Hypericum nudiflorum

Hypericum nudiflorum is the early riser among the St. John's Worts, a slender, upright shrub that opens golden flowers as early as May, often a full month ahead of relatives. The blooms carry the many-stamened brush typical of the clan, set against broad, light green, oval leaves that give the plant a softer, leafier look than the needle-leaved species.

The epithet nudiflorum, naked-flowered, points to the way the airy flower clusters stand clear on nearly leafless stalks, and the same bareness shows lower down, where the cinnamon-colored main stems shed thin, flaky bark. Over that plain description sits the ancient genus name Hypericum, from the Greek hyper and eikon, above and image, from the Midsummer habit of hanging flowering St. John's Wort above doorways and icons at the feast of Saint John to keep the household safe.

In the wild early St. John's Wort keeps to wet ground, threading the banks of streams and the edges of swamps and floodplains through the Southeastern Coastal Plain and into the Florida Panhandle. Rather uncommon in the wild, the shrub grows taller and more open than most of the native Hypericums, with many branches rising from a single leafless main stem into a narrow, irregular crown.

Another of the southeastern Hypericums that Woodlanders was probably the first to offer, early St. John's Wort earns a place for the timing alone, bringing gold to the garden when little else in the shrub border has started. Plant the shrub in moist soil in sun or light shade, at a pond margin, a streamside, or the damp back of a border, and let the early flowers, leafy summer green, and flaky cinnamon bark each take a turn. Buttonbush, Virginia sweetspire, and native ferns suit the same moist company.