Packera aurea (a/k/a golden groundsel or golden ragwort) in my garden; azaleas at the National Arboretum
Ever been excited about a new plant until you saw what was blooming nearby at the same time and the color combo almost made you retch? Sounds extreme, but that was my reaction to seeing the golden blooms of Packera aurea among the (can we say garish?) blooms of azaleas.
So I moved the Packera to a spot with no competing blooms but in clear view from my porch, and LOVED them there. A perennial native to the Eastern half of the U.S., Packera likes shade just fine and is even evergreen – what a great groundcover!
So I loved it there until I got the bright idea to plant some Hellebores in that same high-visibility spot, where they made me VERY HAPPY in late winter and early spring….until the Packera started blooming and once again, retch!
So is gold one of those colors that just don’t play well with others? I could be overreacting, so I’m curious – anyone else have problems with some color combos in the garden?
A visit to the National Arboretum this week gave me a clue to my problem with the color gold. That’s where I found a vast swath of Packera paired with some blue and white blooms and the effect is stunning!
This is the new Claudia West design at the Arboretum’s Friendship Garden: “In 2019, landscape architect Claudia West led a complete plant community-based redesign of the front garden, which builds upon the foundations that Oehme and van Sweden laid nearly thirty years before.” The sculpture Demeter by John Cavanaugh is seen here.
Susan!
You are not alone! My atagonist in the garden is Rudbeckia goldstrum, not concidentally, a garish yellow (IMHO). Stealing a line from Gollum, “We hates it!”.
I retch a lot. Probably more than most people. But the only color combination that ever caused it came a day after our border Collie ate a box of crayons. That said, I have been bothered more than I used to by bad color combinations. Usually involves a clash of more natural flower shapes, sizes and colors abutted with more bred shapes, sizes and colors, if that makes sense. Subtle vs. not. I’m fine with either apart. Together, they feel like a sumo wrestler pitted against a kindergarten class.No puking though. Just uneasiness. Good post. Go Packera go. Match it with a purple blooming columbine for a striking, yet palatable, combo.
Azaleas are pretty colorful, I agree. And when I moved here 30 plus years ago, I also bought the current landscaping, some I loved and some I wasn’t so crazy about. I dug up the barberry bushes and gave them away. They are pricy little guys! But the thorns are not worth the scarlet colour. The different colours of azaleas still bother me but they are healthy, profuse and big! To dig them up would just be stupid. There is almost an acre and there are other issues to deal with. Personally, I find the mess azaleas create when the blooms drop is worse that all the different colours. What is annoying is different colours bloom at different times it seems. So there is some colour here and none there.. and so it goes.. Mother Nature rules!
Well, shit! Where is spellcheck and AI when we actually need them . . . instead of correcting sentences which appear to some programs to involve ducks. There is no such thing as an “atagonist”. There are, however, evil lurking antagonists
I dislike forsythia with PJM rhododendron. Unfortunately, it is common in neighborhoods with small front lawns. One homeowner planted one of them and right next door the next yard has the other. Occasionally the two are together on the same property. They bloom when they are the only show in town so that the color clash is even more striking.
My Packera is one level above my white azaleas and the color combination is just fine. However, my geraniums and pink azaleas are clashing. Sigh. . .
Packera is a weed in my gardens. It’s a native thug who has tried to take over everywhere, and it’s jarring gold color doesn’t play nicely in my pastel palette. If I ever saw pollinators taking advantage of it I could better tolerate it, but it seems bereft of attraction to the thousands of tiny winged creatures who swarm all over most of my other plants.
True. So I guess after it’s spread as much as you want, time to start removing the blooms before they spread seed everywhere. And also yes, I don’t see any critters on the blooms. Instead, in my garden the groundcover comfrey blooms are getting all the pollinator attention – my other favorite evergreen groundcover that can take shade.
It’s already spread way more than I want it to! I never planted ir in the 1st place. It just started appearing here on our 25 acres and has spread to every nook and cranny. I blame climate change!
I must say that Packera is one plant I just do not like, so for me, it doesn’t matter what it is next to. I guess we all have those plants that we just don’t like.
I have a lot of Packera Aurea in my southwestern PA garden and I see lots of tiny winged insects on it. I have let my Packera go crazy on a steep, difficult-to-plant slope and I am very happy with it.
Ditto for my steep, hilly and shady western PA property. Packera aurea and native violets are encouraged to grow together in the hard to reach areas of my yard. They look beautiful against a backdrop of hemlocks. I used to hate bright yellow in the garden, but in recent years welcome any attract plant not attractive to deer.
An added bonus: Hummingbirds use the white fluff from the Packera aurea seed heads in building their nests.
Susan, I love Packera aurea but the flowers come and go so quickly, and my only advice is to cut the blooms off as soon as they are done. They set seed in a nanosecond and can, no doubt, become weedy. Their saving grace, as you noted, is the ground hugging foliage that seems impenetrable to other weeds. Our Packera looks good with the deciduous yellow-blooming Rhododendron ‘Admiral Semmes’, blue Spanish hyacinths and the variegated foliage of the Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum var. ‘Variegatum’) Claudia West’s Packera design at the National Arboretum looks stunning.
Those azaleas make me retch without any Packera necessary! LOL. The packera this year looked fantastic with the Virginia bluebells, but I don’t remember them blooming at the same time last year. I would love to know what that same scene at the Arboretum looks like in a month and then in two months’ time. What’s coming up through that display? – MW
Me too, curious to see CLaudia’s design in the rest of the season.
Subtle, muddy shades do not go with brights.* There’s a place for both in gardens, clothing, art and interior decor! *except greens, they all work together well.
Native plant enthusiasts in my area will pay $13 a quart for Packera aurea, so I’d say you have an embarrassment of riches to play with. I like the Hellebore mix you’ve got. I’d probably also have some blue flowering Salvia lyrata. They bloom at the same time and I’m fond of the purple veined foliage.
Love this! Still learning how to place all the various plants that I love near each other without thinking “What the heck was I thinking?!”
Favorite hated combinations in spring time. The beautiful 7′ reblooming azaleas at the back of the border with the autumn fern Brilliant new growth lining the front of the border. Gaah. Look away until both settle down for the summer.
Love all the colors except dark yellow. Bright tints of yellow are a favorite with most other colors. An over the top colorful Easter display is my guiding pallette. Calming Forest greens are more enjoyable when hiking. Mostly the typical purples and pinks and blues for the main yard. Completely Separate enclosed garden for the salsa hot colors.
I avoid the pink/yellow/cream/fawn combination like the plague. Beautiful! But I have enough problems getting the other colors to blend well. Peace rose is a favorite. But not in my own yard.
Hoping someday everything will blend as beautifully as the phlox divaricata Blue moon and the variegated pagoda dogwood.
Not a shy combination, but perfect tones.
We agree (’bout just not liking a plant)! Let us take ’em back-to-back. I’ll take on the pro-Rudbeckians. You take on the pro-Packeraians.
I’ve always found that shade glaring and ghastly (apologies, Susan). So often you see photos of the purple variety of echinacea pictured next to Goldsturm rudbeckia, when I can only tolerate Goldsturm in the back of the garden (for the birds). It needs lots of toning down with silver/white and/or blue to make it palatable for me. I just can’t do gold. To each his own.
I hate gold in the spring, but I love it in the fall. So maybe gold in the spring alone (no other flowers) or next to leaves that have a bit of burgundy?
Do you know the names of the plants with the white and blue flowers in the photo of the National Arboretum?
The white flowers might be Gaura. Don’t know about the blue.