Southern Senna
Senna marilandica
Canary-yellow midsummer blooms over lush, tropical-looking leaves. Hosts sulfur butterflies and fixes nitrogen to improve your soil.
Typically 1 pint–1 gal · $9–$30 · final price at pickup
- Thu, Aug 138 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Aug 148 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Aug 158 AM – 2 PM
Bright yellow midsummer flowers that bumblebees love through buzz pollination, combined with sulphur butterfly hosting and nitrogen-fixing roots. ecologically one of the most productive perennials we carry.
Southern senna is a bold back-of-border perennial that covers itself in bright yellow flowers in midsummer, the kind of plant that stops garden visitors in their tracks in July. The large, pinnate leaves are lush and tropical-looking, and the canary-yellow blooms open in clusters all up the stem over a long season. Bumblebees visit almost exclusively for the pollen, using a technique called 'buzz pollination' where they vibrate the anthers at exactly the right frequency to release it. It's a host plant for sulfur butterflies whose caterpillars feed on the leaves. The flat seed pods that follow turn dark and persist on the stems through winter, providing structural interest and seeds for birds. This is a nitrogen-fixing plant that improves soil over time without any help from you.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown southern senna propagated on-site at Hill House from regional genetics. Includes a one-page care card. We make every effort to supply plants as listed; occasionally we substitute a similar species of equal value.
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Average
- Mature size
- 4–6 ft · 36–48 in wide
- Bloom time
- Midsummer, late summer
- Bloom color
- Yellow
- USDA zones
- 4–9
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Native range
- Eastern United States
Care notes for southern senna.
Full sun to part shade in average to moist soil. Cut back to ground in late fall. Self-seeds freely. remove seedlings if spread is not desired. Nitrogen fixer; no fertilizing needed. Spreads by seed and by clump expansion. May need staking in exposed windy locations at full height.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside southern senna.
Or skip the guesswork.
Curated packages bundle complementary species for an instant habitat. One reservation, one pickup day, a printed layout map.
Short on Space Package
For gardeners who have an abundance of passion but are short on space, this package features tidy, upright, clump-forming natives that behave and function well in small spaces.
Shade Bed Package
Ferns, sedges, and woodland natives that thrive under existing trees.
Birder’s Paradise Package
For the avid bird watchers and budding ornithologists in our community, the Birder’s Paradise Package consists of species that Hill House Nursery staff and longtime native plant advocates such as Doug Tallamy consider ‘premier bird garden plants’.