Home of the Practically Perfect Pink Phlox and other native plants for pollinators

Monday, December 9, 2013

Hypercolored Hypericum takes Center Stage in the gray and rainy December garden

Even the sleet cannot diminish the brilliant late fall color display.
The hyper-colored Hypericum is a vibrant mix of golds, reds, burgundies, oranges and fading greens that pop against the dark tree bark and ice covered trees.
Cedarglade St. John's-wort and Golden St Johnswort are a few of its common names.
Hypericum frondosum puts on this fantastic hypercolored show beginning in late October or early November and keeps on glowing through most of December.
Late October 2013

When I planted one H frondosum 'Sunburst' twenty years ago, I had no idea that it was a prolific self seeder! Since then, I have planted dozens of its offspring all over the garden and have been rewarded with four seasons of beauty~ blue green foliage, masses of golden flowers that are covered with pollinators, attractive exfoliating bark and this marvelous hyper-colored fall foliage.
Rain or shine it's gorgeous...and it makes my garden glow!
It's a lovely stand alone shrub, but, massing it in a bed and planting other native plants from a cedar glade woodland makes sense for this wildlife friendly garden and creates a stunning fall show!
Native Habitat: Limestone cliffs; rocky hills; barrens
I love Hypericum frondosum and can't imagine why it's not more readily available commercially. It's gorgeous orange/burgundy/red/golden leaves make for a spectacular fall color show and in my opinion, it's far superior to invasive Burning Bush.

But, you don't have to take my word for it, let my garden do the talking, just stop by to check it out!

xoxogail

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

18 comments:

  1. Beautiful Autumn colors!
    Have a wonderful week!
    Lea

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  2. Boy, what a technicolor shrub! Love the reds in the early fall. Sun or shade?

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    1. Janet, it's a near perfect understory shrub, sun, shade, semi-shade, drought tolerant, moist, just give it decent drainage.

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  3. That is quite a beautiful show of color!

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  4. Today my garden is gray and white and icy, but I am happy next to the fire. With the computer.

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  5. Wow, the colors of hypericum are really great. Thanks for sharing the photos. We can all use a little color now that most everything is white! Jack

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  6. That is a wonderful blotch of color. It is gray and wet here as well with no such bright spots. Well, until the Christmas lights click on. :)

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  7. Fabulous! I love them and this one has incredible interest in your garden! I'll be looking for it in my area and see if I can find it at a local nursery.

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  8. I had know idea it offered another season of color.

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  9. It's a favorite of many gardeners in my state, too, and I can see why. I didn't realize the fall color was so vibrant!

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  10. It does have a wonderful soft color for winter. Here we have snow, and more snow.

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  11. What gorgeous color--I can see why you like it so much, Gail. Hope you and your garden survived the sleet. Cleon missed us for the most part, and we barely have any snow. But I know we'll get our fair share before winter is over:)

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  12. Inspiring, as always. Wonder how it would do in dry, alkaline, shallow soil Austin?

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  13. My Hypericum has never colored as brilliantly as yours -- they are really something!

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  14. It is today common to find applications of the Jura beige limestone on several exterior cladding applications,where it is applied using different posing techniques.It is also a preferential limestone for flooring,coverings and diverse stonework.The Jura limestone can be used for masonry,garden decoration and interior decoration (bath design, kitchen use, for example).

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  15. My Hypericum was a standout this fall as well.

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