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 co-founded GardenRant and wrote for national gardening magazines and independent garden centers before retiring in 2014. Now she has time for these projects:
– Creating and editing the nonprofit website Greenbelt Online to serve her adopted town of Greenbelt, Maryland (a “New Deal Utopia” founded in 1937); and managing the Greenbelt, Maryland YouTube Channel. She’s also on the Board of Greenbelt Access TV.
– A YouTube channel chronicling her hoop-dancing adventure and curating tutorials on YouTube for beginners.
– Founding two resource websites: Good Gardening Videos that recommends science-based gardening videos on YouTube; and DC Gardens, the nonprofit campaign to promote the public gardens of the Washington, D.C. area, and gardening by locals.
Here Susan rants about anything that misinforms or discourages gardeners – from old-school quacks to mistaken do-gooders to local laws that mandate conformity – and reports on news from the world of gardening.
Contact Susan via email or by leaving a comment on one of her articles.