Give your landscape a glorious late-season color with Helenium, a light-demanding perennial that offers long-lasting blooms from mid to late summer to fall every year. It can be used in borders, naturalized areas, and cottage gardens.
Native to Europe and North America, this light-demanding plant is often referred to as sneezeweed. However, allergy sufferers need not worry as this plant won’t make you sneeze. Still, it blooms around the same time as ragweed, a source of pollen that causes hay fever.
The Helenium genus consists of around 40 species[1] in the Asteraceae family. Other names of this plant are Yellow Star, Helen’s Flower, and False Sunflower.
Helenium autumnale is an upright, shrubby perennial that usually grows 3 to 5 feet tall on stiff, distinctive winged stems that branch out near the top.
It features Daisy-like flower clusters (2-inches in diameter) with distinctive pale yellow wedge-shaped rays and dome-shaped, dull yellow central discs. The flowers appear for a long time, from summer to fall (sometimes until the first frost). The alternate, dark green leaves are lanceolate (up to 6-inches long).
