Plants with gold and chartreuse leaves
Plants with gold, lime and chartreuse leaves, which light up shade and stay bright long after flowers have gone.
Gold and chartreuse leaves are the brightest thing in a shady bed. They catch what light there is and seem to glow, so one golden hosta or Japanese forest grass repeated down a dark border does more than any flower, and does it from spring to autumn.
Most gold leaves are brightest with some sun and scorch in hot afternoon sun; in deep shade many fade to lime green. Morning sun and afternoon shade suit most of them best. They are lovely with blue and purple flowers and with dark leaves, and they fight with strong pinks. More than half the plants here take shade.
Every plant here has gold, lime or chartreuse leaves, or comes in a form that does.
50 plants: 23 perennials, 2 ferns, 7 grasses and 18 shrubs.
The dozen to start with
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Coral bells
12 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
Grown mainly for its colourful foliage, which comes in shades from deep burgundy to lime and silver.
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Hosta
18 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
The classic shade plant, prized for its bold leaves in endless shades of green, blue and variegated patterns.
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Japanese forest grass 'Aureola'
16 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
Gold-striped blades cascade in one direction like flowing water.
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Mock orange
10 ft · late May to late June
A big, old-fashioned shrub covered in white, four-petalled flowers in early summer, with a scent like orange blossom that carries across the garden.
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Threadleaf false cypress 'Golden Mop'
3½ ft · grown for its leaves
A shaggy, weeping mound of golden-yellow, thread-like foliage that keeps its colour all year.
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Staghorn sumac 'Tiger Eyes'
6 ft · late June to mid July · host plant
Deeply cut, ferny leaves that open chartreuse, turn bright yellow on fuzzy, rose-pink stems, and end the year in orange and scarlet.
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Foamy bells
12 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
A cross between coral bells and foamflower, with the coloured leaves of one and the lobed shape and frothy spring flowers of the other.
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Autumn moor grass
16 in · mid August to early October · takes shade
A neat, long-lived tuft of yellow-green leaves with narrow, silvery-white flower spikes in late summer.
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Wallich's wood fern
3½ ft · grown for its leaves · takes shade
A tall shuttlecock of fronds that unfurl golden-green in spring, on stalks covered in shaggy, dark brown-black scales.
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Spiderwort 'Sweet Kate'
16 in · early June to late July · takes shade
Bright golden-yellow, grassy leaves with deep violet-blue flowers: one of the strongest colour contrasts in a single plant.
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Bowles' golden sedge
2½ ft · grown for its leaves · takes shade
A fountain of brilliant yellow leaves with thin green edges.
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Golden fullmoon maple
13 ft · grown for its leaves · takes shade · host plant
Round, pleated leaves like open fans, of clear yellow-gold all summer, turning orange and red in autumn.
A bed planned only from these plants
The planner was given only the plants on this page that suit zone 6 and part shade, and designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed from them when the page was made.
The plants
- 1 Bellflower 'Dickson's Gold' × 32, blue
- 2 Foamy bells 'Stoplight' × 8, chartreuse leaves
- 3 Wallich's wood fern × 2, chartreuse leaves
- 4 Autumn moor grass × 8, cream
- 5 Spiderwort 'Sweet Kate' × 8, blue
- 6 Bowles' golden sedge × 3, chartreuse leaves
- 7 Hosta × 3, green leaves
Planned as an English border: 11 of the 12 groups (92%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. Blue and cream make a cool, restful scheme. Heights step up from about 8 in at the front to 2½ ft at the back. The Design check says the share of foliage and the flowering season needs revision.
The planner's own design check: 10 Excellent, 3 Good, 2 Needs revision. Its weakest point is foliage: Four kinds, among them foamy bells 'Stoplight' and wallich's wood fern, are grown for their leaves, and cover 42% of the planted ground. The Foliage control above the plan asks for about 10%.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
All 50 plants
Show all 50, by where they go in a bed
Front of a bed 23
- Autumn moor grass 16 in · mid August to early October · takes shade
- Bellflower 'Dickson's Gold' 5 in · early June to mid July · takes shade
- Bowles' golden grass 18 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Coral bells 12 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Coral bells 'Caramel' 12 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Coral bells 'Citronelle' 12 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Coral bells 'Lime Rickey' 8 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Cranesbill 'Ann Folkard' 18 in · early June to mid September
- Creeping juniper 'Mother Lode' 4 in · grown for its leaves
- Eared lady fern 20 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Foamy bells 12 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Foamy bells 'Stoplight' 8 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Golden oregano 12 in · grown for its leaves
- Heather 16 in · late July to mid September
- Hosta 18 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Hosta 'Curly Fries' 6 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Hosta 'Stained Glass' 16 in · early August to late August · takes shade
- Japanese forest grass 'All Gold' 14 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Japanese forest grass 'Aureola' 16 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Sedge 'Everillo' 14 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Sedum 'Angelina' 5 in · grown for its leaves
- Spiderwort 'Sweet Kate' 16 in · early June to late July · takes shade
- Sweet flag 'Ogon' 10 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
Middle of a bed 14
- Bleeding heart 'Gold Heart' 2½ ft · early May to early June · takes shade
- Bluebeard 3 ft · early August to mid September
- Bowles' golden sedge 2½ ft · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Deutzia 'Chardonnay Pearls' 2½ ft · early May to late May
- Feverfew 20 in · late June to mid August
- Hosta 'August Moon' 20 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Hosta 'Gold Standard' 22 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Hosta 'Great Expectations' 22 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Hosta 'Guacamole' 24 in · early August to late August · takes shade
- Hosta 'Paul's Glory' 24 in · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Hosta 'Sum and Substance' 3 ft · grown for its leaves · takes shade
- Juniper 'Old Gold' 3½ ft · grown for its leaves
- Mountain fleece 'Golden Arrow' 2½ ft · mid July to early October
- Yucca 'Golden Sword' 2½ ft · late June to mid July
Back of a bed 13
- Arborvitae 'Rheingold' 5 ft · grown for its leaves
- Box honeysuckle 'Baggesen's Gold' 4 ft · grown for its leaves
- Elderberry 'Lemony Lace' 5 ft · grown for its leaves
- False spirea 'Sem' 3½ ft · late June to late July
- Golden fullmoon maple 13 ft · grown for its leaves · takes shade · host plant
- Juniper 'Gold Cone' 6 ft · grown for its leaves
- Mock orange 10 ft · late May to late June
- Ninebark 'Dart's Gold' 5 ft · late May to late June
- Smokebush 'Golden Spirit' 8 ft · mid June to mid July
- Spirea 'Ogon' 4 ft · early April to late April
- Staghorn sumac 'Tiger Eyes' 6 ft · late June to mid July · host plant
- Threadleaf false cypress 'Golden Mop' 3½ ft · grown for its leaves
- Wallich's wood fern 3½ ft · grown for its leaves · takes shade