Last summer I planted three Cassia alata seedlings that I received from Meem’s garden. I love their cheery yellow blooms and the yellow sulfur butterflies that are attracted to the plants. All three plants died back to their roots during the winter due to the frosts. I wondered if they would come back again this year and they did – wow did they come back! Only two of the original survived but they are sprawling across my front garden. The 30 inch long pinnate leaves provide shade and a tropical splash of green which I love as much as the waxy yellow flowers.

Floridata.com says the plants grows well in normal garden soil. I have done very little to improve or amend the soil in my garden, but the corner where the Cassia are growing has some mulch from the leaves of neighborhood trees mixed with the native sandy soil. When I investigated to see why one of the plants didn’t survive the winter frosts, I discovered a plastic tray buried about 2 feet below the roots. The tray was the remains of an old in-ground watering system that I hadn’t known was there. The roots of the plant had spread out just under the surface of the soil rather than growing more deeply into the soil where the plastic tray was. I believe that since the roots of the plant were close to the surface that they were killed by frost so they couldn’t grow again in the spring. The plants are drought tolerant. It was a dry summer but the dry soil conditions didn’t seem to affect the plants or slow their growth. I hope I have them in my garden for many years to come.

This plant is sometime classified as Senna alata also. Common names for it include autumn candle and Christmas candle.