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, Flambe Yellow chrysocephalum.
Flambe Yellow gives you both pantone colors on one plant. Silver gray leaves and stems partnered with yellow button flowers that are produced nonstop 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, Flambe 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.
You might wonder what’s so special about a plant with a name that is difficult to pronounce. The answer is nonstop blooms on a plant that is drought tolerant, heat tolerant and frost tolerant to around 30 degrees.
