[ritamax]

I bought these bright yellow flowering small plants in early March, the flower was somewhat starlike and the branches soft and furry. In the second photo after two months they have grown a lot and the branches are already getting wooden in the bottom, but the green stays soft and furry. Do you know this plant! The garden center didn't know the name, they said it is "mimosa", so it must be some substitute to mimosa (no perfum as far as I remember).

[David Bracey]

Genista scoparius??

[ritamax]

Thanks, David, but it is not a Genista, as the flowers are star-shaped and the branches soft and furry. Sorry, my photo is too small to recognize it.

[MikeHardman]

oo - teasing - can we have a close-up of the flower, please, ritamax?

[Daisy]

It is hard to see from the photos.
Could it be a dwarf verbascum like Verbascum x Letitia?
Daisy

[oron peri]

  
photo is too small...

The only thing i can say is that the plants you have bought were treated with Gibberllins [hormons]
in order to give it this compact, flowering aspect.
Trying to guess it might be Euryops virgineus, still we need a better photo here..

[ritamax]

Thank you, all, in spite of a very small photo (a close-up of a bigger photo, not enough pixels)! Oron, you are a genius, it is Euryops virgineus for sure! What is this hormone thing, how does it work? I bought the plants in a very small garden center-nursery, where they grow their own stuff, mostly pelargoniums and other small flowering plants. Of course I avoid buying things that are completely unlabelled, but the plants were really pretty, evergreen, and the shrub seems very healthy and drought-tolerant.

[oron peri]

What is this hormone thing, how does it work? I

Rita,

Diffrent hormons are used in the mass production indestry of 'Flowering Pots'.
Main resons are, first in order to have a uniformity of all the plants which often are many thousands grown at the same time.
There are many shrubs that have nice flowers but are not showy enogh therefor they are given Gibbellines that make the plant become very compact which makes transportation easier as well as taking less space on a window seal for example.
Finaly another hormon in order to transform it to a super floriferous plant.
All this treatments of course are un natural and people buy these plants at the Supermarkets or garden centers not knowing that these plants are not sutible for growing  indoors.
If you plant them outside as you did the efect of the hormons stops after a few weeks , it is then that plants turn back to their normal habits. [As you can see in your first photo].

[oron peri]

Here is an example;

Lycianthes rantonnei [syn Solanum rantonetii]

First is natural, other two treated with hormons.

[ritamax]

Oh yes, that is obvious and easy to see, when you know the plant!