Plant of the Month for September
Sneezeweed or Helen’s Flower
Helenium spp.
As many summer-flowering herbaceous plants fade and start to die back, September sees a number of later or long flowering perennials providing bright colours through into autumn. Among these are asters, echinacea, kniphofia, phlox, rudbeckia and my personal favourite, heleniums, which reliably provide bold splashes of colour in shades of yellow, orange and reds.
Heleniums are native to North America where early colonists used them to make snuff, giving rise to their common name sneezeweed or sneezewort. Most are clump forming herbaceous perennials, with strong upright stems, narrow mid-green leaves, and a mass of long lasting flowers in summer and early autumn. Each of the large daisy-like flowers (5-9cms across) has a bold central boss of yellow or brown disc florets and a ring of soft, overlapping, fringed petals (ray florets), typical of plants of the asteraceae family.
In addition to having a number of different species, heleniums have been much hybridised giving rise to many garden varieties of differing colour, height and flowering time. These include cultivars such as ‘Crimson Beauty’, 1m tall with soft mahogany-red flowers from early summer onwards, ‘Goldene Jugend’ (‘Golden Youth’) 80cm with pure yellow flowers early to mid-summer, the popular ‘Moerheim Beauty’ 90cm with bronze to crimson flowers early to late summer (pictured in the mixed herbaceous border at Myerscough Gardens), ‘Butterpat’ 90cm with rich yellow flowers mid-summer to early autumn, and ‘Rotgold’ (‘Red and Gold’) 1.2m with petals in shades of red and yellow late summer to early autumn (pictured to the rear of the pond area).
Heleniums are easy to grow perennials well suited to the middle or back of herbaceous or mixed borders. They prefer a sunny position in any fertile, moist but well-drained soil and are attractive to bees and other insects. They make good cut flowers but can be allergenic or irritant to some people. Taller varieties may need staking in exposed positions and all should be cut down to ground level in late autumn or early spring. Clumps can become congested and flowering deteriorate if not divided every few years, replanting the more vigorous outer parts.
By choosing a later flowering variety and carrying out these few simple requirements you will be rewarded with stunning splashes of colour lasting well into September. So why not find a space for a helenium, or two, in your garden?
