Stylophorum

Stylophorum diphyllum, the celandine poppy, delivers a brilliant flush of golden-yellow blooms in the spring shade gardens of Martha's Vineyard, thriving in the moist, humus-rich woodland soils of protected interior properties in West Tisbury and Chilmark. It naturalizes freely by self-seeding, gradually filling shaded borders with minimal maintenance, a particularly attractive quality for the large-acreage woodland gardens found on up-island estates. The plant tolerates the island's sandy soils when supplemented with leaf compost, and its naturally mounding form requires no staking or support.

Deer resistance is strong, consistent with most members of the Papaveraceae family. Professional maintenance involves little beyond removing unwanted seedlings and lightly top-dressing the planting with compost in early spring.