This variegated yellow sweet flag makes tight, glowing tufts of grassy foliage striped gold and green, holding its color all four seasons at under a foot tall. Massed, it reads like a ribbon of light along a bed edge or water feature.

Give it wet to consistently moist soil; it's one of the few bright evergreens genuinely happy in poor drainage, so use it where downspouts empty or clay stays soggy. Sun to part sun keeps the gold strong, and maintenance amounts to combing out old blades in spring.