I was at my local nursery the other day when I couldn’t help but overhear a conversation, (mainly because I was eavesdropping), between a woman and her mother. ‘You don’t like yellow, do you mum?’ ‘No’, she replied, rather brusquely, dismissing one of the four primary colours as if it were a least favourite food or day of the week. Immediately my ire was raised.
Last year I presented my first show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower show. This has been a long-held ambition. Only a recent graduate in garden design, I found myself awarded this incredible opportunity after entering my design in the competition for the new container garden category. I was beyond excited, humbled, and nervous in the run up to the show. My design, entitled ‘Pop Street’ garden, was inspired by Pop and Street art, for their vibrant colours, energy and optimism – something as we came out of lockdown, I desperately craved. The colour yellow, my favourite colour, featured prominently – hence my reaction. The artist Fernand Leger once said that:
“The craving for colour is a natural necessity just as for water or fire. Colour is the raw material indispensable for life. At every era of his existence and his history, the human being has associated colour with his joys, his actions and his pleasures”.
I’m mad for colour. Colourful clothes, shoes, furniture, plants etc. You name it. Now I know that we all have colours that we like, colours that we like to wear, or colours that we won’t wear – for various reasons. For example, I seldom wear the colour red as I don’t think it looks good on me. I feel like I look like a giant ketchup bottle. Simple as that. Overhearing this conversation at the nursery got me thinking, as it seems to be a fairly common comment from people, this ‘down on yellow’. Even the garden designer Rachel de Thame wrote in Gardens Illustrated that she and her friends had ‘fallen out’ with yellow. She conceded that she was trying to bring more yellow into her garden now, but her comments were hardly high praise for a colour that is psychologically the happiest colour in the spectrum and has been shown to energize people and relieve depression. Yellow stimulates mental processes and the nervous system, activates memory, and encourages communication. My design for Chelsea celebrated colour loudly and proudly.
Colours have different meanings to different cultures. Yellow is associated with both positive and negative traits, so perhaps it is unsurprising that people are seldom full-throated in their praise.
Yellow sparks a broad range of emotions. It can be playful and radiant, whilst unforgiving and foreboding. The many facets of the colour speak to an incredible spirit and fascinating hue. At its best, yellow symbolises happiness, optimism, positivity, creativity, perception and warmth. The effects of yellow can be to energise, amuse, inspire and clarify. At its worst, cowardice, deception, egotism and caution.
The colour yellow stimulates the left side of the brain, which promotes logical thinking. It encourages us to focus our thinking and make informed decisions. When we see the colour yellow, it prompts us to remain practical. Yellow is inherently optimistic and can boost our confidence. When used at networking events, the colour yellow has proven incredibly effective in producing mutual collaboration.
When anxieties and fears become all-consuming, the colour yellow can help provide peace of mind. By enabling us to make sound decisions, yellow can help instil simplicity into complex situations. As previously stated, yellow relates strongly to cognizance and awareness, not exaggerated emotion. However, yellow can also trigger uneasiness. If you are prone to nervousness and self-criticism, yellow can stimulate an unhealthy amount of critical thinking.
Colour shades can also reflect associations in a positive or negative way. For example, darker shades of yellow represent caution, jealousy, decay and disease. Lighter shades are associated with intelligence, freshness and joy.
There are a variety of popular phrases and cultural references that bestow various attributes and associations with yellow. The phrase ‘Yellow bellied’ – means to be cowardly and afraid. An archetypal American term that began life in England in the late 18th century as a mildly derogatory nick-name. “Yellow bellies was a name given to persons born in the Fens, who, it is jocularly said, have yellow bellies, like their eels. However the usage wasn’t limited to the Lincolnshire Fens. In a match against a team from Cornwall, in the late 16th century, the Wexford hurling team, to distinguish themselves from the other team, played with yellow cloth tied around their waist, and this caused them to be nicknamed The Yellowbellies. Wexford still play in yellow and the name has stuck, although it isn’t clear when the nickname was first used. This story, in as much as it can be verified at all has no connotations of cowardice. None of the early English or Irish uses of the name suggest cowardice. For that connotation we look to the USA. John Wayne’s slow drawl in any cowboy movie comes to mind in terms of delivery, though I’m not certain Wayne ever uttered the phrase. The first use of the term that I can find comes from the USA, from an account of a military skirmish in Texas, reported in The Wisconsin Enquirer, April 1842.
“We learn from Capt. Wright, of the N. York, that it is the intention of the Texans to “keep dark” until the Mexicans cross the Colorado, and then give them a San Jacinto fight, with an army from 5000 to 7000 men. God send that they may bayonet every “yellow belly” in the Mexican army.”
The US usage initially applied specifically to Mexicans, who were soon to be at war with the USA. Whether the ‘yellow’ reference was a racist allusion to skin colour, ill-health, or to a likening to snakes, lizards etc. isn’t clear. Whatever the origin, the US ‘coward’ version seems to be independent of the earlier English nick-name.
Yellow journalism and yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate, well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. The tabloids come to mind.
My personal favourite yellow connotation is with the song by 60’s singer Donovan. ‘Mellow Yellow.’ ‘I’m-a just mad about saffron. She’s just mad about me. They call me mellow yellow…’ Donovan tells the story that he and John Lennon used to look in the back of newspapers and pull out things they found funny and they’d end up in songs. The song is about being cool, laid-back, and also the electrical bananas that were appearing on the scene – which were ladies’ vibrators. “I was reading a newspaper and on the back there was an ad for a yellow dildo called the mellow yellow,” he said. Back-up vocals for the song were provided by Paul McCartney. Mellow Yellow was also another name for the drug LSD.
In the US the song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. “Mellow Yellow” peaked at No. 8 in the UK in early 1967.
Yellow is a herald of spring, seen in the early blooms of Forsythia and daffodils and narcissus. It is a champion of hot summers, in sunflowers, dahlias, kniphofia’s, cana’s and cosmos. In autumn we find it in Achillea, Rudbeckias and in the autumn leaves of countless deciduous trees. Winter Aconites, Jasmine and Mahonia carry on until the cycle begins again. Yellow roses for friendship, marigolds for the beauty and warmth of the rising sun, or for despair and grief at the loss of love. The Buttercup Game. A traditional child’s game where you hold a bright yellow buttercup under your chin and if it reflects yellow onto your skin, then you are said to like butter. Favourite yellow foods? Macaroni cheese, bananas, saffron rice, English mustard, yellow peppers, corn on the cob. The list goes on. Ever present yellow. Amazing yellow. Dynamic yellow! There’s a yellow out there for everyone, for every mood. Yellow does not apologise, and if it’s your favourite colour, like it is mine, neither should you for singing the praises of all things yellow in the garden.
