Sunburst St. John’s Wort (Hypericum frondosum ‘Sunburst’)

Bright as a summer’s sun! Bright, sunny, golden-yellow flowers with golden sparks flying out of them! That’s what the brilliant flowers of Sunburst St. John’s Wort (Hypericum frondosum ‘Sunburst’) resemble! The flowers are just as the name implies, little sunbursts smothering the shrub in gleaming blooms! The flowers are larger than other St. John’s Worts, bursting onto the scene in mid-summer after many shrubs have already called it quits in the heat!

Shrubby and tightly branched, St. John’s Wort at times is almost wild-looking! Always sporting soft blueish to gray-green leaves. In warmer growing zones, St. John’s Wort may be semi-evergreen or even fully evergreen in mild winters! Butterflies, bees, and native pollinators rush to sip nectar and feast on pollen from these radiant buttercup-like blooms!

Even if they do drop leaves in winter, the dense and mounded shrub still retains wonderful features and character. The bark is a delightful exfoliating cinnamon-brown and mature stems may even display tinges of purple or plum in the fall as it gets older!

Don’t let the cheery flowers and soft foliage fool you, this plant is a tough native fighter! Given the right soil conditions – which range from loamy to sandy and everything in between – St. John’s Wort makes itself right at home, even spreading out a little to form nice colonies! Hardy throughout USDA growing zones 5 to 8 and grows into a tidy 2-3 feet in height and width at maturity.

St. John’s Wort is also a beneficial herb and has long been used to relieve everything from anxiety to inflammation. While we don’t recommend using landscaping Hypercum medicinally, just the sunny blooms and the sheer amount of butterflies that arrive are sure to lift your spirits!

Planting and Application:

Sunny and easy-care accents, these shrubs look great anywhere! If you have a wooded edge (or want to get the look of one) St. John’s Wort fits right in. Sunburst bridges the transition between the yard and the woods, taming the wildness and filling an area with little rays of sunshine! Don’t worry about those out-of-the-way areas attracting deer, those uninvited guests will usually leave this plant alone!

Mixed-shrub borders, the back garden bed, and informal hedges are perfect spots for St. Johns Wort to roam! Alternately, Sunburst brings a nice ‘scruffiness’ to a formal planting bed as well as fitting in perfectly in informal country borders. Either way, St. John’s Wort compliments your style!

Your cutting garden is a natural place for these lovelies, and every florist will be familiar with the botanical name ‘Hypericum’. Those unique seed pods that appear in fall are glossy reddish-brown and so cool to use in fashionable floral bouquets! Or, leave them to their own devices in the landscape for wonderful winter interest!

The spreading, suckering nature of these plants makes them perfect for erosion control, on steep slopes, and en masse. Need to fill an area with sunshine? Plant a few St. John’s Wort and sit back and relax!

• Bright-Yellow Flowers With Little Golden Sparks!
• Small Dense Shrub WithBlue-Green Foliage
• Winter Interest & Unique Reddish/Brown Seed Pods
• Butterfly & Bee-Friendly & Floral Design
• Spreading & Naturalizing

Tips for Care:

This selection of the hardy American native is super easy to grow. Sunburst St. John’s Wort thrives in the southeast without any care at all. In other parts of the country, it may be a deciduous shrub during winter or even die back to the ground in harsh winters, but it will come back strong and true each spring.

Loving the full sun, these easily tolerate part shade and dappled sun areas. Hypericum doesn’t have much preference for soil type, they do prefer rich, sandy loams. Just be sure to provide well-drained soils since St. John’s Wort cannot tolerate wet feet!

A generous layer of mulch retains moisture and insulates the root system from heat and winter’s chill. St. John’s Wort blooms on new wood, so prune while dormant to control the size and shape however, these really do their best in locations where they’re allowed to be themselves.

• Full Sun & Partial Shade
• Vigorous Growing Deciduous Flowering Shrub
• Needs Well-Drained Soil & Moderate Moisture Needs
• Deer Seldom Bother It & Drought Tolerant
• Super Low Maintenance & Hardy American Native Cultivar
• Prune When Dormant

Tough, and hardy, this superb native selection has all the features that make for an outstanding landscape work-horse, Sunburst St. John’s Wort practically takes care of itself! Leaving you to sit back and enjoy! Because of that, we know that you have a spot in your garden for this easy-breezy shrub!