Pantone, the gurus of all things color, has selected Ultimate Gray and Illuminating Yellow for the 2021 Colors of the Year. Some headlines call it Pandemic Gray but The Garden Guy loves it and you will see it opens the door to one of the toughest, persevering and award-winning plants of all time, Flambé Yellow chrysocephalum.
Flambé Yellow gives you both pantone colors on one plant: Silver-gray leaves and stems partnered with yellow button flowers that are produced non-stop all growing season. It has won 85 awards from Florida, Georgia to Texas, Delaware to Penn State and Cornell. There aren’t too many plants that can match this trophy case.
Known botanically as Chrysocephalum apiculatum, Flambé, is from Tasmania and Australia and has the common name strawflower, though it does not resemble the large selections we call Bracteantha. It was selected as a Mississippi Medallion Award Winner while The Garden Guy was a Horticulture Specialist with Mississippi State University.
