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slideshow: golden days as the garden slides by

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AS MUCH AS THE GARDEN STARTS UP WITH A GLEAM OF GOLD, it goes out with one, too. Yes, yellow is certainly spring’s favorite color–but it is likewise autumn’s. In words and photos, some thoughts about how gold works in the garden (hint: it’s not the least bit shy), and the plants who are offering up their biggest payoffs right now.

So many plants seem at their loudfest and most insistent now, don’t they?, positively shouting from all corners of the place. That’s a tender thing, Oxalis vulcanicola, up top, defiantly hanging on and getting more fiery each day as if it dares frost to just try to take it down.

Click on the first thumbnail to start the show, then toggle from slide to slide using the arrows beside each caption (or the arrows on your keyboard). Let this newest gallery be the matching bookend to the one about garden gold that I posted in spring. Enjoy.

male-frog-yellow-belly
My resident frogs have taught me many lessons — about patience and also metamorphosis, to name two. But male frogs in particular make a good reminder about the use of the color yellow or gold in the garden: It shouts, and advances visually, especially in a sea of browns and greens. It catches the eye.
aesculus-and-red-chairs-fall
One of several bottlebrush buckeyes, Aesculus parviflora, shouts to me now across the garden. The one in this photo is more than 30 feet past those chairs, but seems like it’s right beside them.
aesculus-parviflora-fall-color
A week earlier, two of the Aesculus started to color up, the distant one echoing the one in the foreground as if to say, “Come check me out as well.”
aralia-glade-fall
A glade of devil’s walking stick, or Aralia spinosa, flanks this woodland path in the garden. All around, native maples have gone yellow, too.
lindera-fall-color
One of the latest and brightest yellow things here each fall: the spicebush, or Lindera benzoin, planted on a direct axis from my kitchen window for the latest of fall shows. The Aesculus, Aralia and Lindera are all deciduous, and all native to the United States.
gold-bramble-in-fall
What is that mound of gold screaming across the yard, some 30 feet beyond the foreground clump of fading ‘All Gold’ Hakonechloa grass in this picture? It’s the so-called “ghost bramble,” a Rubus with white canes and yellow foliage (and an aggressive habit that thankfully my cold climate, pruners and shovel keep in check).
gold-leaf-ghost-bramble
In spring, the ghost bramble (Rubus cockburnianus) is even more vivid; in winter, all that remains are arching white canes.
metasequoia-gold-rush
Losing its leaves in winter but giving the appearance of an evergreen in milder months is the gold-leaf Metasquoia glyptostroboides ‘Gold Rush’. I planted three young ones up on the hill above the house a few years ago, to pull my eye into a wider view of things, out of the literal backyard.
young-gold-metasequoia
Again, they’re just young…but imagine what will happen as they shape up.
gold-rush-metasequoias-on-hill
Even now, the three youngsters are pretty eye-catching from a great distance (show last spring). Among many golden woody things that are fairly new to the nurseries, I think this deciduous conifer is a winner.
rhus-tiger-eye-in-fall
Another relatively recent introduction: Rhus ‘Tiger Eyes,’ a gold form of cutleaf staghorn sumac. Right now, its typical gold foliage is going fiery shades as it prepares to drop.
tiger-eye-cutleaf-sumac
From May through October, though, the irregularly shaped, very informal ‘Tiger Eyes’ can serve as a guidepost to pull the eye — or the visitor — across the garden. It’s nestled beside a group of lilacs, so the bed is colorful long after they are spent.
picea-orientalis-skylands
But what about gold of the year-round variety? I’m excited to finally have a young ‘Skylands’ spruce (Picea orientalis ‘Skylands’) shaping up on the hillside (detail of its gorgeous foliage above). An ice storm took my older specimen of this Christmas-tree shaped conifer, so I started over not long ago.
golden-prostrate-yew
On a more horizontal scale, the golden prostrate yew Taxus baccata ‘Repandens Aurea’ is with me year round, but the foliage fades to medium green in the coldest months. Drat.
crippsii-detail
The tall, loose, lacy Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Crippsii’ thankfully stays gold all year long, and is a lovely garden tree. I grow it in a protected spot so that winter winds and too much sun don’t burn it.
gold-moneywort-and-cold-foliage-of-crippsii-chamaecyparis
The ‘Crippsii’ has a carpet of perennial golden moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’) at its feet, one of the easiest golden groundcovers there is.
sedum-angelina
Another no-fuss, ambitious choice (read: grows nonstop) is Sedum ‘Angelina,’ which as the temperatures cool will get tinges of orange, too, but is basically gleaming year-round. I use it as a groundcover at the edges of beds, and in big pots, as shown.
hostas-and-gold-fruit
The color gold in the offseason can come from fruit, too, most notably Viburnum dilatatum ‘Michael Dodge,’ which is underplanted with hostas that go wildly yellow in fall, too, before fading.
fruit-of-viburnum-michael-dodge
Another view of Viburnum ‘Michael Dodge.’
yellow-twig-willow
Once the foliage drops, golden-twig willows like Salix ‘Chermesina’ (above), and yellow-stemmed shrub dogwoods like ‘Silver and Gold’ will play a bigger part in the garden picture.
heuchera-citronelle
Whether annuals or perennials, I use some of my favorite gold-leaf plants in big, low pots, where they’re still looking good. Heuchera ‘Citronelle,’ whichis basically evergreen here, is one truly great perennial; I overwinter my plants in the vegetable garden, then move them back to pots in spring and summer, but they’d be great in the garden, too.
hakonechloa-all-gold-in-bowl
Another perennial I use in both season pots and the ground, though it’s technically a hardy perennial here: Hakonechloa ‘All Gold.’
oxalis-vulcanicola
Even after various nights in the 30s, this tender Oxalis, O. vulcanicola, is (much to my amazement) is still going strong. That pot, containing two plants, is more than 2 feet across.
yucca-november
I couldn’t talk about gold without mentioning Yucca filamentosa ‘Color Guard,’ which sports its 24k stripes 365 days a year. Talk about a beacon.
Categoriesannuals & perennials conifers deciduous Nature slideshows trees & shrubs
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  1. Iris Garrott says:

    oh I do love your slideshows… and thanks so much for the photo and description of Rhus ‘Tiger Eyes… I noticed one in Chicago a couple of weeks ago and am glad have ID info about this glorious specimen…

    Reply
    1. Margaret says:

      Welcome, Iris. Of course all this gold will soon go into hiding — hidden treasure, I guess you could call it — as winter comes on, but for now, gorgeous. Nice to see you, and do come again soon.

      Reply
  3. Michelle B says:

    It makes me so happy that your garden exists, it’s just gorgeous.

    No gold hanging around in the southwest of France at the moment, since all the potimarrons , Charentais melons, and Golden Delicious apples have been harvested mid-September. However, in a month or so, a fuyu persimmon tree in my neighbor’s front garden will startle us suddenly by letting its golden globes peek out amidst the tree’s greenery going on to astound by framing gilded fruit with equally gilded leaves, then dropping all its leaves while giving permission for the fruit to hang on, burnished and gleaming on their own.

    Reply
  4. Miss Becky says:

    oh what a beautiful slide show. thank you so much. I marvel at your lovely spot, and how much time and work you’ve put into it all. what a pleasant place to call home.

    Reply
  6. terryk says:

    Oh, everything is beautiful. The garden must really be shinning. Each photo makes me say “I want that for my garden!”. It’s nice to see these shrubs and perennials at various times of the year. It really gives one an understanding of how they look throughout the various seasons. Thanks Margaret.

    Reply
    1. Margaret says:

      Hi, Suzanne. It came to me as ‘Chermesina,’ and as the weather gets colder, it will (hopefully) take on a golden-orange (sometimes even hotter-colored, depends from year to year). You can see a big old pollarded one here in a garden nearby me, in late winter color. That one is cut back every year, which supposedly will prompt the most colorful (coral) twig color, compared to older stems…but as you can see, theirs is more golden than coral. Hmmm…always mysteries, right? :)

      Reply
  9. Laura says:

    HI Margaret – thank you for the beautiful photos. The clethras, redbuds and winterberries in my garden are all a bright gold and make a lovely understory. But the birds ate all the berries already – so much for my winter interest!

    Reply
  10. Leigh Williams, Austin, TX says:

    I really enjoyed this, Margaret. Many of these are attractive enough to set my garden lust going; but of course, the heat and lack of water here in Central Texas might do them in. I’ll do a little research to see if any of them might be candidates!

    Reply
  11. tetrarose says:

    This was such a pleasure, thank you! I always think that in autumn, plants are giving us back the light they soaked up all year, a heartening counterpoint to the dimmer days. Maybe this is why we love the yellow and gold colors so much, they remind us of all that sweet sunshine we thrive on!

    Reply
  12. Nancy Franke says:

    Gosh, Margaret, the slides how is gorgeous. I’ve been clearing vines and brush on our property, and now I want to fill all the “new” space up with gold!
    Nancy

    Reply
  13. Daisy Marshall says:

    If I ever have a garden I want it to be like yours! Thank you! Positively beautiful. My little yellow butterflies are back in the mangrove bushes behind my apt. building, unfortunately they were cut back in Jan so I can no longer call it my butterfly bush but, now the birds are more visible so I have a front row seat to a beautiful bird sanctuary. Not a bad trade I guess! Thank you again, Daisy.

    Reply
  14. sandy says:

    Hello Margaret

    Are your shrubs rated for zone 4? Seems everything I adore needs at least a zone 5 which I am not. Unfortunately. Sandy

    Reply

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