Garden Color: Lighten and Brighten With Yellow

During the flower-power days of the 1960s, Donovan sang about “being mad about saffron” in his hit song Mellow Yellow. Are we still mad about yellow in our gardens, and can it be mellow? Nature commonly uses yellow, with spring flowers like daffodils, forsythia and primroses, but can we use this bright color without its taking over?

Yellow is the perfect color to bring warmth into a garden, especially in colder climates where gardeners embrace solar rays. A glowing feature wall in this garden brings light and warmth into the space. The yellow used is almost a primrose yellow, which shines without overpowering the garden scheme.

With much of this garden composed of neutral colors, like brown and taupe, the two squares of bright yellow bring it to life. Beware: Yellow can lead the eye through the garden, but too much will overpower it.

When choosing a color for a feature wall, it’s useful to remember that color changes enormously in different light conditions. In the morning sun, a yellow wall will look completely different than it does in evening shade; it will also alter through the year as the angle of the sun rises and falls, changing the quality of the light.

There could be no better choice of color than the fresh yellow used for the parasol on this poolside terrace. The clear blue of the pool intensifies the yellow coloring, as the meeting of complementary colors strengthens both.

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Garden Color: Lighten and Brighten With Yellow