Yellow flowers make the garden feel more intimate

Yellow is the happiest colour in the garden and the easiest to use because it works with every other colour. Colour experts say yellow is the colour of confident, happy, lively people.

This colour lightens the mood and signals energy. In the garden, just as blue flowers create an impression of distance, yellow flowers bring everything closer and makes the garden feel more intimate.

Using yellow

There are two basic shades of yellow; cool lemon and warm golden yellow. Being aware of the difference, helps you to combine yellow effectively with other colours. Cool lemon yellow combines well with cool pinks, blue and mauve, while warm, golden yellow is a vibrant companion for bright red and orange.

Like white, pale yellow flowers lighten a bed and can act as a buffer between more vibrant colours. Yellow and white is a clean, bright summer combination, enhanced by adding blue.

For a dreamy, romantic effect use cool yellow with a soft mauve, such as yellow daisies bordered by the tiny daisy-like brachyscome fresco purple or with a backdrop of mauve irises.

Yellow shrubs like duranta or melaleuca Johannesburg gold, as well as yellow groundcovers, like lysimachia (creeping Jenny) or the ornamental grass, carex evergold, provide constant colour across the seasons.

Yellow trio

Bidens is one of those old-fashioned flowers that is making a comeback, because it thrives in warm climates and copes with hot afternoon sun. It is drought hardy, needing only deep, occasional watering.

Being closely related to coreopsis, it has the same sunny nature, and is a good border or edging plant because of its controlled spread.

Bidens golden empire is a new generation variety with extra-large golden flowers and an upright growth. It fills small pots easily and is excellent for small gardens, because the neat plants are covered in flowers from spring through to autumn. It thrives in the heat of summer.

Bidens golden empire. Pictures: Supplied

For lovers of daisies argyranthemum Madeira yellow is like the classic lemon yellow daisy but remains more compact and doesn’t fall open like the older varieties. It grows 40 to 60cm high and wide. It attracts pollinators.

Madeira yellow needs plenty of sun but is happy with some light, afternoon shade. Plant in well-prepared, fertile soil that drains well and do not over water. Trimming off dead flowers stimulates more and plants can be kept neat by cutting back by a third in spring. Trimming also encourages new growth.

Bracteantha, or straw flower as its commonly known, is one of those garden Cinderellas that fall into the background as other, newer varieties steal the limelight. But it is worth another look, being easy to grow, heat tolerant and producing a mass of brilliantly coloured flowers that include a beautiful lemon yellow.

Bracteantha mohave has large flowers and deep green leaves. Plants look good paired with ornamental grasses and other spiky, upright growing plants. They need moist, not wet soil and do best in full sun. They get leggy with too much shade. Fertilise once a month. The flowers are pickable for fresh or dried arrangements.

For dried flowers, cut the strawflowers just as they begin to open. Hang bunches with heads down in a dry, shaded area for a few weeks.

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