This vertically challenged little kowhai will never attain anywhere near the height of its big tree relatives, but it has their same, shiny gold flowers that has made them a national icon. In fact it’s gone one step better, by flowering over a longer period, often starting in mid winter and continuing on into spring.
But enough of the flowers, what about the foliage? It’s an attractive light shade of green, and close-knit, appealing in its own right and ensuring the interest continues when the flowers have finished. It can even be clipped into a hedge if you wish, and becomes dense, distinctive and attractive when trained this way, but bear in mind that regular clipping is likely to result in sparse flowering.
‘Dragon’s Gold’ is ideal for gardeners on the lookout for low maintenance shrubs. It really is one that can be planted and left to its own devices. Even in dry summers it won’t need extra watering once established and in poor soils it might grow a little more slowly than usual but will still be happy.
This is a good shrub to combine with other natives. Try it with the big red flowers of kaka beak, Clianthus ‘Kaka King’, which make a great show at the same time. In hot, dry situations, grow it as a background to the Poor Knight’s lily, Xeronema callistemon, which needs a good baking in the sun to produce its dark red, bottlebrush shaped flowers.
In mild climate gardens, plant it with Metrosideros ‘Tahiti’, a very compact and handsome relative of the native pohutukawa, which has fabulous crimson flowers in several prolific flushes per year, usually early winter and spring.
Or grow it with some of the colourful modern native flax (Phormium) varieties which offer year round foliage colour, and often have flowers in early summer as well. Go for moody ‘Black Rage’, dazzling ‘Sunset Dreams’ or more subtle ‘Cream Delight’. Mind you, there are times when you want to make the garden seem less complicated. If you feel like that, you might prefer to have a group of ‘Dragon’s Gold’ and little else except stones and grasses. It fits well with that natural, uncluttered look too.
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Schemes & Themes
using Liddle Wonder Plants