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Turnera ulmifolia |
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| Self-sown stand near where the original plant lived |
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Common name |
yellow buttercup; yellow alder; sage rose |
Family |
turneraceae |
Life cycle |
tender perennial/shrub (Z9-11) |
Flowers |
yellow (summer-fall) |
Size |
24-36" |
Light |
sun-light shade |
Cultural notes |
well drained soil, drought-tolerant |
From seed |
reseeds in our garden Flowers first year from seed sown indoors early.
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Two-inch yellow buttercup flowers on a rounded evergreen shrub, open in the morning and close in late afternoon. It's among my favorite border plants in our Texas garden: in bloom through most of the season, not bothered by heat or drought, and looking like a solid deep green mass even when flowers are sparse. The serrated leaves are supposedly fragrant (but I haven't noticed that), and the flowers, which open in the morning and close by late afternoon, attract butterflies and other pollinators. So I'm surprised that it's not more popular around here.
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| Flowers close in a spiral fashion late afternoon |
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| Seedpod hidden underneath the leaves |
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Yellow buttercup is generally hardy in our Gulf Coast garden. The top growth is not freeze-tolerant: even a mild freeze is sufficient to kill the leaves. The winter after we first planted our first plant had a harsh spell into the mid-teens with freezing rain, and our plant did not return that spring – but its seedlings did, emerging in the middle of March and growing to blooming size by mid-summer. The stand was impressively dense by early fall, until a November freeze knocked them back. The two winters since then have been milder overall, though, and the new stand has proved to be root-hardy, returning strongly each spring. For the longest time, I was puzzled by the self-seeding: superficial inspection of blooming plants never revealed anything but flowers and buds, no seeds. It wasn't until I looked more carefully that I spotted the seedpods; even on a profusely blooming plant, there are typically only a few, hidden underneath the leaves, usually empty because they drop their seeds quickly, and the pods themselves drop to the ground shortly afterwards. Once I figured that out, I was able to collect some seed, but most seed is deposited on the ground below – ready to replace the mother plant should another deep freeze come along. Which it did, in February 2021, which again outright killed all plants. This time, volunteer seedlings took a long time to show up, not emerging until late May.
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| Seedlings in mid-March following the winter demise of mother plant |
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| Bigger seedlings in early June |
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| Touched by a mild freeze, November 2018 |
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| Just planted, early June |
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| Growing nicely, mid-August |
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| In early fall of year one, pairing nicely with the neighboring salvia 'Wendy's Wish' |
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In our garden, this plant grows in the following area: back fence border About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Turnera ulmifolia
Visitors to this page have left the following commentsNoobGardener69 | May 21, 2021 | How to germinate the seeds? are they needs direct sunlight or hot weather in general? I have tried to sow many of them and none of them are growing I don't know, unfortunately. I was likewise unsuccessful this year trying to grow them from seed. Luckily I just spotted a few volunteer seedlings in the garden, because the mother plants are definitely dead after our big winter freeze. |
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