A lot of people ask for flowers in pink, blue, purple and white but yellow is often over looked as many people struggle to place yellows within these soft cottage garden colour schemes. Sometimes just restricting your palate to these softer colours can end up with your garden looking quite bland and flat. However, if you choose the right subtle orange or yellow, this additional colour can lift the other plants and make them far more interesting to look at. Even clients who swear they are yellow haters have been converted by what follows!

One of my favourites for this purpose is Coreopsis verticilata ‘Moonshine’, which is very soft and delicate and is miles away from the brash sulphur yellows that people so often dislike. It’s an understated and subtle tone. It prefers a little more moisture that the grandiflora types of Coreopsis which are sun loving prairie plants. If your soil is very free-draining you would do well to improve it with humus-rich composted material and a spring mulch to help maintain good moisture levels in the summer.

Next on my list of plants that can elevate the everyday are Mullein or Verbascum. These are great food sources for all sorts of caterpillars and so will help to attract many beautiful and beneficial butterflies and moths to your garden. The native variant is a bright yellow which provokes people to chop it down on sight of the first flower spike. But this cultivar is an absolute ‘Beaut’. It’s called Verbascum ‘Cotswold Beauty’ and has glorious apricot and purple flowers with a bright spot of orange in the centre. It is a short-lived perennial but self-seeds around happily giving you lots of plants for your initial investment. The important thing to know about this plant, is that this one is a lovely tone that will go with so many other colours. if you have just pinks, purples and pastels it can look quite dry and boring, but if you pop one or two of these in it will bring the other colours forwards and make them appear more vivid and interesting while still keeping the look soft. This is not a plant that shrieks, it is delicate and soft and compliments the other forms and colours around it.

Other yellow and orange plants that can be used without over powering your display are Achillea 'Credo', Alchemilla venosa, Cephalaria gigantea, Verbascum 'Hardy's Gold' and Dianthus knappii .

Follow this link if you would like to check out more yellow plants that you may not have considered before. Hardys Plants filter by colour.

More soft and blendable apricot and peach toned plants are Achillea 'Terracotta', Dahlia 'Shandy', Digitalis 'Goldcrest' pbr, Epimedium x warleyense 'Orangekonigin' and Kniphofia 'Timothy'

Claire Mitchell is 'The Garden Editor', a well respected horticulturist based in Overton. She also has worked with us at the nursery on Tuesdays during the Summer. Claire has a background in sustainability and led the legal team of the UK Government on renewable energy and climate change . She is also a trustee of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture. To view her website click on the following link Sustainable Gardening | The Garden Editor | Overton