Common Name: large-flowered St. John's wort
Type: Deciduous shrub
Family: Hypericaceae
Native Range: Western China
Zone: 6 to 9
Height: 2.00 to 3.00 feet
Spread: 3.00 to 5.00 feet
Bloom Time: June to September
Bloom Description: Yellow
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Hedge
Flower: Showy
Tolerate: Drought
Culture
Easily grown in average, medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Prefers moist, rich, sandy loams. Tolerates some drought.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Hypericum kouytchense is a semi-evergreen (deciduous in St. Louis) shrub that typically grows in a dense mound to 2-3’ tall and to 3-5’ wide. It is noted for its yellow flowers, blue-green foliage and red fruit. This is a rounded shrub with arching stems clad with elliptic to ovate, bluish-green leaves (to 2.5” long). Five-petaled, golden yellow flowers (2.5-inch diameter) in multi-flowered cymes bloom from summer to fall (June-September). Each flower has five showy styles and a distinctive center boss of erect yellow stamens in five indistinct bundles. Many authorities including the Royal Horticultural Society consider H. ‘Sungold’ to be synonymous with this species.
Genus name comes from the Greek words hyper meaning "above" and eikon meaning "picture" in reference to the practice of hanging flowers from this genus above images, pictures or windows.
Specific epithet means of Kweichow (Guizhou) province in central China.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems.
Uses
Low hedge, border or rock garden. Wood margins, rocky slopes, wild gardens, naturalized areas or pond peripheries.