Transform your plot with Golden planats
BY late summer our gardens are fully clothed with the growth of trees, shrubs and perennials, forming a rich tapestry in every shade of green. Now is a good time to improve the palette by adding touches of moody purple and pools of light from gold-leaved plants.
Bringing the Midas touch works especially well in areas of dry shade, where fresh spring colour is long gone and summer drought has taken its toll on foliage. Here in our Devon garden, the golden yellow leaves of Himalayan honeysuckle Leycesteria formosa Golden Lanterns brightens a difficult bed along a shady bank.
Where every tree is a deep green, f. ‘Sunburst’ and gold-leaved false acacia ( ‘Frisia’) will light up the landscape. For walls and fences, allow golden hop or Fiona Sunrise to weave their stems of bright foliage in amongst the greens. We use golden stonecrop ‘Angelina’ to colonise our shingle driveway, but this succulent is equally at home in pans of gritty compost.
