Pilosella aurantiaca
Orange hawkweed, Fox and cubs, Grim the collier
Also known as Hieracium aurantiacum
- Height × spread
- 0.2m × 0.3m
- Position
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Colder than -20C (RHS H7)
- Flowers
- Summer
Availability
Please ask in store about availability
Many plants are seasonal. Call 01234 567890 to check current stock.
About this plant
Eye catching and delightful when in flower during summer. This carries its flowers on long stems, the blooms look like close packed dandelions and are coloured a delicious orange red. Their spots of colour light up blues and enrich the colour of green foliage. Out of flower it can readily be mistaken for a weed! It makes spreading mats of oblong, rather untidy rosettes and it will set seed. It is beautiful when naturalized in wild gardens. In the wild it is generally found growing on acidic soils.
- Flower colour
- Orange
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Variegated
- No
- Scent
- No
- Shape
- Prostrate
- Height
- 0.2m
- Spread
- 0.3m
- Season of interest
- Summer
- Flowers in
- Summer
- Evergreen
- Deciduous
- Garden style
- Wild flower meadow, Cottage garden
- Sun or shade
- Likes full sun, tolerates part shade
- Soil type
- Loam (normal)
- Soil pH
- Acid (ericaceous), Neutral
- Drainage
- Well drained soil
- Hardiness
- Colder than -20C (RHS H7)
- Borders & containers
- Borders
- Use for
- Ground cover
- Hazards
- No
Spring
Spring - late · Outdoors
Feed with sequestrol
If plants are acid loving and grown in soil with little acidity, or in a container, or are watered with limey tap water an annual feed with sequestrol (iron chelate) is highly beneficial. Follow guidelines on the packet. Will also 'blue-up' hydrangeas.
For hydrangeas that have good blue flowers in acid soil, this product can be used with alkaline soil to turn the flowers blue. This is most effective when the soil is neutral or just slightkly alkaline.
Spring-Autumn · Outdoors
Water during dry periods
For plants in the ground, when there has been little or no rain for a period of 7-10 days and the soil is dry, give it a deep watering and repeat weekly until there is a downpour of rain. Check plants in pots more frequently, especially in hot weather.
Spring - early-mid · Planting
Divide when too large
The plant can be divided if it becomes too large or another plant is required. This may involve physically dividing the clump in two, removing offsets or small bulbs or dividing rhizomes. The new plants can be grown in pots or planted in the ground.
Planting & general
Outdoors
Water with rain water
This plant needs rain water or soft water (the minerals in alkaline or "hard" water are harmful). This is especially important for plants in pots.