MENTZELIA
Family LOASACEAE
Mentzelia lindleyi
Annual
This is more commonly known as Bartonia aurea
and is a hardy annual native to California.
The plant grows one foot tall and has felted
leaves that are finely cut, and fragrant flowers
about two and a half inches across with five broad
over-lapping petals of golden yellow, giving it
the appearance of a yellow helleborus.
The flowers have the curious habit of first expanding
in the evening but lasting for several days.
A really beautiful annual not seen as often as
it deserves and excellent for association with
the blue varieties of annual Scabious.
Mentzelia bartonioides, one foot, is a yellow-flowering
annual from the U.S.A., often grown as a pot plant
in Mentzelia ornata, one foot tall, also from North America,
has fragrant white flowers.
The position chosen should be warm, sunny and
sheltered and the soil rich but well drained.
Seed may be sown in early April where the display
is desired and the seedlings thinned when an inch
or so high.
Propagation is from seed.
The flowering season is in late summer and early
autumn.
See Also : Bartonia
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