This gawky great plant, sometimes called Heartleaf Oxeye, stands 1.8 m high (I have just measured it) and has erupted into flower this week, its shaggy bright-yellow daisies bursting forth from rather unpromising-looking buds. Earlier in the summer, the huge, rough-textured, heart-shaped leaves form a rapidly expanding, branching green mound, from deceptively small, soft, greyish buds that are beloved of slugs when young and which we protect with copper rings.
As I write, I can see the vivid green and gold display, bathed in bright sunshine, from the corner of my eye. Earlier this morning a magnificent Silver-washed Fritillary butterfly was feeding from the densely-packed, nectar-rich true flowers at the centre of each daisy and the whole plant is now buzzing with hoverflies and bumble-bees.
A native of Central & Eastern Europe, this is a herbaceous perennial that needs plenty of elbow room and resents drying out, when it can wilt dramatically, especially when grown in full sun. I have sometimes seen Telekia speciosa listed as a thug – certainly our plant had rooted itself so firmly through the bottom of its pot at the nursery that it was quite an operation to prise it free – but the "thug" tag is unfair, at least in our garden, where it has made an admittedly large, but well-behaved clump and shown no signs, so far, of self-seeding. Ours is now in its third year after planting out and is getting close to exceeding its allotted space, so we'll be dividing the rootstock this winter and looking for new corners of the garden to light up.
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