10 shrubs with golden-yellow foliage to brighten the garden

Berberis thunbergii 'Tiny Gold'

This Berberis or Thorny Barberry ‘Tiny Gold’ is a striking dwarf variety. It is a spiny shrub with very compact growth and bright, deciduous foliage ranging from light green to fresh chartreuse. The spring flowering is yellow tinged with red, followed by very decorative red berries in autumn. This compact, rounded variety with a globe-shaped habit makes an excellent rockery specimen or a gentle accent in a border. It can also be showcased on a terrace or balcony. Ideal for brightening a sunny or partly shaded spot. Very cold-hardy and accommodating, it suits any soil type. A sunny position enhances the intense colouring of the foliage and the flowering but it will tolerate partial shade in southern and western France.

Berberis Tiny Gold

• For more information on these shrubs, see our plant sheet: “Berberis, Thorny Barberry: plant, prune and maintain”
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Betula nana 'Golden Treasure'

This Betula nana ‘Golden Treasure’ is a dwarf birch. It is a real boon for small city gardens, rockeries, sunny balconies and terraces! It forms a small, very compact shrub, not exceeding 1 metre in any direction at maturity. Its foliage, deciduous, is composed of small acid-green leaves in spring, turning golden yellow in summer and autumn. In May, erect yellow-brown aments flood the delicate foliage. This golden haze retains its attractive summer-to-autumn display.

This small, sun-loving, very hardy shrub prefers soil that stays fresh, low in lime and slightly acidic, and a sunny position to bring out the best leaf colouring.

Betula nana Golden Treasure

• For full details, see our plant sheet: “Birches: planting, cultivation and care”
• Also discover our wide range of birches

Choisya 'Goldfinger'

Its compact shape, modest dimensions, bright evergreen foliage and white spring flowers with a delicate fragrance of citrus trees make Mexican orange blossom or Choisya a valuable shrub in any garden, even small ones. With its striking looks and evocative scent, it is a boon in an exotic-inspired garden. The Choisya ‘Goldfinger’ is a variety with golden-yellow foliage, particularly luminous. Hardy down to -15°C, it adapts well north of the Loire in any light, not-too-calcareous, well-drained soil. It prefers a warm, sunny position sheltered from cold winds. After the first flowering, a light pruning will keep it compact.

It creates a bright focal point in the garden: plant as a specimen in a strategic spot to enjoy its delicate fragrance or to punctuate an informal hedge. It is also easy to grow in a container on a terrace.

Very fragrant flowering of Choisya Goldfinger

• And for everything about this handsome shrub, discover our plant sheet “Mexican orange blossom, Choisya ternata: planting, pruning and maintenance”
• Discover our beautiful range of Mexican orange blossom: our Choisya selection

Corylus avellana 'Aurea'

Here is a hazel like no other, as elegant as it is productive! With its fine stature and luminous crown, this Corylus avellana ‘Aurea’ is a handsome fruit-bearing shrub that deserves a place in the ornamental garden. It stands out from the species for the colour of its bright foliage, visible from a distance. Late in spring, it produces young, rounded, dentate and strongly ribbed foliage, bright yellow at first, gradually turning increasingly green before falling in autumn, the two tones blending harmoniously. Flowering is very early, before the leaves, taking the form of long, pale-yellow pendulous aments on the bare shoots, which give way to hazelnuts at maturity.

Plant in ordinary, not-too-dry soil: it thrives almost anywhere, in full sun or partial shade. It makes a fine focal point in the garden, grouped at edge of copse or within an informal hedge, fruit-bearing or used as a windbreak.

Spring foliage of Corylus avellana ‘Aurea’

• To learn everything about hazels and how to grow them successfully in the garden, see our advice sheet: “Hazel, Corylus – Plant, prune and maintain”
• Discover our beautiful range of hazels: our beautiful range of hazels

Cotinus coggygria 'Golden Spirit'

Cotinus coggygria ‘Golden Spirit’ is a variety of smoke tree characterised by deciduous foliage that changes through the seasons. Its sumptuous golden-yellow colour in spring is followed by coppery-red in autumn. It is a shrub with a growing like a bush habit reaching a height of 3 to 4 m at maturity — a modest size well suited to small gardens. As spectacular as it is surprising, the flowering, made up of a multitude of coppery-orange, feathery plumes, with a beard-like appearance but above all resembling a wig, envelops the golden foliage of this Cotinus from summer through autumn. Easy to grow, very hardy down to -20°C, it prefers well-draining, poor and light soils. It brings bright presence to garden borders and also finds a place in free hedges and rockeries.

Lovely contrast between the bright foliage of Cotinus Golden Spirit and its vapoury pink flowering.

• To learn all about it, discover our complete guide “Cotinus or Smoke Tree: planting, pruning and to grow”
• Discover, our lovely range of Cotinus

Escallonia laevis 'Gold Ellen'

Well known to Breton and English gardeners, Escallonia is an evergreen shrub, ideal for forming coastal hedges. Escallonia laevis ‘Gold Ellen’ stands out from other varieties, which usually have glossy dark green leaves, thanks to superb golden-yellow persistent foliage speckled with green. It forms a dense, rounded shrub, as tall as it is wide, reaching 2–2.5 m at maturity. In summer, fleshy, carmine-pink flowers borne at the tip of each branch open above the lush foliage. This shiny, leathery foliage, aromatic when crushed, persists through winter and brightens the garden all year round. Easy to grow, it thrives in ordinary, fresh, well-drained soil in full sun and sheltered from strong winds. Plant at back of border, on a patio; an excellent evergreen hedge shrub, grown free or clipped.

Bright pink flowers of Escallonia Gold Ellen stand out well against its golden foliage.

• To learn everything about this handsome shrub and how to grow it in the garden, discover our full guide: “Escallonia: planting, pruning and maintenance”
• Discover our lovely range of Escallonias

Physocarpus 'Angel Gold'

This new Physocarpus variety with hawthorn-like leaves combines ornamental qualities. This Physocarpus ‘Angel Gold’ brings a lovely touch of golden light to your borders or informal hedges! Indeed, this variety is remarkable for the colouring of its leaves. Its deciduous foliage turns coppery yellow in spring, then golden yellow in autumn. A very luminous colour it retains until late season, turning this shrub into a sunlit mass that catches the eye from afar in the garden. It is a handsome shrub growing like a bush, very decorative for its coloured lobed leaves, its bark that exfoliates in winter, and also for a pretty white-pink flowering in May–June, followed by small pale red decorative fruits lasting into autumn.

It grows quickly and can reach 3 m in height by 2 m across at maturity. Fully hardy, it prefers deep, humus-bearing, rich and cool soils, tolerating slightly dry and calcareous soils. It thrives in partial shade or a position not exposed to scorching sun. It also makes a striking container plant on a terrace or balcony.

Brighten your garden with Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Angel Gold’.

• To learn everything about this shrub and how to grow it successfully, discover our advice sheet: “Physocarpus, physocarpus with hawthorn-like leaves – Planting, pruning and care”
• Discover our beautiful range of Physocarpus

Santolina 'Lemon Fizz'

Santolina ‘Lemon Fizz’ is a superb, highly distinctive new horticultural hybrid of Santolina virens, a Mediterranean evergreen and hardy shrub. Its lemon-yellow foliage is made up of leaves edged with tiny teeth and, when crushed, gives off a very aromatic scent. This attractive cultivar forms a bright, dense cushion covered in small, round pale-yellow heads in summer. This pretty rock-garden undershrub is hardy to -15°C and drought-resistant, preferring dry, well-drained, poor and rather calcareous soils. Forming a rounded mound 30–40 cm in height and spread, it will bring a golden touch along pathways, as low informal hedging, in the centre of a rock garden, or in borders to cover the base of Mediterranean shrubs. This variety is also very ornamental in large containers.

Santolina ‘Lemon Fizz’ has lemon-yellow foliage.

• For everything about this shrub and how to grow it successfully, see our care guide: “Santoline: planting, care, pruning”
• Discover our lovely range of Santolinas

Spiraea vanhouttei 'Gold Fountain'

Spirea is a shrub prized for generous spring or summer flowering, elegant compact habit and dense, diamond-cut foliage, green or sometimes yellow in golden spirea. Spiraea vanhouttei ‘Gold Fountain’, also called “Van Houtte golden spirea”, wears golden-yellow foliage from spring, turning acid green in summer and yellow‑orange in autumn. This light, graceful shrub is covered in countless small pure‑white flower clusters at midsummer, also very attractive. It is a cultivar more modest in size than other spireas, not exceeding 1.50 m in any direction, with a nicely arching habit, easy to prune. Hardy to about -20°C, spirea grows in non‑scorching sun or partial shade in any ordinary, well‑drained soil. Easy to use as a specimen, in an informal hedge or in a mixed border with other summer‑flowering shrubs.

Spiraea ‘Gold Fountain’

• To learn everything about the different species and how to grow them, discover our complete guide: “Spireas: planting, pruning and care”
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Sambucus racemosa Lemony Lace

Elder, Sambucus in Latin, is a handsome deciduous shrub with fragrant umbels of flowers and horticultural varieties that display striking, distinctive foliage. Like this elder ‘Lemony Lace’, with finely incised foliage in slender strips, light, very luminous, as graphic as a Japanese maple! Deeply divided and intensely bright, its leaves emerge in spring a nearly fluorescent lemon-yellow before turning chartreuse green in summer.

With its laciniate, golden leaves it will create a sophisticated scene and bring an exotic touch to your garden. Early flowering, before leaf emergence, in white umbels in spring, turns by late summer into clusters of very decorative red fruits that contrast nicely with the golden foliage. This variety has a bushy habit, a slightly indistinct silhouette and forms a feathery, very airy mass up to 1.50 m high and wide, easy to incorporate into any garden, even the smallest. Hardy to -25°C, tolerates any type of well-drained soil, even calcareous, and thrives in sun or part shade. Sun-loving, light, architectural, undemanding, it establishes well in a shrub border, near an entrance, and grows well in a large pot or container.

Lemony Lace laciniate-leaved elder

• To learn more about the different varieties and how to succeed with them in the garden, discover our advice in our factsheet: “Elder: planting, growing, pruning”
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