top of page
Cowslip, Yellow Marsh Marigold

Caltha palustris is a showy plant with deep-green, glossy, kidney or heart-shaped leaves. The yellow flowers are waxy and resemble over-sized buttercups. It is perfect for water gardens, pond edges, rain gardens, and wet, boggy areas in the landscape because it requires constant moisture and tolerates wet soil. It is an early bloomer in the spring with striking yellow flowers on tall, 12 to 18 inch, hollow, branching stems. For best flowering, you should site the plant in full sun, however, full sun in the summer may force the plant to go dormant. This can be rectified with a site that provides some afternoon shade in the summer. Marsh marigold is low maintenance, easy to grow, and will spread in your yard by seed or by division of rhizomes dug up in the fall and replanted in early spring. Drier conditions will limit the plant's spread, and it will remain as a clumped specimen. [sourced from plants.ces.ncsu.edu and izelplants.com]

Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Larval Host for the

1-2'

1-1.5'

SIZE

SOIL

Neutral pH, Rich, Loam, Sandy, Acid, Clay, Wet, Moist

LIGHT

Sun, Part Shade

BENEFITS

NOTES

The leaves are sometimes used as potherbs but require several short boilings with changes of water between. They should not be eaten raw!

CHARACTERISTICS

Showy, Mounding, Rhizomatous, Low Maintenance, Will Naturalize

April, May, June

Flower

This 

flowers in

Marsh Marigold

Caltha palustris

DETAIL VIEW

DESCRIPTION

Caltha palustris is a showy plant with deep-green, glossy, kidney or heart-shaped leaves. The yellow flowers are waxy and resemble over-sized buttercups. It is perfect for water gardens, pond edges, rain gardens, and wet, boggy areas in the landscape because it requires constant moisture and tolerates wet soil. It is an early bloomer in the spring with striking yellow flowers on tall, 12 to 18 inch, hollow, branching stems. For best flowering, you should site the plant in full sun, however, full sun in the summer may force the plant to go dormant. This can be rectified with a site that provides some afternoon shade in the summer. Marsh marigold is low maintenance, easy to grow, and will spread in your yard by seed or by division of rhizomes dug up in the fall and replanted in early spring. Drier conditions will limit the plant's spread, and it will remain as a clumped specimen. [sourced from plants.ces.ncsu.edu and izelplants.com]

Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

bottom of page