Golden oldie
Yellow loosestrife has been brightening up Britain since Victorian times, writes David Overend.
This is Lysimachia punctata, AKA yellow loosestrife, whose vivid golden blooms are to be seen just about everywhere in summer. It likes partial shade (but will grow well in the sun) and damp, reasonably rich ground where it can spread rapidly by means of underground rhizomes. So, if you don’t like invasive plants, avoid it.
The same applies to its cousin, L nummularia, or “Creeping Jenny”, which rarely gets more than a few inches off the ground but which spreads like wildfire.
This very vigorous evergreen perennial forms a wide mat of creeping stems clothed in small, rounded or ovate, golden-yellow leaves.
It makes great ground-cover and can also be persuaded to drape itself over walls and tree stumps. When it gets too much, just pull it up.
Back to Lysimachia punctata, which has been grown in gardens since Victorian times. Plants form a bushy, fast-spreading clump of green leaves, with loose spikes of bright-yellow starry flowers appearing in early to mid-summer.
In beds and borders let the flowers have their way for a couple or even three years and then lift and split established clumps, replanting smaller, healthier offshoots. Lifting and splitting is the easiest way to propagate yellow loosestrife, although it can also be propagated with root cuttings taken in the spring or summer. Cut a healthy, fleshy section of a root into two inch segments and place them close together in a pot, covering them with soil.
Keep them moist until two or three leaves have developed, then they can be moved into pots or into the garden if all danger of frost has passed. Alternatively, let the plant do the work for you – Lysimachia punctata self-seeds profusely; dig up these seedlings and replant them where you want.
Surprisingly for a flower with such a sunny disposition, yellow loosestrife tolerates shade – as long as it’s not allowed to dry out, so regular watering may be necessary. Conversely, in very hot spots it will pay to provide some shade.
Nevertheless, it’s worth it for the blooms and for the number of butterflies that flock to the flowers for their nectar.
There is also a plant known as purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) which is at home in wet ground. It can grow to five feet in height but there are shorter varieties grown for their red or crimson flowers.