Chartreuse or zingy acid green is a key trend for interiors this year and is also a colour I love in the garden. Even on the greyest day it adds a little splash of sunshine to any outside space, whether lighting up a shaded area of the garden or in an open border. It makes a wonderful foil to just about any colour flowers, particularly blues or deep red-purples.

One which seems to happily seed itself round my garden is Alchemilla mollis with its mid-green leaves and zingy flowers, rather than digging it up I have been interspacing the frothy flowers with the lilac-blue of Nepeta x faassenii, the bees are delighted buzzing round these flowers all day long. Another acid green plant that I’ve added to the garden and grown to love, since attending a talk by Derry Watkins of Special Plants, www.specialplants.net (you can’t fail to come away with anything other than renewed enthusiasm and a bucket load of ideas for your own garden after hearing her passion for plants) is Smyrnium perfoliatum. The leaves start out as mid-green near the base changing in shade the higher up the plant they get before reaching an acid yellow colour at the top to match the flowers. As soon as I round the corner and see the flowers, it says sunshine to me. At the moment it is looking rather lonely in a small clump, it definitely needs adding to both to enjoy in the garden and a big clump to add to any bouquet of cut flowers. Or sprinkle a few seeds of the similarly acid green plant Bupleurum rotundifolium, that again becomes brighter the higher up the stem the leaves go until they reach the bright acid yellow-green of the flowers. An annual that can be sown on its own or with cornflowers and cut in big bunches for the house.

Chartreuse Flowers

From the euphorbias, Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae (wood spurge) which creates great ground cover and Euphorbia palustris ‘Walenburg’s Glorie’ are two particular favourites that will light up a dappled area. To hellebores such as Helleborus × hybridus ‘Harvington lime’ which not only looks good in shady areas but adds colour to the garden during late winter and early spring. At the other end of the light scale Echinacea ‘Green Jewel’ with its acid green centre and petal edges look stunning swaying in the middle of a border in the sunshine. This flower will go with just about anything from deep reds to blues and purples.

Chartreuse Flower Combinations

Complementary colours to chartreuse, blues and purples make great combinations, particularly the deep blue-purple colours of Salvias of, Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ with its deep blue-purple stems and flowers or the purple whorls of Salvia verticillata ‘Purple Rain’. Best of all is the fun of finding new combinations.