Get creative with yellow perennials

It’s a colour that brightens the border and draws the eye into the garden

Not all yellows are the same. Some are vivid and wonderful for combining with blue, purple and orange flowers, while mellower yellows look good with white and are useful for bringing different tones together.

Yellow is a colour that some gardeners shy away from, but it’s the colour that’s dominant among spring- and autumnflowering perennials.

Spring

Spring is a time to celebrate the end of winter with big yellow daffodils, cheerful little narcissus and native soft yellow primroses ( Primula vulgaris). Primroses are easy to grow but choose carefully when buying them as some seed-grown plants can produce big flowers that don’t resemble the wild primrose. Flowering almost as early as primroses, with bright yellow, daisy-shaped blooms, is doronicum (Austrian leopard’s bane). This lush plant thrives under the shade of trees.

For a sunny spot, the soft yellow flowers of dwarf bearded iris ‘Baby Blessed’ make a lovely display not only in mid-May, but later in summer when it blooms again. I grow this iris next to the frothy flowers of yellow geum ‘Lisanne’ and both plants are perfect for the front of a border.

Summer

As spring moves to the warmer days of summer, the soft yellow spires of

Digitalis lutea (yellow foxglove) rise to create a lovely upright accent in a shady spot. This delicately coloured foxglove continues to bloom well into late summer. Another upright plant I wouldn’t be without is Phlomis russeliana (Turkish sage). The rings of hooded, pale yellow flowers are carried up strong stems above a carpet of evergreen, soft green leaves.

Later in summer, the broad, flat flower heads of achillea ‘Credo’ and ‘Anthea’ offset the more powerful colours of phlox, as do the big, soft yellow flowers of echinacea ‘Aloha’. Echinacea can be a short-lived perennial, especially if grown in a heavy, moist soil, unlike hemerocallis (daylily), which thrives in any type of soil and has many yellow varieties. I grow hemerocallis in areas of the border where I need some bold colour, as the big, trumpetshaped flowers will provide contrast to surrounding wispy blooms. The yellowflowered forms of crocosmia can do the same, but in a more delicate way as the many flowers are borne in open sprays.

The perennial that has the brightest yellow flowers is oenothera (evening primrose). These are produced in such quantities it’s

more suitable for growing with other strongly coloured perennials, such as Lysimachia punctata.

Autumn

It’s hard to miss the big yellow heads of echinacea ‘Aloha’ in the summer garden

You get double the delight with iris ‘Baby Blessed’ as it flowers in spring and late summer

Doronicum is a cheerful sight in a shady spot

Perhaps the crown for the brightest yellow blooms goes to evening primrose

The bright yellow of Rudbeckia triloba combines well with purple in autumn

Upright spikes of Digitalis lutea with Geranium psilostemon