By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Whether you want to call it a "spot of gold" or a "thread of gold," a new gardening trend will have you striking it rich. Your garden will be well rewarded with envious glances from your neighbors when you add plants the color of gold to your landscape.

Gold-colored plants are hot -- but not necessarily in large quantities, although I have seen great beds outlined in gold. What I am really talking about is wonderful perennial beds with one or two brilliant gold plants shining in the middle.

I like the complementary look the best when it comes to gold, so plant the opposite color of golden yellow, which is violet to purple. You may be thinking I am talking about plants like a golden rudbeckia combined with a veronica or a salvia. This works and always will, but this trend incorporates plants with golden foliage rather than flowers.

Three of the hottest golden-leafed plants are coleus, Joseph's coat and the evergreen shrub called chamaecyparis. Coleus is still on an upward trend in popularity. Though I recently encouraged you to mass plant, you will see that spot planting gold-leafed forms serves a great purpose.

Joseph's coat comes in several colors. It is durable and ideally suited to the front of the border or in pocket-type plantings. Let this serve as a warning: in October you will wish you had some in your landscape, so buy any you find remaining at the garden center.

The chamaecyparis is a dwarf conifer or evergreen shrub. The name actually means dwarf cypress. This plant is so popular that it is usually difficult to find. At first, horticulturists thought they would not take our torrid summers, but they have performed well throughout most of the state. Varieties like Gold Thread and Gold Mops are two of the better choices.

You are about to learn how the beds come together for a masterpiece. As my regular readers know, proper bed preparation is essential to great performance from any plant. You won't want to skimp on that detail this time, either.

Landscapers design the beds using informal drifts of perennial salvias like the Mississippi Medallion award winning Victoria blue, or Indigo spires along with plantings of purple violet perennial verbenas like Babylon, Aztec or Homestead. At the front of the border they are using good quantities of New Wonder scaevola, also a Mississippi Medallion award winner.

It may be hard to see how the verbena, salvia and scaevola could possibly work together, but this is where the gold comes in. Whether it is coleus, Joseph's coat, chamaecyparis or some of all three, these become the golden threads on which the flowers are weaved. It resembles a gold necklace with sapphires.

There is still plenty of time for you to strike gold this summer as we head toward fall. Shop with a watchful eye -- who knows what you may find at your garden center?