Helenium autumnale

Helenium autumnale: Golden Buttons That Love Wet Feet

Sneezeweed is a native that gets a bad rap for a name it didn't earn. Golden daisies with notched petals, late-season food for the bees, and it doesn't panic when the yard floods. BLESS YOU. NOW BUY IT.

Plant Characteristics:

• Botanical Name: Helenium autumnale
• Common Name: Common Sneezeweed, Helen's Flower
• Height: 90–150 cm (3–5 ft)
• Spread: 45–60 cm (18–24 in)
• Flowers: Golden-yellow, daisy-like, with wedge-shaped, notched petals around a domed yellow centre
• Bloom Time: Midsummer to fall (July to October)
• Foliage: Lance-shaped green leaves along upright, winged stems
• Features: Tolerates clay and periodic flooding

Where to Plant: It's a natural for rain gardens, wet meadows, pond and stream edges, and the back of a moist sunny border. It tolerates clay and periodic flooding, so it's a good answer for clay that stays damp.

Companion Plants: Plant common sneezeweed in a sunny native bed with moist to average soil and late-summer partners. Geum triflorum opens nodding prairie smoke flowers at 30 to 45 cm in May and June. Monarda punctata adds spotted cream and purple flowers at 30 to 90 cm in June and July. Anemone virginiana brings greenish-white thimbleweed at 60 to 90 cm from June to August. Bouteloua gracilis adds blue grama grass at 30 to 60 cm with eyelash-like seed heads.

Plant Care: Plant in full sun in average to wet soil. It tolerates heavy clay and short floods but sulks in dry, sandy soil, so water during droughts. Skip rich fertilizer, which makes stems taller and floppier. To keep it shorter and bushier, pinch or cut the stems back by about a third in late spring or early summer. Otherwise, give it neighbours to lean on, or stake it. Cut back after flowering or in early spring. Divide every few years in spring to keep the clump vigorous.

History: Common sneezeweed grows wild across much of North America, including southern Ontario and Quebec, in wet meadows, stream banks, marshes and ditches. Its common name comes from the old practice of using dried, powdered flower heads as snuff to cause sneezing.

Final Thoughts: Plant it where the clay stays soggy and everything else sulks. It shows up late and stays until the lights go out. THE PARTY STARTS WHEN SUMMER WINDS DOWN.