Photo: Mason Brock, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Golden St. John's-wort

Hypericum frondosum

Also called cedar glade St. John's-wort.

A rounded shrub of limestone glades with blue-green leaves and golden flowers up to 1.75 inches across, each a brush of stamens, in June and July.

Showy flowersDrought tolerantWildlife value

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 2–10 ft
USDA zones: 5–8
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Rocky ground and dry uplands
Native range: 11 states, north to Indiana, south to Florida and west to Texas
List all 11
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas
Also recorded in 4 other states, outside its native range. See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Golden St. John's-wort is a shrub of the limestone cedar glades, cliffs and barrens at the southwestern end of the Appalachians, from Kentucky and Tennessee south to Georgia, Alabama and Texas. Its golden flowers hold a dense brush of 250 to 650 stamens above blue-green leaves, and reddish-brown bark peels from the older stems. It is gone from Indiana, at the north edge of its range. Grow it as a low hedge or in a sunny border on well-drained ground, where its flowers carry the garden through June and July.

Size, growth and what to expect

Golden St. John's-wort grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It makes a dense, rounded shrub 3 to 4 feet tall and as wide in gardens, and wild plants reach 10 feet. Its blue-green leaves run up to 3 inches long. The shrub can be short-lived.

Golden yellow flowers 1 to 1.75 inches across open in June and July, alone or a few together at the branch tips. The reddish-brown capsules ripen in September and hang on well into winter, and songbirds eat some of the seed.

It grows wild at the southwestern end of the Appalachians, from Kentucky and Tennessee south to Georgia, Alabama and Texas, and it has been lost from Indiana. Its home is dry cedar glades, limestone cliffs, rocky hills and barrens on limestone and limy shale. Garden plants have run wild in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.

How to grow Golden St. John's-wort

Golden St. John's-wort grows in full sun or part shade, in a well-drained sandy, loamy or shallow rocky soil. It does best in a rich, sandy loam and takes some drought once rooted. Set plants 3 feet apart and 2 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Seed needs no treatment. Sow it in spring on damp soil and cover it with an eighth to a quarter inch of soil. In a warm greenhouse, seedlings come up in two to three weeks.

Water weekly through the first summer, and mulch the roots in winter where it is cold. Hard winters can kill the tops back, but the roots send up new shoots. It still blooms, since the flowers form on new wood. Prune it in spring.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. Bees and other pollinators visit the flowers, and in gardens it sometimes crosses with shrubby St. John's-wort. Wilt and root rot can be serious in hot, humid summers, and nematodes can bring on the rot. Leaf spot, mildew and rust are less of a threat.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (8)

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