Packera aurea - Golden Ragwort - Golden Groundsel

A beautiful mounding perennial, producing heart shaped, dark green basal leaves with purple undersides; showy, golden-yellow daisy-like flowers rise on sturdy stems in spring through summer; roots will colonize, achieving a groundcover effect over time

Height: Plant Height: 12 inches. Sun: partial shade to full shade. Hardiness zone: 4a.

Ornamental features

Golden Ragwort features showy spikes of yellow daisy flowers with gold eyes rising above the foliage from mid spring to early summer. Its attractive glossy heart-shaped leaves remain dark green in color with curious purple undersides throughout the season.

Landscape

Golden Ragwort is an herbaceous perennial with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its relatively coarse texture can be used to stand it apart from other garden plants with finer foliage.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. It is a good choice for attracting bees and butterflies to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. Gardeners should be aware of the following characteristic(s) that may warrant special consideration;

Recommended for: Mass Planting, Border Edging, General Garden Use, Groundcover, Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens, Container Planting, Bog Gardens.

Planting and growing

Golden Ragwort will grow to be about 12 inches tall at maturity extending to 24 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 12 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 10 inches apart. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an herbaceous perennial, this plant will usually die back to the crown each winter, and will regrow from the base each spring. Be careful not to disturb the crown in late winter when it may not be readily seen!

This plant does best in partial shade to shade. It is quite adaptable, prefering to grow in average to wet conditions, and will even tolerate some standing water. This plant should be periodically fertilized throughout the active growing season with a specially-formulated acidic fertilizer. It is very fussy about its soil conditions and must have rich, acidic soils to ensure success, and is subject to chlorosis (yellowing) of the foliage in alkaline soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This species is native to parts of North America, and parts of it are known to be toxic to humans and animals, so care should be exercised in planting it around children and pets. It can be propagated by division.

Photo courtesy of NetPS Plant Finder.