Helenium

Colorful Combinations

Helenium features bright-green foliage that contrasts beautifully with velvety, daisy-like flowers in shades of orange, yellow, dark red, and golden brown. Most varieties feature flowers with petals in a stiff skirt that spreads out from the center. Others sport flowers with downward-facing petals in the manner of a shuttlecock.

Helenium Care Must-Knows

Plant helenium in full sun (at least six hours a day) to promote long-lasting displays of color. Although some varieties tolerate afternoon shade, this plant typically becomes floppy and leggy in part-shade conditions. Helenium also needs well-drained, slightly acidic soil and moderate moisture, which makes sense because its native setting tends to be low-lying meadows or the edges of damp woodlands. Water at least weekly, increasing frequency in times of extreme heat. Although similar in looks to both black-eyed Susan and coneflowers, this plant does not share their ability to withstand droughts. It also dislikes boggy areas, so make sure the planting bed doesn't retain standing water.

Helenium grows quickly and will require frequent deadheading in order to produce new flowers and reduce its fondness for self-sowing. Some of the taller varieties may require support or staking to keep plants upright. Pinch deer-resistant helenium back in spring to make it shorter and bushier, possibly at the cost of delaying flowering. Once it blooms, cut the flower stalks down to the foliage. Divide helenium every three years in the spring after it comes out of dormancy to ensure vigor.

More Varieties of Helenium

'Butterpat' Helenium

Helenium 'Butterpat' grows to 4 feet or even taller with bright yellow ray flowers and a prominent yellow disc. Zones 4–8

'Dakota Gold' Helenium

Helenium amarum 'Dakota Gold' is a super-easy annual with a bonanza of gold flowers and finely textured foliage. Zones 6–10

'Double Trouble' Helenium

This Helenium cultivar has frilly bright yellow flowers with double petals encircling gold button centers. It stands up to summer thunderstorms. Zones 4–8

'Mardi Gras' Helenium

This Helenium selection bears 2-inch daisies in rich orange washed with yellow and red. Its upright clumps may reach 3 feet tall. Zones 4–8

'Moerheim Beauty' Helenium

Helenium 'Moerheim Beauty' seldom tops 3 feet. Its coppery-red ray flowers surround a darker disc. Zones 4–8

'Salsa' Helenium

Mariachi 'Salsa' Helenium autumnale is a dense, compact plant covered in bright orange and yellow blossoms beginning in late summer. Zones 3–9

Helenium Companion Plants

Obedient Plant

Obedient plant is named for the way flowers that are moved to a new position on the stem stay in place, much to the delight of children. It produces showy, unusual flower spikes with little tubular flowers in white, pink, or purple. They're excellent as cut flowers. Square stems carry pairs of mid-green (sometimes variegated), lance-shaped foliage, toothed along the edges. Obedient plant tolerates most soils, but tends to become aggressive when given ample water and full sun. It tolerates most soils.

Daylily

Daylilies are so easy to grow you'll often find them growing in ditches and fields, escapees from gardens. And yet they look so delicate, producing glorious trumpet-shaped blooms in myriad colors. In fact, there are some 50,000 named hybrid cultivars in a range of flower sizes (the minis are very popular), forms, and plant heights. Some are fragrant. The flowers are borne on leafless stems. Although each bloom lasts but a single day, superior cultivars carry numerous buds on each scape so bloom time is long, especially if you deadhead daily. The strappy foliage may be evergreen or deciduous.

Monkshood

How can you not fall in love with a perennial that has regal blue spires? And monkshood is that plant. Relatively unknown, it deserves a lot more attention. It produces tall spikes of hooded purple, blue, white, or bicolor blooms in late summer to fall. When not in bloom, its mounds of coarsely lobed foliage look great, too. Plants grow best in partial shade, although in cool climates they will grow well in full sun. In dense shade, plants will become floppy. All parts of monkshood are poisonous. Monkshood dislikes hot weather, so it's usually not a great choice for gardeners in hot-summer climates.