Usher in a golden era
AS AUTUMN APPROACHES IT’S TIME TO MELLOW YOUR PLOT INTO YELLOWS
SEPTEMBER is a golden month. Warm yellows predominate in the flowering garden, reflecting and basking in the late summer sunbeams.
Last week we enjoyed some balmy Indian summer weather and the garden is happily absorbing this extra dose of sunlight.
Golden oats of Stipa gigantea, blonde tufts of Stipa tenuissima and other late flowering grasses contribute to the hazy harvest ambiance.
So if your garden is looking a bit flat, here are my top golden plants to illuminate your borders and get those mellow yellow vibes going.
Rudbeckia Goldsturm – this is a really easy one, coneflowers are undemanding plants that will keep producing their bright daisy flowers without any assistance from you.
Native to North America, they are commonly used in prairiestyle planting schemes and combine well with other late-flowering perennials such as Verbena bonariensis and late-flowering grasses.
They can tolerate a bit of shade quite well so long as you don’t let them dry out. Easy to raise from seed in spring and great for wildlife too.
Heliopsis is called the false sunflower and has pale sunflowertype flowers on tall dark red stems, three to four feet in height so great for dancing brightly at the back of the border. Grow in full sun in welldrained soil. A perennial which can be grown from seed early next spring and will generally flower in the first year.
Kniphofia Bees Lemon is a red hot poker but with delicious lemony yellow flowers. Also known as torch lilies, they act like beacons or flares in the border with their emphatic upright flowers. Surprisingly easy to grow, ideal conditions are a moist but freedraining soil – while they can tolerate some drought they prefer moisture in summer but in winter wet soil can rot them. Coreopsis tinctoria, also known as tickseed, is a fast-growing hardy annual that will reach around two feet high with lots of daisy-like brilliant yellow flowers with a red centre. Grow from seed next spring. Beautiful in a meadow style or naturalistic garden. Ligularia ‘The Rocket’ loves moist, boggy soil and a bit of shade. The leaves are large and jagged, and shooting from the base come these dramatic spikes of yellow daisies contrasted against the black stems. To create artificial boggy conditions, you can dig out an area and line with plastic, punching a few holes to allow for minimal drainage.
Helenium ‘The Bishop’ is a rich yellow ‘prairie’ perennial and is invaluable at this time of year for colour and gaiety. A plant with straightforward requirements – it likes to be in a bright and sunny position in good well-enriched soil that doesn’t dry out.
‘Rauchtopas’ is another beauty with bright yellow petals that curve upwards to show a glimpse of orange beneath.
Dahlias do a great job at this time of year, bringing joy and colour.
Single blooms are preferable for pollinators and dwarf bedding dahlias are compact choices for front of borders or containers, such as ‘Yellow Hammer’ producing single yellow flowers and contrasting bronze foliage.