Throughout July and August, my garden is a yellow flower parade. Yellow flowers know pollinators love them, so many start strutting their stuff in summer when there are more bees, butterflies and hover flies to entice.
Yellow flowers are also great summer flowers for summer heat.
Yellow daisy-like flowers rule the summer garden.
While blue flowers may want to challenge the yellow ones, they don’t really have a stem to stand on.
Cleopatra is one of the most elegant cannas to grow.
‘Cleopatra’ canna is one of the prettiest of the yellow cannas. Granted it is a bicolor and has red too, but it’s the yellow flower and bicolored foliage that truly stands out. It would be an excellent addition to a smaller garden. You could also tell your friends that canna rhizomes are edible. A fun fact for your next dinner party.
Zinnias in yellow? Yes, please.
I’m playing with several yellow zinnias this year. Inspired by an Instagram post from Windfall Flowers last fall, I ordered several packets. The best ones by far are Benary’s Creamy Yellow, Benary’s Giant Golden Yellow and Tidepool Mix.
Some zinnias performed better than others.
I grew ‘Polar Bear’ and failed miserably. I believe I ended up with two plants out of the dozens I started. There are so many rabbits this year.
I purchased these black wire cloches to slow them down, and it has helped, but I didn’t think of it until the middle of the season. I will reuse them earlier next year. Because they are black, they fade into the garden which I like.
I simply must grow ‘Tidepool Mix’ again.
‘Tidepool Mix’ turned out to the be the zinnia star of the year, and there are several shades of yellow in it too. Next year, I want to try ‘Crazy Legs.’ Although the photo below doesn’t do it justice, and ‘Tidepool Mix’ is a combination of colors and forms, and it has golden yellow cactus-flowered zinnias in it.
I noticed lighter-colored zinnias fared much worse from bug damage than the bright ones. Of course, the Oklahoma series is one of the toughest ones out there with ‘Oklahoma Salmon’ being the toughest of the tough.
Although I had a zinnia plan this year, the cutworms did too, and I lost a lot of flowers to them. Like dozens of flowers. It’s been maddening. I moved some zinnias over to the potager to grow them and a few into perennial beds. This worked. I then moved larger plants into the cutting garden to have them in several places.
I’ll start seeds indoors again next spring and pinch them back so they will be larger when I transplant them outside. I did that in 2023, and it didn’t feel very successful, but I didn’t pinch them back either. I’ve changed my mind again.
On to perennial yellow flowers.
Helenium autumnale is a beautiful yellow, native flower that loves the prairie and my garden. It loves it so much that I have to encourage it to not take over. In spring, I cut it back and pull out huge sections of it. It is still worth growing and the leaves turn a lovely ombre in fall.
Remember, native flowers perform double duty in the garden.
Being flexible as a gardener is important.
Being flexible is not only good in gardening, it’s also good in life. Don’t you think gardening teaches loads of life lessons like resiliency and tenacity ? I do.
Coreposis tripteris, tall coreopsis, deserves a place in every naturalist’s garden and those who also want that “grandmother’s garden” look too. Have you noticed that everything is “granny” right now from home decor to clothes? I suspect the younger generation wants to harken back to a simpler time.
Of course, the movie, Midnight in Paris, taught us no person’s time on Earth is simple.
Some yellow flowers are simple and beautiful.
Check out this gorgeous yellow Rudbeckia submentosa ‘Henry Eilers.’ With its blue-green foliage and quilled petals, it’s an elegant native found in a railroad depot area or parking lot depending on who tells the story. I just love this flower and will grow it wherever I go in this life.
Below is an Instagram video I did recently on ‘Henry Eilers.’ It gives you a good idea of its height and garden presence.
Large and in charge perennial yellow flowers
Speaking of garden presence, let’s not forget Helianthus maximiliani ‘Okie Radiance’ Maximilian sunflower. What a large and impressive plant! It is just getting ready to flower here. Found in Donna’s Oklahoma garden, she named it ‘Okie Radiance.’ I’m truly surprised it’s not more easily found in commerce. I bought mine from Bustani Plant Farm. It’s a great plant.
The rudbeckia clan has yellow flowers.
Then, there’s giant coneflower, Rudbeckia maxima. It has already flowered in my garden, but I love this plant. It is easy to grow. I have separated it and have it flowering in three different beds. It is a tall presence and sometimes needs support, but don’t let that stop you from growing it. It is a beautiful thing.
I can’t discuss yellow flowers without Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm,’ my nemesis. If you don’t want it to grow and try to take over your Oklahoma garden, I would suggest you don’t plant it. However, if you have a dry Hell strip, it will thrive. Since I can’t beat ‘Goldsturm,’ I decided to enjoy its sunny presence and keep pulling it up wherever I can.
Don’t confuse this rudbeckia with the Rudbeckia hirta species. They grow from seed into clumps of flowers, and honestly, they are difficult to keep going in our climate as they’re a larval host plant for the checkerspot and border patch butterflies. I still love them and work every year to grow a few here and there. I just don’t expect them to perennialize.
Sharing is caring.
There are so many more yellow flowers to enjoy, but this is a long post. If you’ve made it this far, thank you. Please, if you like my posts, share them with your gardening friends. It’s work to write these, and blog posts don’t get as much traction as they once did.
Also, please check out Carol Michel and I as we chat on our garden podcast, the Gardenangelists. We drop a new episode every week on Wednesdays, and we can be found everywhere there are great podcasts like Spotify and Apple podcasts.
Have a beautiful, if hot week, this week my friends. I hope to see you here again soon.
