Creative Landscaping With Yellow Plants

One of the three "primary" colours, yellow is the most visible of them all and it always gets noticed – a fact of which advertisers are well aware. In your landscape design you may not want to put yellow flowers beside that ugly old garden shed that you want to fade into the background, but you might like to use yellow to highlight a sculpture, or to focus on an attractive water feature or a patch of pleasing foliage that would otherwise be ignored.

Many yellow-flowered plants will bloom in part shade, where they really stand out, like street lamps glowing on a dark night. Some examples are yellow foxglove, clivia and corydalis. Tiny yellow primroses are great in a dark corner and the leaves of the variegated hosta can complement them beautifully.

Especially in spring, when we are moving away from the dull greys and blacks of winter, a vase of yellow flowers is a sure way to enliven a dull room. Some yellow-flowering spring plants for picking include forsythia and daffodils (of course). In summer there are many more: roses, lilies, dahlias, gladioli and yellow asters.

You can plant soft yellow Anizoganthus (kangaroo paws, a native of Australia) to accent the subtle foliage tones of a mixed perennial border when other summer-flowering plants are dying down. This evergreen plant grows in heathlands and sandy plains in its native country, so it is guaranteed easy care, loving hot places. It grows up to 3 feet tall by 1 foot wide and prefers full sun and a well drained soil. It may need protection in winter.

Yellow Hemerocallis (day lily) is another good choice for the perennial border. Day lilies are not fussy about soil type, establish readily in most situations and need little care other than some initial watering. While enjoying hot summers, they tolerate cold winters just as well, disappearing underground until conditions are suitable for their light-green spring leaves to pop through the ground and the vigorous growth to resume. Day lilies grow up to four feet high and produce numerous flowers over a long period. They are not suitable for flower arrangements because, true to their name, each bloom lasts only a day.


Beware of overdoing yellow. Bright yellow walls in a room have been shown to make people angry, so take care. Balance the accent color with plenty of green foliage. You can fade bright yellow daffodils into beds of cream-coloured jonquils, or intersperse yellow roses with cream or white roses; "Pascali", "Margaret Merrill", "Peace" and the brilliant white "Iceberg" are some older varieties that look stunning accompanying a yellow accent bush.

And yellow's complementary color (in terms of the artist's "color wheel") is purple, which is why purple pansies or violas, or dark purple grasses look so dramatic teamed with a yellow accent plant.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About the Author: Article by Steve Boulden. Steve is the creator of Landscaping Videos.com which offers free landscaping advice, landscaping pictures, and videos. Get even more free landscape and garden design ideas at www.landscapingvideos.com.