It’s hard to beat Helenium for native late season color.  At three feet tall (or more) it always ends up at the very back of the perennial bed.  Dwarf and/or compact varieties have become available in recent years and this has opened up new opportunities for Helenium!  These newer cultivars with their compact size are great used in foundation or mass plantings, butterfly or cutting gardens and perennial borders.  No longer is sneezeweed limited to the back of the bed!    Helenium ‘Fuego’ produces huge masses of orange petaled daisy style flowers with brown central cones that are ringed by a golden halo.  Helenium ‘Salsa’ blooms just as abundantly with deep red petals surrounding dark chocolate brown central cones.  Both varieties grow to a mature height of 18-21” and 18-24” wide.

Here are some growing tips for Helenium…

Helenium are native to sunny woodland edges, low meadows and moist prairies.  They prefer moist, well-drained, average to rich soil in full sun.  Dead heading will promote rebloom and you can keep them looking fresh and vigorous by dividing them every 3-4 years.   If you do lean in for a whiff of their light sweet scent, don’t worry!  You aren’t going to sneeze like crazy!  Their pollen is too large to cause allergies in that way.  The common name sneezeweed came about back when they used the dried and crushed leaves to make a snuff that induced sneezing.  It was considered a remedy for an assortment of ailments.   I attest from personal experience that their dried leaves can cause sneezing by those means, having cut them back at the end of the season for many years.  Now days we know that Helenium is toxic if ingested in large quantities.