In spite of its intimidating scientific appellation, St. Andrew’s Cross is a humble little “subshrub”, one that is not found elsewhere in the trade. It occurs in dry woods from Long Island south and over to Texas and Oklahoma. We are very fond of it as it volunteers along paths inside our deer fence in the central piedmont of NC. It is small, neat, well formed, cheerful, and trouble-free. It is a woody, much-branched little mound (10″ tall x 24″ wide) with shreddy bark and small, sessile, oval-shaped leaves, deciduous in our area but holding its leaves in our cold frames or further south. It has many, tiny, perfect, X-shaped yellow flowers in late spring/summer which then develop into seeds enclosed between two brownish bracts in late summer/fall. St. Andrew’s Cross tolerates dry clay soil and complete neglect and is an endearing small friend along the path or filling nooks and crannies of the garden, if it is not overly shady.
