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The golden foliaged raspberry is a delicate and delightful tuffet of good cheer when it is happy. Unfortunately it likes high summer temperatures and seems to do best in the eastern counties.
I have seen it making a fair approximation of ground cover at the Sir Harold Hillier Arboretum in Hampshire and it always looks good at the Beth Chatto gardens in Essex.
It struggles outside with me and is happier in a pot in the greenhouse as long as it is fed well and repotted frequently. Yellow foliage plants have a mixed appeal, people either love them or hate them. Unfortunately in the case of the golden raspberry it is usually hate. Dan Hinkley said in the Heronswood catalogue in 2000: "... this rambling and suckering raspberry with bright yellow foliage held throughout the summer months is a bright and cheery knitter in the woodland and north foundation planting alike ... Plant this with the knowledge that it will ultimately prove to be annoying in its rambunctious, stoloniferous habit of growth." Oh well, I still love it. The Missouri Botanical Garden Palnt Finder says: "‘Aureus’ is an ornamental, low-growing, yellow-leaved form of raspberry. It is typically grown in gardens as a ground cover or foliage accent and not for fruit production. It is a suckering shrub with prickly stems that typically grows to 1-2’ tall and features compound leaves, each with 3-5 ovate, bright yellow leaflets with greenish veins. Small white flowers appear in spring. This cultivar infrequently produces fruit." Beth Chatto Gardens say: "Very attractive, where there is room, in light shade amongst shrubs, or in the leaf litter beneath trees. Pale lemon-yellow leaves create a patch of sunlight where its underground shoots weave through fine leafmould. We have it growing amongst blue Hosta 'Halcyon'." |
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| 8th June 2014 | ||
