Saint John’s wort is a shrub with abundant blooming which requires practically no care at all.
Key St John’s wort facts
Name – Hypericum
Family – Hypericaceae
Type – shrub
Height – 1 ½ to 6 ½ feet (50 to 200 cm)
Exposure – full sun, part sun
Soil – rich enough
Foliage – evergreen
Flowering – May to October
The penetrating yellow light that its flowers share is remarkable and will attract all eyes to the garden.
Planting Saint John’s wort
What is recommended is to plant Saint John’s wort in fall to support root development.
But still, you can also plant in spring, as long as you water abundantly at the beginning and over the following summer if the weather is hot and dry.
In a container, you can also plant in spring or summer, provided you water regularly.
- Find a very sunny spot for it.
- Saint John’s wort can tolerate any type of soil, even poor soil.
- Place the plant somewhere you’ll notice its bloom, because all those yellow flowers will boost your mood!
- Refer to our guidelines for planting shrubs
Pruning Saint John’s wort
Prune your Saint John’s wort at the end of winter or at the beginning of spring, before the first buds start opening up, to ensure you’ll have optimal blooming.
Pruning every year isn’t necessary, but if you run the shears along the bush every 2 or 3 years, you’ll ensure your Saint John’s wort will keep a compact bearing. Occasionally, a growth spurt will hit a single branch and make it grow long and leggy. Don’t be afraid to cut it shorter if it’s not growing in a direction you want it to go: it will branch out and make the shrub grow denser, and you’ll get more lush blooming later on, too.
If the foliage has dried out and the shrub looks bare and sparse, feel free to cut back to the ground and new shoots will start growing from the stump.
- St John’s wort can take severe pruning when performed at the right time (early spring).
Deadheading St John’s wort
St John’s wort is a repeat-blooming flower. Removing wilted flowers will encourage new blooms.
However, because fresh flowers grow alongside forming fruits, this sometimes isn’t very easy, depending on the variety and the size of the flowers.
Learn more about Saint John’s wort
A very appealing shrub with distinctive yellow flowers, Saint John’s wort is also a herbal plant used by many in herbalism to fight depression!
It is also liked for its evergreen leafage.
Its name, Saint John’s wort, comes from the day it can usually be harvested in Europe, the Feast of Saint John. A particularly renowned species is Hypericum perforatum, which has small translucent glands within the flesh of its leaves. If you look through the leaves towards light, you’ll notice uncountable tiny holes.
Since this is an easy plant to grow and care for, you’ll have great results thanks to its hardiness.
In rocky ground, shrub beds, or even in pots or garden boxes, place it wherever you’re certain to see it so that the bright colors and beautiful flowers may light up your day.
Saint John’s wort is found either as ground cover or as a shrub, which makes it an ideal plant to grow in the ground and in pots.
Most Saint John’s wort varieties are herbaceous plants.
Interesting Saint John’s wort varieties
Hypericum andosaemum – This is the ideal specimen to set up low-lying evergreen hedges. This variety never grows any taller than 32 inches (80 cm) and bears cute little yellow flowers.
Hypericum citrinum – As its name shows, its flowers are a luminous ornamental lemon-like color.
Hypericum inodorum – This very hardy and resilient Saint John’s wort will also bear innumerable flowers.
Hypericum moserianum – The mottled pink and green leaves make this one particularly appealing. Floral buds are pink and the flowers burst to reveal a striking yellow hue.
Hypericum patulum ‘hidcote’ – Considered by many to be highly ornamental, this Saint John’s wort bears very many flowers and truly illuminates your garden.
Read also:
Smart tip about Saint John’s wort
It also makes for great hedges, because its rapid growth will quickly break the view to and from your neighbor’s.
Just remember to prune it very early in spring because flowers will only appear on new sprigs that will start growing in the middle of spring.
St John’s wort on social media
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Single St John’s wort flower by Manfred Antranias Zimmer ★ under Pixabay license
St John’s wort fruit & flower by Manfred Antranias Zimmer ★ under Pixabay license
St John’s wort hedge by Werner Sidler under Pixabay license
Yellow blooms (also on social media) by Rosalyn & Gaspard Lorthiois, own work
I have recently planted a St.Johns Wort and it has started to grow very well. However there is one horizontal branch which has grown quite long and has no buds, just leaves. Should this branch be cut off ?
Hi Stuart, you can cut it shorter, but I wouldn’t cut it off entirely. Cutting it shorter will lead to branching out. This will make the shrub denser, and secondary growth tends to have more blooms. Possibly you did an excellent job planting the shrub and it’s really having fun spreading out, so make sure you know what shape and space you want it to have later on and use that as a guide to prune anything that juts out.
Thank you very much for your information and quick response.
Why are the leaves on my Sunburst hypericum curling and not flowering.
Hi Mary, it depends on the situation. Not flowering is because the plant is dealing with some sort of survival stress: whatever is making the leaves turn yellow. Until the plant feels safe, it won’t flower.
So why would leaves curl on hypericum? Several possibilities:
– if it’s in a pot and the drainage hole is plugged, then excess water won’t flow out and the soil stays soggy. This is overwatering, and leaves usually turn yellow and drop off before they turn brown. Repot in a pot that has a hole under it that drains well, and layer about 2 inches of gravel or clay pebbles. If it’s in the soil and symptoms are the same, maybe the soil doesn’t drain well enough. It would be best to try to delicately dig the plant out and add lots of drainage material under it like coconut coir, clay pebbles or gravel again, and the like. Another sure way to help is to raise the growing bed so excess water will always drain away.
– if, on the other hand, leaves turn brown before falling off, then it might be underwatering. In a pot, it needs water very regularly, almost daily in Summer. In the soil, it can go for longer without watering but if it’s just been planted, it won’t have far-extending roots yet. A good solution is to go for hydrogel garden beads, these store water for longer periods of time if you can’t water that often.
A last possible cause for curling leaves on hypericum is aphids or thrips. Follow the links to learn how to treat against these.
Why did my st John’s wort stop blooming and how can I fix it?
Hello Nancy, there are three possible reasons that can explain why it isn’t yet blooming.
First, perhaps the plant was “forced” a bit in the nursery (meaning temperature and moisture were adjusted to make it bloom earlier than naturally, for it to bloom on the selling stand). When a plant is forced like that, it usually needs a full year to recover and “get back in sync” with nature.
Second, perhaps there’s a relative lack of phosphorus and potassium in the soil. If there’s too much nitrogen, the plant will produce lots of leaves but it won’t bloom easily. Try adding a fertilizer that has P (phosphorus) and K (potassium) with less or no N (nitrogen).
Thirdly, and probably the case since most people have this problem: to bloom best, Saint John’s wort needs full sun. Perhaps you can try adding a white reflector behind the plant for a season, it should increase the likelihood of blooming.
Second,
St. John’s Wort
this is a question not a comment – does anyone know if this should be deadheaded to encourage more blooms?
Hello! Deadheading of St John’s wort is sometimes impractical, especially for species that bear flowers and fruit simultaneously like H. androsaemum. But that’s exactly when it’s most effective, because diverting growth from fruit production will lead to more new wood growth and flowers. So the short answer is yes, if you’re patient enough to single wilted flowers out!