By Mel Bellar

The horticulture world is a pretty nerdy place and Winter is the time when the nerds really geek out. Yes, I am kind of nerdy, certainly by Andes Gazette standards, but I am not waiting with bated breath for the next batch of hosta cultivars, nor do I freak out when the bleeding heart is reclassified from Dicentra spectabilis to Lamprocapnos spectabilis. 

There are tons of landscape design and horticulture conferences and symposiums during the winter and I can get into a geeky conference or two.  But my guilty passion is the announcement of the Perennial Plant of the Year, which comes out about now. Looking over the list of the winners back to the award’s inception in 1990, I realized that I regularly use all but 3, which are not hardy in our zone.  It is amazing that 26 of the 29 are great choices for our neighborhood.  So — Drum roll please —

By Mel Bellar

The horticulture world is a pretty nerdy place and Winter is the time when the nerds really geek out. Yes, I am kind of nerdy, certainly by Andes Gazette standards, but I am not waiting with bated breath for the next batch of hosta cultivars, nor do I freak out when the bleeding heart is reclassified from Dicentra spectabilis to Lamprocapnos spectabilis. 

There are tons of landscape design and horticulture conferences and symposiums during the winter and I can get into a geeky conference or two.  But my guilty passion is the announcement of the Perennial Plant of the Year, which comes out about now. Looking over the list of the winners back to the award’s inception in 1990, I realized that I regularly use all but 3, which are not hardy in our zone.  It is amazing that 26 of the 29 are great choices for our neighborhood.  So — Drum roll please — The Perennial Plant of the Year for 2020 IS the Aralia cordata “Sun King” or, in slightly less geeky terms, the Sun King Spikenard.

Granted, my exciting buildup and reveal leaves 99% of you flat, but I have a feeling that many of you gardeners out there will come to know this plant.  I have been using it with enthusiasm since I first discovered it a few years ago.  It is chartreuse!  It is a big plant with a nice habit, and it lives in the shade, providing a very effective and much-needed big bright highlight. That brings me to today’s topic:  How cool is chartreuse in the garden and how do you get it?

Chartreuse lives in that space between green and yellow, which sounds like it would be kind of neutral. But somehow chartreuse is more than the sum of its parts.  It has an electric, bigger than nature quality. It pops in the landscape, and fortunately there are many excellent plant choices sporting chartreuse foliage. If you read my column, you know how much I love colorful foliage to keep a garden interesting for the whole season.

In addition to the excellent Sun King aralia, there are many other chartreuse perennials that will brighten the shade garden. There is a variety of the aforementioned bleeding heart that has amazing chartreuse stems and leaves that make this shade garden staple more interesting for much longer in the season. The Gold Heart bleeding heart is a winner.  There are numerous Heuchera (Coral Bells) that have various subtly different shades of our color. Citron, Citronelle, Twist of Lime and Lime Ruffles all do it, but I don’t have a lot of faith in the rampantly proliferating heuchera cultivars; I do, however, think that “Autumn Bride” is close enough to chartreuse and is a great plant and super reliable.  The gold, creeping Jenny, Lysimachia nummularia “Aurea”, is a ground cover that works in the shade (it burns in the sun.) It is not my favorite, but it makes excellent trailers in containers.

There are numerous perennials that have chartreuse varieties but personally, I have never found them to be very robust or exciting. I have tried chartreuse Agastache (hyssop) and Veronica but neither were worth the effort and there are many others that I haven’t tried. However, I love the chartreuse plumes of Lady’s Mantel (Alchemilla mollis) and it is the only flower I am going to mention. These blooms/plumes make stunning and unusual cut flowers that hold up very well.  The yellow-green creeping oregano is a good performer and nice groundcover and there are quite a few sedums that fit the bill. Angelina is the most common and a worthy addition to any rock garden or along a path.

Of course, I have to mention some grasses. There are a few sedges that qualify for the chartreuse honor:  Evergold, Everillo, Banana Boat and Bowle’s Gold.  Everillo is great in a shady area in front of the garden as it is short. Bowle’s Gold is taller and very bright and it can live in a pot submerged in water which is a very cool thing; it is very hardy!  Banana Boat is not as hardy, but I love its wide blades and it does OK in a protected area.

My favorite chartreuse plants are shrubs and there are many that can add a huge splash of color and break up the green, adding vibrancy and highlights in the garden. There are 2 very reliable staple ninebarks, Dart’s Gold and Nugget, that I love, but there are new introductions all of the time.  Lemon Candy and Festivus Gold are 2 new ones that I haven’t tried yet. I planted a Tiny Wine Gold ninebark this year; it is a dwarf and I am very excited to see how it performs.  A relatively new chartreuse elderberry is in the nurseries called Lemony Lace. It has a very lacy, delicate foliage and can grow up to 5 feet; it is a real winner.  My favorite spirea, and the only one I plant, is the Ogon spirea, which has a beautiful goldish/chartreuse feathery foliage all season until it turns a reddish-orange in the fall. Two other very cool chartreuse shrubs, but slightly less sturdy, are the Golden Spirit Smokebush and Chardonnay Pears Deutzia.

I could go on praising and listing more great chartreuse plants; you can hit me up if you have not already had enough! But I must mention my favorite trailing plant for containers. The Marguerite sweet potato vine really brightens up any annual display and trails down the side of the container.

Put some golden hops on a trellis and put a Philodendron hederaceum “Lemon Lime” in a pot in the house.   There are chartreuse stars for every plant occasion.

   Mel Bellar is the owner of Zone4 Landscapes and a passionate Andes gardener.~

Granted, my exciting buildup and reveal leaves 99% of you flat, but I have a feeling that many of you gardeners out there will come to know this plant.  I have been using it with enthusiasm since I first discovered it a few years ago.  It is chartreuse!  It is a big plant with a nice habit, and it lives in the shade, providing a very effective and much-needed big bright highlight. That brings me to today’s topic:  How cool is chartreuse in the garden and how do you get it?

Chartreuse lives in that space between green and yellow, which sounds like it would be kind of neutral. But somehow chartreuse is more than the sum of its parts.  It has an electric, bigger than nature quality. It pops in the landscape, and fortunately there are many excellent plant choices sporting chartreuse foliage. If you read my column, you know how much I love colorful foliage to keep a garden interesting for the whole season.

In addition to the excellent Sun King aralia, there are many other chartreuse perennials that will brighten the shade garden. There is a variety of the aforementioned bleeding heart that has amazing chartreuse stems and leaves that make this shade garden staple more interesting for much longer in the season. The Gold Heart bleeding heart is a winner.  There are numerous Heuchera (Coral Bells) that have various subtly different shades of our color. Citron, Citronelle, Twist of Lime and Lime Ruffles all do it, but I don’t have a lot of faith in the rampantly proliferating heuchera cultivars; I do, however, think that “Autumn Bride” is close enough to chartreuse and is a great plant and super reliable.  The gold, creeping Jenny, Lysimachia nummularia “Aurea”, is a ground cover that works in the shade (it burns in the sun.) It is not my favorite, but it makes excellent trailers in containers.

There are numerous perennials that have chartreuse varieties but personally, I have never found them to be very robust or exciting. I have tried chartreuse Agastache (hyssop) and Veronica but neither were worth the effort and there are many others that I haven’t tried. However, I love the chartreuse plumes of Lady’s Mantel (Alchemilla mollis) and it is the only flower I am going to mention. These blooms/plumes make stunning and unusual cut flowers that hold up very well.  The yellow-green creeping oregano is a good performer and nice groundcover and there are quite a few sedums that fit the bill. Angelina is the most common and a worthy addition to any rock garden or along a path.

Of course, I have to mention some grasses. There are a few sedges that qualify for the chartreuse honor:  Evergold, Everillo, Banana Boat and Bowle’s Gold.  Everillo is great in a shady area in front of the garden as it is short. Bowle’s Gold is taller and very bright and it can live in a pot submerged in water which is a very cool thing; it is very hardy!  Banana Boat is not as hardy, but I love its wide blades and it does OK in a protected area.

My favorite chartreuse plants are shrubs and there are many that can add a huge splash of color and break up the green, adding vibrancy and highlights in the garden. There are 2 very reliable staple ninebarks, Dart’s Gold and Nugget, that I love, but there are new introductions all of the time.  Lemon Candy and Festivus Gold are 2 new ones that I haven’t tried yet. I planted a Tiny Wine Gold ninebark this year; it is a dwarf and I am very excited to see how it performs.  A relatively new chartreuse elderberry is in the nurseries called Lemony Lace. It has a very lacy, delicate foliage and can grow up to 5 feet; it is a real winner.  My favorite spirea, and the only one I plant, is the Ogon spirea, which has a beautiful goldish/chartreuse feathery foliage all season until it turns a reddish-orange in the fall. Two other very cool chartreuse shrubs, but slightly less sturdy, are the Golden Spirit Smokebush and Chardonnay Pears Deutzia.

I could go on praising and listing more great chartreuse plants; you can hit me up if you have not already had enough! But I must mention my favorite trailing plant for containers. The Marguerite sweet potato vine really brightens up any annual display and trails down the side of the container.

Put some golden hops on a trellis and put a Philodendron hederaceum “Lemon Lime” in a pot in the house.   There are chartreuse stars for every plant occasion.

   Mel Bellar is the owner of Zone4 Landscapes and a passionate Andes gardener.~