Intelligent Irrigation

Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Pure Energy’

I really like that it can give you a bright pop of color in a shady location. I pair it often with Krossa Regal Hosta and pumila astilbe (Astilbe chinensis var. pumila). The bright yellow of the Japanese forest grass seems to play well with the bluish-green of the hosta and the lavender of the astilbe. It’s a favorite of Trecartin, too. “It’s an excellent cascading grass for shady areas,” he says. “It works really well with hosta. I couldn’t believe something this exotic looking was hardy enough for Minnesota, but it is.”

When it comes to perennial grasses, Brent Horvath, president of Intrinsic Perennial Gardens, likes Pure Energy fountain grass. “It has wide gold foliage almost like All Gold hakone grass but for full sun, and it grows 30 to 36 inches tall and 36 to 42 inches wide with ginger-red flowers.”

Aralia cordata ‘Sun King’

This golden Japanese spikenard was chosen as the 2020 Perennial of the Year. “It turned out to be such a wonderful plant,” Hansen says. “It has beautiful gold foliage and can be used in place of a shrub.”

Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’

Provencher transplanted her Rising Sun redbud from her previous home two years ago. “I have loved that little thing,” she says. “I’ve even wrestled with plastic in 30 mile-per-hour winds to cover it when the late frosts threatened its tiny little gold leaves in spring. It has grown like a weed and throws out random peach, red, and yellow leaves all summer long. It grew about one to two feet this past year. It’s about 10 feet tall now, and it’s only three years old. It looks like a traditional redbud most of the year but the spring show and the random leaves give it some pizazz in the garden. I have it in full sun, and it doesn’t scorch the lighter leaves at all. In fact, I think the sunnier side of the plant gets better colored leaves than the branches that hang into the shadier side of my garden.”

“The color can range from chartreuse to bright gold to orange and reddish tinges depending on the time of year and growing conditions,” Trecartin explains. “It makes an excel- lent accent along the border of the garden or in a rock garden. I have a batch planted between my Flower Carpet roses, and it makes a nice groundcover transition.”

Thuja plicata Forever Goldy® ‘4Ever’

Provencher has experimented with golden arborvitaes to see how fast they grow and if they kept their color. “They grew three to five inches per year, and they did keep the gold color,” she says, “and the rabbits left them alone. Their spring and summer color is much more bright lemon-yellow, and it’s a nice color change in my long narrow border. They are right next to some ‘Blackhawks’ big bluestem so there is really nice color contrast in late summer to early fall with the deep burgundy grass.”

We’ll end here with one of my favorites. The feathery gold false cypress has the most delicate weeping branches with goldtipped, threadlike foliage that does not burn in full sun even in winter. We have fairly heavy deer pressure in our landscape, and they don’t bother these shrubs. So, plant snobs, beware. Gold in the landscape is a hot commodity.

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