Best Yellow Flowers for Your Garden
Add color and cheer to your landscape by growing gold, yellow, and lemon, or amber flowers.
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Few yellow flowers are more recognizable than cheery sunflowers. And happily for gardeners, this group of plants offers a wonderful array of varieties, from compact 3-foot-tall varieties such as 'Teddy Bear' to giant 12-foot-tall varieties such as 'Mammoth Grey Stripe' that offer 12-inch-wide blooms.
Name: Helianthus annuus selections
Size: From 3 to 12 feet tall, depending on variety.
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Zones: Annual
Tough-as-nails black-eyed Susan seems to have it all: It offers a long bloom season, it's easy to grow, and it's a surefire pick for attracting butterflies to your yard.
Note: Check the plant tag or catalog description when shopping for black-eyed Susan as there are annual and perennial varieties.
Name: Rudbeckia selections
Size: From 2 to 8 feet tall, depending on variety.
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Zones: Depends on variety
Look at black-eyed Susan vine and you're sure to see how it earned it's common name: The sunny yellow flowers have a rich chocolate-purple center. This plant is an easy annual climber perfect for trellises or cascading from a window box or hanging basket.
Name: Thunbergia alata
Size: Climbs to 8 feet
Growing conditions: Full sun and moist, well-drained soil
Zones: Depends on variety
There are dozens of lovely yellow daylilies on the market. Happily, all are exceptionally easy to grow. Do a little research before shopping to discover reblooming selections that flower for many weeks over the summer. Or an early-, mid-, and late-season variety to plant together for an extended display.
Name: Hemerocallis selections
Size: From 1 to 4 feet tall, depending on variety.
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil.
Zones: 3-10
Award-winning 'Moonbeam' coreopsis is a garden favorite for its compact mounding habit and seemingly constant supply of golden-yellow daisies in summer.
Name: Coreopsis 'Moonbeam'
Size: 18 inches tall and wide
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil.
Zones: 3-8
If you have a sunny spot and well-drained soil, 'Moonshine' yarrow is practically indestructible. This easy-to-grow plant produces a plethora of golden flowers throughout the summer; the blooms are great for dried-flower crafts.
Name: Achillea 'Moonshine'
Size: 2 feet tall and wide
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil.
Zones: 4-8
With a name like goldenrod, you know this plant has to be a good pick for adding sunny shades to the garden. This easy-growing perennial blooms in fall and is a major attractor of butterflies.
Note: Goldenrod has a bad reputation for causing allergy problems but it's rarely an issue for gardeners. Ragweed, which doesn't have showy flowers, is much more commonly the cause of the summer and fall sniffles.
Name: Solidago selections
Size: From 2 to 6 feet tall, depending on variety.
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil.
Zones: Depends on variety
There are lots of yellow roses, but English rose Graham Thomas is one of the most loved. This amazing plant bears double golden-yellow blooms all summer and fall on vigorous, disease-resistant plants. The flowers are wonderfully fragrant.
Name: Graham Thomas Rosa
Size: 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil.
Zones: 4-9
Be sure to start spring off to a cheery start with golden daffodils. There are hundreds of varieties to choose from; some are fragrant and all are deer and rabbit resistant.
Name: Narcissus selections
Size: 24 inches tall and 4 inches wide
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Zones: 3-7
Marigolds have been popular for generations and are still perfect picks for the garden today. Choose from dwarf French varieties, tall African selections, or edible signet marigolds.
Name: Tagetes selections
Size: From 6 inches to 4 feet tall, depending on variety.
Growing conditions: Full sun and moist, well-drained soil
Zones: Annual
Iris is named after a goddess of the rainbow, and yellow varieties of this garden favorite do seem to have a mythic air about them in spring when backlit by the morning sun. There are hundreds of varieties of yellow iris, some are playfully marked with contrasting colors.
Name: Iris selections
Size: From 4 inches to 3 feet tall, depending on variety
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Zones: 3-10, depending on variety
Golden-yellow Asiatic lilies are the perfect plants for transitioning your garden from spring to summer. Enjoy their gorgeous starry flowers in the landscape or cut them as long-lasting cut flowers.
Name: Lilium selections
Size: From 2 to 4 feet tall, depending on variety
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Zones: Depends on variety
In most areas, you can plant pansies in the garden for fall color and they'll appear again the following spring to add charm to the landscape. (Gardeners in warm-winter climates often grow them as winter annuals.)
Test Garden Tip: Pansy flowers are edible; use them to embellish desserts or decorate salads.
Name: Viola selections
Size: From 4 to 8 inches tall, depending on variety
Growing conditions: Full sun or part shade and moist, well-drained soil
Zones: 4-8, but often treated as an annual
Prickly pear is one of the most versatile cacti around, gracing gardens as far north as Minnesota and as far South as Texas with its golden cup-shape blooms and flat pads. It's a fun textural counterpoint to most other flowers in the garden!
Name: Opuntia humifusa
Size: To 1 foot tall
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Zones: 4-9
Missouri primrose is a practically foolproof plant that offers a long summer bloom season. Each golden-yellow flower catches the eye with its beauty and graces the nose with its fragrance.
Test Garden Tip: Missouri primrose can be vigorous when it's happy. Some gardeners consider it a bit pesty.
Name: Oenothera macrocarpa
Size: To 8 inches tall and 2 feet wide
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Zones: 4-8
