They Call Me Mellow Yellow

I love using variegated foliage to lighten up shady areas or to create interest without depending always on blooms. This is a really nice combination: Coprosma ‘Marbel Queen’, Heleborus and Aeoneum ‘Sunburst’. The Helebore blooms are interesting and last forever; the Aeonium always looks good; and the shiny leaves of the Coprosma are the perfect foil for the chartreuse and yellow of both plants. To create some rest for the eye in this planting I used Pittosporum crassifolium ‘compactum’ which isn’t variegated but gives us lovely fresh green leaves in early spring.

Other tried and true variegated plants I always return to are:

• Carex elegantissima ‘variegata’ – it has a tiny stripe of yellow on the strap leaf margin.
• Lonicera nitida ‘Lemon Beauty’ – a smaller evergreen shrub with tidy little variegated leaves of lemon and green.
• Carex trifada ‘Rekohu Sunrise’ – this was a recent discovery, a thicker leaved carex, happy in shade with a lovely yellow stripe on leaf margin.  Gives a good tropical look.
• Plectranthus area- for a shady area, tender to fronts but gorgeous fuzzy leaves make it worth the trouble.
• Ajania pacifica – Pretty scalloped leaves with a white outline, great in a pot.
• Dianella tasmanica ‘Variegata’- looks like a Phormium but can tolerate more shade and produces interesting blue berry-like blooms.
• Pelargonium crispum ‘Variegatum’ – one of the more controllable in size, has a nice vertical growth habit and can be made into an adorable tree like form for a pot.
• Westringia fruticosa ‘Smokey’ – White edges on this tough shrub make it even more sparkly and good looking.