Autumn is like a second spring, but with flowers and leaves in deeper, richer colours.
Bright yellow flowers form part of autumn’s primary colours. They are great for adding pops of colour to lighten or brighten parts of the garden. They catch your eye, and enhance other colours like purple, red and orange.
Make a splash
Don’t be shy to make a bold planting of vibrant golden yellow flowers like Coreopsis Uptick ‘Gold and Bronze’ (pictured). It has a far greater impact than spreading the plants thinly through the garden. Just be aware that yellow, especially warm yellows (with red undertones) are dominant colours and should be used sparingly. Less is more.
Coreopsis Uptick ‘Gold and Bronze’ is a stand-out bedding and border perennial that’s sun-loving and drought tolerant. Being easy growing, and not fussy about soil it is a good plant for beginner gardeners. Its flowers attract pollinators and its growth is neat, compact and tidy. Cut stems back after flowering to encourage a second flush. Its flowering season is from spring to autumn.
Opposites attract
Yellow and purple are complementary colours that always make a sparkling combination, like this bed of bright yellow Nemesia Nesia™ Inca (yellow) and Denim (blue). This indigenous bedding plant flowers through to spring and does best in moist, well-drained soil, and in a position that receives full sun in winter but semi shade in summer. The compact plants grow 30cm high and wide and can also be used to create a soft, flowery border for daffodils, fairy primulas and roses or with other indigenous spring flowers like diascia and osteospermum.
Threads of gold
Imagine how dull this bed of Marguerite daisies (argyranthemum) would be without this thread of yellow daisies? These glowing yellow daisies are Madeira ‘Sweets’, soft yellow blooms tinged with pink, and Lollies ‘Buttermint’ with soft lemon yellow flowers.
Both varieties are compact and rounded, ideal for patio pots as well as in the garden. They flower best with plenty of sun, regular watering and a pick-me-up of fertiliser once a month. Regular dead heading will encourage the plant to keep on flowering. Trim back leggy growth and shape the plant to keep compact and bushy.
Vividly vertical
Even in the smallest of garden spaces, yellow flowers impart a feeling of joie de vivre. Sloping gardens or embankments can be unsightly or difficult to manage, but not with loffel stones. They are deep enough to support shallow rooted flowers, as evidenced by this tapestry of colour.
Try this: the stars of the show in this planting are Petchoa BeautiCal ‘Caramel Yellow’. BeautiCal’ s are part petunia and part calibrachoa with large weather resistant blooms in a range of colours and with a long flowering period. Plants are suitable for the patio and balcony, in containers and hanging baskets and in smaller garden beds. Not to mention loffel stones!
Yellow brick road
What a wonderful way to light up a pathway! The flowers of Osteospermum ‘ Blue Eyed Beauty’ shimmer in the light and are superbly showy in the garden. Together with indigenous blue flowered felicia (Kingfisher daisy) and winter flowering aloes, this is a dream combination for pollinators.
Osteo’s are sturdy, bushy plants (34cm high and 50cm wide) that grow more upright compared to the species that tends to sprawl and look untidy. They are drought tolerant, virtually maintenance free and infinitely adaptable; for massed bedding, as borders, in pots or in hanging baskets.
For more information www.ballstraathof.co.za
Article and images supplied by Alice Coetzee
