Yellow Plants - Just Try to Say No!

You know that old saying "Never say never"? It's true. I have said far too many times (even on this site) that I don't allow yellow in my garden. Oh - there are exceptions here and there. I love yellow trumpet daffodils. It's not so much their color that attracts me - in fact most of my daffs are white - it's the symbol of promise that it represents.

But when daffodil days were done, yellow was excluded from my palette of plants.

Except for hakonechloa - the Japanese grass that grows so beautifully, with all the blades arching forward in layers that resemble waves crashing on a beach. Once again I forgave it for being yellow because I loved the form so much. (And later I found that it also comes in a green and white variegated form that I would probably have been much happier with. Variegated green and white always look cool and refreshing to me. Yellow - let's face it- is HOT.

Those were the only exceptions to my ban on yellow. Or the only ones I would admit to myself. Helichrysum petiolares 'Limelight' didn't count - it was chartreuse - right? And somehow a very soft, almost ivory-yellow double daylily ended up in my pink and silver border - but it was pale enough that I decided that it didn't count either.

And then there were the hostas. I tend to buy the blues because the leaves have that waxy substance that makes chewing on the leaves too big an effort for the slugs. But all blue was boring and so I bought a couple of 'Frances Williams' - blue and greenish gold. At least that's how I described it to myself.

I became downright fond of chartreuse. The helichrysum really lit up a border of pale pink roses. It practically shimmered. And it was an absolute savior in an area where I overdid it a bit with the purple foliage. That looked perfect as a funeral home planting until I threw in a couple of greenish gold hostas and ferns.

In other words, a greenish form of yellow began to seem quite acceptable. Even useful.

Which is why I didn't even hesitate when I saw my first Coreopsis 'Moonbeam'. My husband, who shares my dislike of yellow agrees with me that the color of butter when it is cold is acceptable - once again you can lie to yourself and call it ivory or cream. I loved the delicacy of what is really a tough little plant. And when I planted it with Veronica 'Goodness Grows' with its blue spikes, and Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus' in purple - the garden lit right up. It also looked spectacular amidst an Ipomeoa batatas 'Blackie' - one so ethereal contrasting with the large black-purple leaves of the other was like high drama in the beds.

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