Green / Yellow

With brilliant golden-yellow flowers surely make this one of the loveliest wild flowers for the garden. The Corn Marigold is at its most impressive when in a meadow setting and as a border plant with other annual cornfield ... or perhaps, regrettably, we must now say 'ex-cornfield' flowers.

Helianthus annuus 'Cut Flower Mixture' offers a diverse range of sunflower varieties that are suited to outdoor cut flower production. In a wide range of shapes and colours, lemon, golds and reds. The heights range from 80 to 150cm (32 to 60in). They are lovely in borders or vases.

Helianthus annuus 'F1 Gemini Summer' is F1 hybrid tall cut flower variety with golden yellow, double flowers. This professional quality sunflower is a pollenless, uniflora type that grows 90 to 120cm tall. Cut the flowers when the petals begin to unfurl from the face.

Great big fluffy golden heads the size of a dinner plate. This whopper of a sunflower has the same stunning densely packed yellow petals as the beloved dwarf 'Teddy Bear' sunflower but on a far larger scale. They make excellent cut flowers, long lasting and are very impressive in a vase.

Helianthus ‘Ikarus’ is a fairly recent introduction, but one that has started to make huge waves. This premium pollenless sunflower has a unique habit, they are basal branching, resulting in masses of primrose-yellow blooms each with glorious dark chocolate-brown hearts. They grow 90 to 120cm (3 to 4ft) tall.

Giant Sunflower 'Mongolian Giant' is a true giant reaching up to 420cm (14ft) tall with one of the largest flowering sunflower seed heads available, up to 45cm (18in) across. One of the largest-seeded sunflower varieties available to gardeners, the plants are ideal to grow to provide food for birds to eat over-winter.

Looking a little like a solar eclipse, ‘Ring of Fire’ is a dark centred sunflower that blooms with glowing red petals that gradually flare outwards to golden-yellow tips. Growing to a manageable 100 to 120cm (3½ to 4ft) tall with a branching habit, the flowers are pollenless. It is considered one of the best varieties for use as a cut flower.

Helianthus ‘Solara’ is a professional quality sunflower and one of the longest lasting cut flower varieties available. A pollenless, uniflora type that grows to around 130 to 150cm tall. It has a dark centre, surrounded by a dense array of rich golden yellow petals that form large 15cm flowers.

With most sunflowers, the beauty is in the flower petals, but the multi-layered, green outer calyxes of Helianthus 'Sunfill Green' create the show. This fast growing annual source of cut fillers for bouquets produce geometric flower heads for use as bouquet greenery. Sow successionally, mid spring right through to mid summer.

Perennial sunflowers typically don’t grow quite as tall and large as their annual friends. However Helianthus maximiliani is a wonderful exception. It grows slowly through the summer months as a group of short stems, until late summer when the stems bolt and the flowers head for the sky.

Most gardeners are familiar with the annual sunflower, however, it is the perennial varieties that coexist most happily with other garden plants. Helianthus mollis is a lovely perennial with butter-yellow flowers. It grows 120cm tall and requires little more attention than an annual cutting to the ground.

Helichrysum bracteatum is the most well known and is probably the best of all the everlasting flowers. They make one of the finest subjects for bouquets, apart from being useful for beds and borders. They are easy to cultivate and established plants grow well with little or no attention and bloom from mid-summer right up to frost.

Heliopsis is a great plant for the busy home gardener. ‘New Hybrids' is a selection of the newest forms, they will bloom the first year from seed with a profusion of blooms in shades in lemon, golden yellow and orange-yellow. The plants will produce arm loads of flowers all summer long and never once ask for decent soil or proper care.

Heliopsis ‘Summer Nights' is a special selection made by Dale Hendricks of North Creek Nurseries, USA. Introduced in 2004 it produces a profusion of single blooms in early to mid-summer, with rich, deep golden-yellow petals and deep mahogany centres. The foliage is red-tinted and the stems are tinted dark burgundy.

Hosta are grown predominantly for their outstanding foliage, from leaves as small as a teaspoon up to those larger than a dinner plate, colours range from deep blues to silvers, darkest shiny greens to bright yellows, from a single solid hue to the myriad of variegations the choice is almost overwhelming.

Yellow Flag Iris is a common and widespread native plant in Britain. This good-looking plant is a wetland plant that is especially showy in bloom and has been transplanted into well-watered gardens all over the world.

Persian Cress or Ornamental Cress is a trendy filler green among floral artists and they keep it in regular demand. This easy to grow filler foliage grows upright, sturdy branches decorated with tiny, silvery seed pods by the thousands.The flower stems are durable and age well, turning golden at the end of the season.

The more I see of this rather attractive little plant, the more I grow to appreciate it. Now I seem to spot it all over the place, in meadows, woodland, road verges and gardens. The bright yellow fragrant flowers can be seen in blossom from the end of April through until mid September.

Each small flower of Band of Nobles ‘Chandelier’ is a glorious shade of golden yellow, and the standard (the upper petal) is often a shade or two lighter. They have been bred for a long flowering period and give unbeatable garden performance.