10 award-winning yellow daisies

Most yellow daisies are very tough and easy

Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.

Tint of orange

Deep yellow flowers grow to 12cm across

Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’ is one of the most widely grown of the yellow daisies. This neat, colourful and long-flowering

Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.

Starting bright

Long-stalked single daisies with pale petals and vibrant green stalks

Argyranthemum ‘Jamaica Primrose’ is an old favourite, making a larger plant than many more recent introductions and also with consistent, summer-long flowering. Opening in bright yellow and fading slightly as they age, unlike the others in this selection, the bright daisies are carried on bushy, slightly woody plants that need frost protection in winter. Ideal in sunny borders and large containers. Height can reach 75cm (30in). Hardiness rating H2.

Small but mighty

Keep exposed - thrives in strong light and unshaded conditions

Solidago ‘Goldenmosa’ is an old favourite introduced in 1949. In August and September, huge numbers of tiny yellow flowers open in large cone-shaped flowerheads. This is an upright plant, and is a dependable border perennial as well as a useful cut flower; cut the stems when about a third of the flowers are open and always use a flower food. Height can reach 75cm (30in). Hardiness rating H7.

Cup plant

Sprays of these bright yellow daisies open in late summer

Silphium perfoliatum is an imposing perennial, and each large oval and dark green toothed leaf is fused into a cup where it pairs with its opposite neighbour and collects moisture after rain; this is a bold plant long before the flower

A bud is a small, undeveloped shoot that contains the potential for new growth. Buds are typically found on stems, where they can be apical (found at the tip) or axillary (found between leaf axils) and may develop into leaves, shoots or flowers.

More red than yellow

Orange flowerheads, with touches of yellow coming through

There’s something very refreshing about a daisy that you expect to be yellow – but which isn’t. Every other plant included here, except the Argyranthemum, comes only in shades of yellow, so the soft red of Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’, with only its hint of yellow at the tips, is a treat. Height can reach 80cm (31in). Hardiness rating H7.

Large flower head

Large yellow flower heads on branched, leafy stems

Inula magnifica ‘Sonnenstrahl’ is a bold perennial with large, elliptical leaves that can reach 25cm (10in) long. In June and July, the 15cm (6in) flowers are borne on purple-tinted stems. Each flower is made up of a generously-filled ring of very slender, bright yellow rays surrounding a slightly darker eye. ‘Sonnenstrahl’ was selected by the German nurseryman Ernst Pagels for being unusually prolific. Best in damp soil. Height can reach 2m (6ft6in). Hardiness rating H7.

Vibrant flowers

These bright yellow flowers bloom from mid-summer to early autumn

Heliopsis helianthoides var. scabra ‘Benzinggold’ is a prolific and easily manageable plant. These self-supporting relations of the sunflower carry semi-double flowers from July to September.

Sunflower yellow

Features dark centres and rich yellow flowerheads, 10-15cm wide

Helianthus ‘Monarch’ is a tall and dramatic perennial sunflower featuring flowers which are usually 15cm (6in) across, but which can be almost twice that if the side shoots are nipped out. In bright, golden yellow with a dark red centre which yellows as it matures, ‘Monarch’ is at its best in September and October. Often requiring support, it may become uncomfortably vigorous and so need controlling. Height can reach 2.5m (8ft). Hardiness rating H4.

Green centres

Also known as Sneezeweed ‘Butterpat’, it flowers from summer to autumn

Its crowded ring of slender, bright yellow rays, which are the same shimmering shade underneath, surrounds a pale green eye which quickly matures to the same colour as the rays. Very prolific, and usually opening in August for a long season, Helenium ‘Butterpat’ has a tendency to lose its lower leaves and so benefits from being sited behind a shorter, bushier plant. Raised by Alan Bloom and introduced in 1960. Height can reach 1.2m (4ft). Hardiness rating H7.

Golden yellow

Deep golden-yellow daisies easily fill large areas

One of the tallest cultivars of this very tough and hardy, slender-leaved perennial, the July to September flowers have more impact than those of some other cultivars, as the petals of Coreopsis verticillata ‘Grandiflora’ overlap at the edges to create a fuller effect. ‘Grandiflora’ is also taller than the other RHS Recommended: Award of Garden Merit cultivars ‘Old Timer’ and ‘Zagreb’ and so better suited to cutting for large cottagey arrangements. Height can reach 90cm (3ft). Hardiness rating H5.