Description
| Sisyrinchium californicum, commonly known as golden blue-eyed grass or yellow blue-eyed grass, is indeed native to the wet coastal bluffs, moist meadows, bogs, and stream banks of the Pacific Coast of North America (ranging from British Columbia down through California). Because it looks like a miniature iris, many growers expect it to prefer dry, sunny rock gardens, but in the wild, it actually thrives in coastal seeps and mud flats where moisture is constant. In a garden setting, however, it is remarkably versatile and will happily adapt to standard, well-draining garden beds with regular watering in full sun to light afternoon shade. Rising above a tidy fan of narrow, iris-like foliage, its flattened stems produce a succession of bright, star-shaped yellow flowers throughout late spring and early summer. Given its diminutive size, and self-seeding tendencies it makes a great groundcover for damp borders, rain gardens, or along the edges of garden paths where a low, lush, carpet-like effect is desired. |
