Golden lace
Patrinia scabiosifolia · Caprifoliaceae
Airy, branching heads of tiny, acid-yellow flowers on tall, bare stems, like a yellow version of tall verbena.
- Size
- 5 ft tall, 24 in wide
- Zones
- 5 to 8
- Light
- Full sun to part sun
- Flowers
- Late July to mid September
- Pets
- No toxicity recorded
- Job in a bed
- Weaver
A bed built around golden lace
The planner designed this bed around golden lace when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) cottage garden in zone 6, full sun. It chose the other plants from the 966 that suit those conditions, and says below why golden lace stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Golden lace × 3, yellow
- 2 Cottage pinks × 13, pink
- 3 Winter heath × 6, white
- 4 Gloriosa daisy 'Indian Summer' × 3, yellow
- 5 Silver sage × 1, silver leaves
- 6 False sunflower 'Summer Nights' × 3, yellow
- 7 Ornamental onion 'Purple Sensation' × 5, purple
- 8 Tulip × 10, red
Why this plant
- The only flat plates. The others are bells, daisies, globes and others. Shape reads at a distance, where colours blur.
Why here
- Anchors a back corner. At 5 ft it is the tallest plant here, and the tallest close the ends of the bed, where they stand in front of nothing.
- A step in the back row. Next to gloriosa daisy 'Indian Summer' (3 ft): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- 3 plants in one clump. A single spire is too slight to hold a place alone, so here the accent is a clump.
Why now
- In flower for 9 weeks. From late July to mid September.
- Part of the bed's peak. With gloriosa daisy 'Indian Summer' and false sunflower 'Summer Nights' in late July: 3 kinds at once. No week has more.
Planned as a cottage garden: 29 of the 29 plants (100%), bulbs aside, stand alone or in groups of no more than five, small enough for the kinds to mingle. The back corners are held by false sunflower 'Summer Nights' and golden lace, the tallest plants on the plan. The flowering year starts with winter heath in late January and ends with gloriosa daisy 'Indian Summer' in early October.
The planner's own design check: 11 Excellent, 5 Good, 1 Satisfactory. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where golden lace goes in a border
At 5 ft it belongs at the back of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is tall (4 to 5 ft). It is airy enough to see through, so it can also come forward and veil what is behind it.
Its job: weaver. A light, airy plant threaded singly between sturdier ones to knit the planting together.
A see-through plant for late summer that gives a haze of yellow among grasses and asters. The stems stay yellow as the flowers fade.
- A yellow haze for late summer
- Naturalistic planting with grasses
- Cutting
What to plant with golden lace
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Tall verbena: purple against yellow, opposite each other on the colour wheel, in flower together for nine weeks.
- Switchgrass 'Shenandoah': its green leaves are a setting for the flowers, before and after.
- New England aster: purple against yellow, opposite each other on the colour wheel, if you choose those colours, in flower together for three weeks.
Questions about golden lace
Does golden lace need sun or shade?
Golden lace grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day) and part sun (4 to 6 hours of sun, including some afternoon sun).
It wants ordinary well-drained soil, of average fertility, and a good soak in dry spells. Once settled in, it stands drought.
What zones does golden lace grow in?
USDA zones 5 to 8. It is hardy to zone 5, which means it survives winter nights down to about −10 °F (−23 °C).
Above zone 8 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does golden lace flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers late July to mid September. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 5 | Late July to mid September |
|---|---|
| Zone 6 | Late July to mid September |
| Zone 7 | Mid July to mid September |
| Zone 8 | Mid July to mid September |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should golden lace be planted?
20 in (50 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 24 in (60 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 5 ft (150 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many golden lace plants do I need?
At 20 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 4 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 7 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 14 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as one at a time, threaded between sturdier plants.
In the bed above, the planner used three in one group.
Is golden lace poisonous to dogs and cats?
No toxicity is recorded for dogs, cats, horses or people, according to NC State Extension.
"Not toxic" is not "edible": a pet that eats a lot of any plant can be sick.
Is there a native plant like golden lace?
Golden lace comes from Vietnam, Japan, Russia. These North American natives come closest to doing its job:
- Grey-headed coneflower: the same job in a bed and the same colour; 12 in shorter, 4 in narrower.
- Sweet coneflower 'Henry Eilers': the same flowering time and the same colour; a drift, not a weaver, 4 in wider.
- Blue sage: the same job in a bed; 12 in shorter, flowers late August to mid October.
Matched the way the planner's Swap button matches plants: the same job in a bed, then size, then flowering time.
Do deer eat golden lace?
Mostly not. NC State lists it as resistant to deer and rabbits. No plant is proof against a hungry deer in a hard winter, but this one is low on the menu.
Will golden lace spread?
It seeds itself about; the risk of it taking over is moderate. Self-seeds in open soil. Cut off the spent heads to limit seedlings.
What flowers after golden lace?
Golden lace is over by mid September. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Garden chrysanthemum: from mid September to late October, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Blue wood aster: from mid September to mid October, 3 ft tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Montauk daisy: from mid September to late October, 3 ft tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
What does golden lace look like in winter?
Golden lace dies down to the ground and there is nothing to see until spring. The old stems can be cut in autumn, or left until spring as shelter for overwintering insects.
Is golden lace good for bees and butterflies?
Golden lace is visited by pollinators, bees and butterflies.
In these guides
- Deer-resistant perennials for full sun
- Rabbit-resistant plants
- Drought-tolerant perennials for full sun
- Pet-safe plants for a sunny border
- Plants for butterflies
- Plants for bees
- Tall perennials and grasses for the back of a border
Every fact on record
- Type
- Perennial
- Size
- 5 ft (150 cm) tall, 24 in (60 cm) wide
- Plant
- 20 in (50 cm) apart
- Height class
- Tall (4 to 5 ft)
- Place in the bed
- Back, or further forward: it is airy enough to see through
- Flowers
- Late July to mid September; flat plates; yellow
- Leaves
- Medium texture, herbaceous; green
- Shape
- Upright, self-seeding
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 5 to 8
- Light
- Full sun, part sun
- Soil
- Average, well-drained
- Water
- Moderate
- Feeding
- None needed
- Family
- Caprifoliaceae
- Comes from
- Vietnam, Japan, Russia
- Attracts
- Pollinators, bees, butterflies
- Stands up to
- Deer, rabbits, drought, heat, humidity
Checked against NC State Extension. Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.