They are probably “thrips” in the adult flying stage. They need moisture, but I’ve still got a problem with them even here in the desert, since they get moisture near my plants. You probably have them in larvae form too. I thought I had a ton of teeny tiny ants in my backyard and under the dog’s water bowl indoors. The larvae are literally only 1mm, so they look like dust until they move. I captured one yesterday in a 7x high resolution handheld microscope setup and was surprised that my “ant” was actually a neon green and black beetle. Here is the damage they cause- they suck nutrients from leaves, and their spit gets into the leaf leaving small yellow or white circles. They can cause a lot of damage pretty quickly. I do not know how to get rid of them safely at this point. Hopefully someone can help out in that department.

Lovely pot!! To some degree, what you choose will depend on what shape you want - tall and rigid, tall and flowing, short and round, short and weeping, etc. My two favorite choices would be: Spirea Ogon AKA mellow yellow, which is fountain shaped rather than the rounded or bun shape of many spireas. White flowers, fine willowy yellow to chartreuse summer foliage, and red-gold fall color. Clematis Stolwijk Gold, which has gold to chartreuse leaves and early blue flowers. Grown on a medium trellis I think this would look stunning. Ninebark I think will be too big for the pot based on my P. coppertina. I'm personally not a fan of privet and IME they get pretty huge also. Some other thoughts: Yellow oak leaf hydrangea, Little Honey, though it has a reputation for being a bit fussy. It likes at least part shade Yellow-variegated shrub dogwoods (Cornus), though they might be too large Yellow elderberries (Sambucus) might stay small enough in your pot though they get large in the ground Clumping bamboos, though I am not sure if any of the yellowish ones will be hardy enough for you. Yellow leaved evergreens, such as some of the Chamaecyparis, would have foliage year round if you will be leaving the pot outside. Some heathers have yellow to gold to orange foliage depending on the time of year and the variety. Caryopteris such as Sunshine Blue have gold foliage and late season blue flowers. You'd need to check if the flowers coordinated with the pot. Gold grasses, either variegated like some of the Miscanthus, or solid like gold Hakone grass. You might also want to consider a water garden in your pot with papyrus, though it wouldn't be hardy or yellow. Here is a link that might be useful:

@everdebz the washer and dryer are some random white that a family friend is giving her now that they've bought new ones. She's really putting this all together on a tight budget. The walls were cool gray with blue-ish undertones, which I know is popular but she doesn't care for. So painting is a high budget priority. @Jennifer Hogan I don't think shadows are the problem. It's basically a little 7x8 room with a comparitively big window the size of a standard door. But I've got some 4800K lights that were in the living room that we changed out after closing so that I can try those. But when you guys talk about "gray" without some descriptors you start to lose me a little. "Gray" is really only something I understand as a generic or as it relates to light--white is all the light, black is the absence of light and "gray" is a scale without chroma between the two. In paint, white is no chroma and black is all the chroma and the way you get "gray" is to mix complimentary colors, but all the grays when talking about paint are really just muted colors that have been lighted. And when you start adding color in light wave lengths over top of chroma my head starts spinning! ;-) Here's something that might be helpful to someone who is trying to learn to see and work with subtle colors from a non-decorator perspective as well as explain myself better: If I'm trying to mix a puddle of paint on my palette to match a color that's "gray" I start trying to name the color I see using a primary or secondary color: "Very light baby vomit green." I found a color in the description: green. Start with bright full chroma green, add white until I match the value. Now use a the compliment to mute it (red) then push and pull the temperature by using the yellow on the warm side of red or blue on the cool side of red. When someone taught me that process it completely opened up how I saw neutral colors and my ability to make, match and combine them. Chroma, then value, then muting, then temperature. I'm sure you pros here have a way to do it, but sometimes hearing things outside your exact disciple can kindle up something good. Thank you every one again. I can't wait to get over there tomorrow and try some of your suggestions.

There is actually another smaller Little Lime planted in the ground in front of this container. I wanted one really bad last year and couldn't find one locally so I mail-ordered it. Well, I didn't realize that I was buying a quart container which is very small! It was easy to plant but didn't amount to much last year. It's doing well though. So it will stay there.