Blooms featuring shades of bright yellow
Brightening Up Your Garden with Yellow Flowers
Yellow flowers can bring a cheerful and vibrant touch to any garden, especially during the colder months when other plants are dormant. Here are some yellow flowers that will light up your borders and containers throughout the year.
Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum)
This shrub brings colour to your garden in the depths of winter with its small bright flowers appearing as early as January on bright green stems. It can be trained as a climber against a sunny wall. Measuring 2.5m x 2.5m, it's perfect for adding a splash of colour when there is little else in bloom.
Kniphofia
Kniphofia is a perennial with vibrant flower spikes that are perfect for hot borders or exotic planting schemes.
Mahonia
Mahonia has bright yellow flowers in winter, dark green, prickly leaves and is evergreen, providing interest year round. It grows to 5m x 4m, making it a great choice for larger gardens.
Forsythia
Forsythia is an easy shrub that provides early spring flowers in a vibrant yellow.
Crocosmia 'Paul's Best Yellow'
This perennial has bright sunshine yellow flowers that face outwards, making it a good pick for adding late summer colour to borders. It also makes an excellent flower for cutting to bring indoors. Crocosmia 'Paul's Best Yellow' grows to 1.5m x 1m.
Pansies
Pansies are a useful seasonal plant for filling containers and window boxes.
Rosa 'Mountbatten'
This repeat-flowering floribunda rose has fragrant flowers throughout summer. This is a strong, tall shrub rose with deep yellow flowers that will light up a border. It grows to 1.2m x 75cm.
African Marigolds
African marigolds provide bright colour and are useful as companion plants.
Daffodils
Daffodils are a common yellow flower, with using a blend of different cultivars extending the flowering season.
Winter Aconite
Winter aconite is a tiny flower that is a cheery sight in late winter and a good plant for early bees.
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
Fennel has airy, finely divided foliage and attractive, plate-like yellow flowers, followed by aniseed-flavoured seeds. It's attractive to insects, especially hoverflies, and the seeds are eaten by birds. Fennel grows to 1.8m x 45cm.
Yellow Flag Iris (Iris pseudacorus)
Perfect for the edge of a sunny pond, yellow flag iris has sword-shaped leaves and is a marginal pond plant, happy with up to 30cm of water over its crown.
Kerria japonica
This deciduous, spring-flowering shrub has bright double flowers. It's easy to grow and measures 4m x 2.5m.
Geum 'Custard Tart'
This perennial has beautiful custard-yellow flowers throughout summer on tall, green stems. It makes a good cut flower and grows to 25cm x 40cm.
Echinacea 'Sombrero Lemon Yellow' (Lemon Yellow Coneflower)
A vibrant perennial with striking lemon-yellow flowers blooming from summer into fall, suitable for borders, meadows, butterfly gardens, and containers.
Desert Marigold (Baileya multiradiata)
Tall, radiant yellow flowers that thrive in dry, sunny, rocky conditions, ideal for late-season gardens especially in warmer, arid regions.
For genuine autumn planting, focus on perennials that bloom into the fall or shrubs that provide late-season yellow flowers like these above. Additionally, planting them in late summer or early fall ensures establishment before colder weather.
For those looking to extend yellow blooms into autumn, consider those with longer bloom periods into fall, such as the Lemon Yellow Coneflower. Ensure the plants are suitable for your local climate and soil conditions for best results.
Amaryllis
Although Amaryllis is traditionally associated with Christmas, yellow varieties are available, such as 'Luna' or 'Lemon Star'.
Verbascum
Verbascum adds height to your border with upright verbascums. These short-lived perennials have a long summer flowering season and there are several yellow varieties including 'Cotswold Queen'.
Cornus mas
This shrub has something to see in almost every season: bright winter flowers, red glossy fruits in the summer and vibrant autumn colour.
Phlomis russeliana
Phlomis russeliana has hooded flowers that are attractive to bees, held on tall stems which are great for adding height in a border.
Witch hazel
Witch hazel is a deciduous shrub that has sweet scented flowers in the depths of winter, with some yellow varieties including 'Arnold Promise', 'Savill Starlight' and 'Pallida'.
Golden Spider Lily (Lycoris aurea)
The bright yellow flowers of this flamboyant, late-flowering perennial are perfect for brightening late summer containers indoors or out.
Yarrow (Achillea 'Cloth of Gold')
Yarrow has gold, flat flower heads that contrast beautifully with other flower shapes and make perfect landing pads for insects, especially hoverflies.
Tulips
Tulips can be planted in November for yellow shades in the spring.
Potentilla fruticosa 'Katherine Dykes'
This long-flowering deciduous shrub has masses of yellow blooms from early summer through to autumn.
Zinnias
Popular for their long-flowering nature and being easy to grow.
Dahlias
Dahlias are a source of late summer colour, with 'Charlie Two' adding impact to borders from July until the first frosts.
Sophora
Sophora is a large, evergreen shrub or small tree with attractive glossy, dark green leaves and bright yellow, drooping flowers that have distinctive long anthers.
Peony 'Bartzella'
This peony has large, frilled, lemon-yellow flowers, with a dash of pink at the centre. They have a delicate, citrus fragrance and make good cut flowers.
Viola 'Dawn'
This evergreen perennial has lemon yellow flowers from spring right through into autumn.
Bidens 'Spotlight'
This long-flowering, half hardy perennial attracts pollinating insects.
Sunflowers
Available in a huge range of varieties, including dwarf sunflowers such as 'Little Leo' and 'Little Dorrit'.
Clematis tangutica
This vibrant clematis has sunshine yellow, pendant flowerheads.
Rudbeckia
Rudbeckia has glowing yellow, daisy flowers with distinctive black-brown centres in August when many other perennials are beginning to fade. It's ideal for creating a splash of late-summer colour.
Alchemilla mollis
This hardy perennial makes a good ground cover plant for the front of borders with clouds of acid yellow flowers.
Daylily
Daylily is a prolific flower producer, but each bloom lasts for just one day.
Aquilegia longissima
Ideal for a partially shaded border or for planting beneath deciduous trees. It's also known as a long-spurred columbine and has a light evening scent, perfect for June evenings when the days are getting longer.
Foxglove 'Primrose Carousel'
This dwarf foxglove is a good pick for pots or for growing at the front of borders as it's shorter than most varieties.
Weigela middendorffiana
An early summer-flowering shrub with pale yellow flowers that have deeper yellow markings within.
Echinacea
Echinacea has daisy shaped flowers that are attractive to bees and make good cut flowers. For a compact, early flowering variety try 'Shiny' from the Mooodz series or for a bolder yellow, there are cultivars such as 'Now Cheesier' or 'Paradoxa'.
Canna 'Tropical Yellow'
This canna has lush green foliage and bright yellow flowers, ideal for exotic or jungle-style planting schemes. It's suitable for a pot and looks good with crocosmia and agapanthus.
Hypericum 'Hidcote'
This popular variety has masses of cup-shaped, yellow flowers that will attract bees to your garden.
- The vibrant flower spikes of Kniphofia are perfect for hot borders or exotic planting schemes, adding a splash of color throughout the year.
- For those looking to extend yellow blooms into autumn, consider perennials like the Lemon Yellow Coneflower (Echinacea 'Sombrero Lemon Yellow') with longer bloom periods.
- Yellow Flag Iris (Iris pseudacorus) is ideal for the edge of a sunny pond, providing yellow flowers and appealing to various pollinators.
- Sunflowers are versatile, available in a range of varieties including dwarf sunflowers like 'Little Leo' and 'Little Dorrit', perfect for adding color to containers or smaller spaces.
