Hypericum olympicum - St. John's wort

Hypericum olympicum, also known as Greek St. John's wort or Olympus St. John's wort, is a perennial or semi-evergreen subshrub that clearly loves the sun and is highly resistant to drought. Its bright yellow flowers, open and adorned with a tuft of central stamens, are abundant and quite decorative. They bloom in summer, carried by slender stems above a delicate grey-green foliage. This suckering and hardy plant forms a good dense ground cover for rockeries and borders, in well-drained soil.

The Olympus St. John's wort is a plant of the Clusiaceae family, sometimes classified by some authors in the Hypericaceae family. It is a semi-evergreen perennial with a woody rootstock and suckering habit, related to the shrubby St. John's worts often planted in our gardens. From its Greek origins, but also Balkan, Syrian, and Turkish origins, it has retained a certain taste for sunny situations and a good tolerance for poor and dry soils. The plant forms a very dense tuft, 30cm (11.8in) high, producing numerous upright branches in the centre, while they are arched or even prostrate on the periphery of the tufts. Its oblong leaves, with a grey-green hue, measure about 2.5cm (1in) in length. The abundant flowering takes place in June-July, more or less early depending on the climate, and sometimes continues in September-October. The flowers, gathered in small terminal clusters, are composed of 5 bright yellow petals surrounding a small tuft of protruding golden-yellow stamens. This St. John's wort slowly spreads through prostrate stems that root upon contact with the ground.

Hypericum olympicum is an excellent plant for dry gardens or rockeries. It will thrive in well-drained, even limestone soil, in the company of cat's ears, globe daisies, candytufts, or rockroses. It also forms dense borders, to be placed in front of fragrant shrubs such as lavenders, rosemarys, shrubby mallows, or wormwoods. It will also be of great effect on a sunny slope, cascading over a wall, in paving... It will also be very effective at the forefront of perennial beds or raised flower beds. It can be associated with many other rockery plants: Erigeron, Dianthus, shrubby wallflowers, but also perennial plants such as Iris germanica, rockroses, sneezeweeds, bindweeds, Coreopsis, shrubby salvias, perennial flax.