20 Ways to Add a Chartreuse Splash to Your Landscape

Design-savvy gardeners know chartreuse combines with almost anything, and plant choices expand yearly. Here are ways to use old favorites, new cultivars, and bold accents for added garden flair.

1. Go for Impact With a Colored Wall

This low privacy wall repeats the bright green of yellow pitcher plant (Sarracenia spp., zones 7–10) in an unusual water garden by Thomas Hoblyn for London's Chelsea Flower Show.

2. Use Vertical Space

Low-growing chartreuse plants enliven a living wall, complementing greenish blues of glazed pottery at Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco. Cool greens pop against red corrugated siding.

3. Paint Your Door

While most prefer traditional colors, a chartreuse entrance is fun in the right setting. This modern Seattle home's door would look great with chili pepper lights wrapped around ivy garlands.

When to Paint Your Door Green

4. Enliven Foundation Plantings

With feathery appearance and finely cut foliage, Golden Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa 'Sutherland Gold', zones 3–8) suits foundation plantings in shade and tolerates wet conditions.

5. Integrate Art With Plantings

Homeowners hung a weather-resistant contemporary art piece on a pool enclosure wall and used chartreuse pillows to pick up its cool mood at this Oregon home. Lime-colored shrubs in containers repeat the theme.

6. Play With Form

Bowles Golden Sedge (Carex elata 'Aurea', zones 5–9) forms the golden tuft in this Vermont garden. Its thin, grasslike form perfectly contrasts large-leaf hosta or black cohosh (Cimicifuga ramosa 'Brunette' or 'Hillside Black Beauty').

7. Bring Red Into Mixed Plantings

Containers pop with contrast in this Seattle garden. For maximum impact, pair red or burgundy coleus with golden sweet potato vine in tubs and add bright pink annuals for punch.

8. Use Small Plants as Decorative Objects

Love the simplicity of this San Diego tabletop centerpiece. Low-growing sedum (Sedum rupestre 'Angelina', zones 3–8) is touchable, has yellow-green new growth, and looks great in a black terrazzo pot.

9. Let the Shade Garden Be a Swirl of Bright Green

Hostas (zones 3–9) divide easily spring through fall—no excuse not to mix and match frequently. Once you start, watch out: hostas are slightly addictive with endless color permutations.

10. Make a Small Space Feel Bigger

Repeated chartreuse patches bring brightness to this narrow garden, which might otherwise feel cramped. Variegated leaves, fine texture, and broad forms liven the setting; orange lily provides good contrast.

11. Slopes Can Be Beautiful, Too

This is 'Aureola' (Hakonechloa macro 'Aureola', zones 5–9), 2009 Perennial Plant of the Year. Planted on a shady bank among violets, hostas, ferns, and epimedium, it forms a stunning focal point spilling down the slope.

12. Cover the Ground With Bold Color

Mass planting of Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macro 'All Gold', zones 6–9) stands out—no variegation, more intensely yellow than 'Aureola'. Suitable for sun and great with spreading annuals.

13. Repeat Color to Draw the Eye to Focal Points

Do you see the cow? Chartreuse pathway plantings connect with the far bed, drawing the eye to the sculpture. A harmonious, playful composition.

14. Focus on Small Details

One of the easiest perennials, lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis, zones 3–7) produces whorls of delicate light green florets on airy stems midseason, combining beautifully with pale lavender cranesbill.

15. Purple Makes a Great Companion Color

Grow ornamental onion (Allium spp.) with spurge (Euphorbia spp.) for cut flowers. Colors clash beautifully and somehow work.

16. Make Children's Play Structures Wildly Fun

This Cleveland Botanical Garden playhouse has a chartreuse painted green roof filled with prairie plants—definitely eye-catching.

17. Show Your Style

Another eye-catching structure, this Los Angeles building is hard to miss. Look carefully at exterior walls for all shades of bright green used.

18. Bring Nature to Outdoor Living Rooms

Pale green accents on this daybed create a soothing mood, combining well with wood trim and walls, bringing nature closer to home comforts.

19. Create a Hip Patio With All-Weather Cushions

Lightweight lime green pillows anchor a seating area and visually tie to tall planters and surrounding vegetation. Give patio cushions a fashion redo with bright greens.

20. Cool Down

Make a backyard retreat more inviting with subtle green variations and comfortable furniture in a relaxation-friendly location. When it's hot, nothing cools like green.