Hypericum perforatum

Today is the first day I have been at home this week so a day of catching up with paperwork and various other jobs.

Today’s picture is of one of our variegated Rose of Sharon plants also known as St John’s Wort, which is said to have medicinal properties. Its proper name is Hypericum perforatum and it belongs to the Hypericaceae family. This one is a 'Tricolor' and a spreading shrub, which grows to only thirty centimeters tall; we are using it as ground cover. It has red stems with oval leaves variegated with green, pink and cream; the cup-like yellow flowers are much smaller than the other shrubs of the same name and can be seen in summer and early autumn. This plant is not one I particularly like; the flowers are yellow! However, it grows well in this garden giving good ground cover in the borders; the deer do not eat it. Many years the previous owners filled the borders with this plant, but someone, before my time, destroyed them all. I am now replanting them all at considerable cost.

Warm and sunny, with some wind, the washing dried in no time; it is supposed to rain later and possibly tomorrow as well.