Mellow Yellow

Except for daffodils in the spring - the yellow part of the colour spectrum doesn't get much of a look in in my garden, there is something just a little too glaring about it, it doesn't seem to blend well with other plants.  Then, thinking about it a little more, and wandering around with the camera, I noticed that in the front garden I have quite a few yellow plants.  Writing this blog has made me really look at what plants I have, everyday I notice something different - see the garden with different eyes. 

The picture above is Hypericum calycinum or Aaron's Beard, Rose of Sharon.  In the 70's you could find this plant in most gardens - plants go in and out of fashion.  You don't see it around much these days.  It is an evergreen or semi-evergreen dwarf shrub that makes good ground cover and has large, bright yellow flowers from mid-summer to mid-autumn and dark green leaves.  Mine has grown to about three feet and is covered in flowers at the moment.  I get the shears to it after flowering to help keep it within bounds and off it goes again.  No trouble at all.

Planted next to it by pure chance, rather than design is Lysimachia punctata or Garden Loosestrife.  This is a clump-forming perennial that in summer produces spikes of bright yellow flowers above mid-green leaves.  This is also a trouble-free plant that has a long flowering period and grows to about two feet.

Elsewhere in the garden I have Anthemis tinctoria (E.C. Buxton) which is just in bud, this is a clump-forming perennial with a mass of daisy-like, lemon yellow flower heads borne singly on slim stems.  If you cut back hard after flowering you will promote a good rosette of crinkled leaves for winter.

So, as to my first statement, that I don't go for much yellow in the garden - I have proved myself wrong.  It was just that I hadn't noticed them.