Name: Patrinia scabiosifolia aka patrinia

Type of Plant: Long blooming perennial with upright flower stems that grow to about four feet tall. The flowers and their calyxes are a bright yellow.

 Why I Love/Hate this plant: I love patrinia because it’s easy to grow and it self seeds around the garden, but not in an obnoxious way. I love how this plant plays well with others. It is a knockout when mixed with Verbena bonariensis or Eupatorium purpurea. It’s a great addition to bouquets as well, so perfect for a perennial cutting garden.

Patrinia scabiosifolia does well in average soils and regular moisture. I’ve seen that it also tolerates drier locations, however, although the flowers are about a foot shorter in such places.  

A Word to the Wise: Don’t plant this if you want a perennial to stay neatly in one place of the garden…this plant travels from the back of the border to the front, and from the backyard to other sunny areas.

Patrinia is also the alternate host for daylily rust (Puccinia hemerocallidis), a fungal disease, but frankly daylily rust doesn’t need an alternate host in order to thrive on Hemerocallis, so I don’t worry about that. (See more about daylily rust here.)

Patrinia mixes well with annuals and other perennials. I have it growing at one end of this flowerbed.