compact flowering tobacco, try N. a. 'Starmaker Deep Lime', which grows just a foot tall and bears outward-facing, two-inch flowers.

Related: See which nicotiana made our list of "Flowers That Look Like Fireworks"

Green coneflowers

Prima Lime is a coneflower with pale green rays surrounding a golden-green cone.

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea; Zones 4–9) can be found in a rainbow of colors, even green. The coneflower called 'Green Envy' has mostly light green petals; toward the center of the flower they turn pinkish red, and the central cone is dark green. There's also 'Primo Lime', which is solid in color, or the bicolor 'Sweet Sandia', which combines lime green and watermelon pink.

'Sweet Sandia' coneflower features bicolor green and pink rays.

Bells of Ireland

Bells of Ireland bloom with tall stalks of tiny white flowers framed by large green bracts.

The true flowers of Molucella laevis, a cottage-garden classic, are actually tiny and white, but they are surrounded by large green calyces that inspire its common name. This annual grows best in cool weather. Its seeds can be sown outdoors in early spring.

Green hydrangeas

Limelight Prime hydrangea shows off large green cone-shaped flowers on sturdy stems.

For a green-flowered shrub, there's the six- to eight-foot panicle hydrangea Hydrangea paniculata Limelight (Zones 3–8), which has soft lime green flowers in late summer. Limelight Prime is a newer version of this classic, with sturdier stems and more intense color. Several mophead cultivars of smooth hydrangea (H. arborescens; Zones 3–8) also bloom in green, including Lime Rickey, Invincibelle Limetta and Invincibelle Sublime.

Invincibelle Sublime is a smooth hydrangea with rounded flower heads made up of tiny green blossoms.

Photo credits: Stinking hellebore by F. D. Richards/CC BY-SA 2.0; Zinnia by Carmen Castells Schofield/CC BY 2.0; 'Starmaker Deep Lime' tobacco by Cultivar413/CC BY 2.0; 'Sweet Sandia' and 'Primo Lime' coneflowers courtesy of Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc.; Bells of Ireland, public domain; Hydrangea Limelight Prime and Invincibelle Sublime courtesy of Proven Winners .