Diplacus longiflorus

Identification

Description

Diplacus longiflorus is a very large flowered monkey flower that is native on the Santa Margarita Nursery site. Southern Monkey Flower is a one to three foot perennial with masses of creamy yellow(butter or toffee) flowers in early summer. The flower color varies from toffee to pale yellow as the ecology of the site varies. Plant a row of them and the colors will vary as the conditions vary. This monkey flower likes part shade and will go dormant if not washed down every few weeks. But it will tolerate full blazing sun if hidden behind a rock, buckwheat, sage plant. They'll look good with a few summer waterings, they'll flower for months and months, particularly if you prune off the old flower heads, but they'll live for only a few years if you continually push the flowers. They basically flower themselves to death. A Hummingbird plant that has been deer proof to date. (I don't understand the deer. They've eaten buckeye and oleanders on sites where we planted this and they left this alone.) The sub-species on the nursery grounds is hardy to 0 with little or no damage, it froze to the ground at -4 but recovered. I think it will tolerate -10. Some of these monkey flowers have been in one place in the nursery for the last 25 years, and they were mature when we first saw them. They may live for fifty or more years if they are planted in the right spot and left alone. Syn. (Mimulus aurantiacus, Diplacus arachnoideus, Mimulus glutinosus var. brachypus) Click here for more about Monkeys in California

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