Helenium Helena Rote Tone

Helenium autumnale 'Helena Rote Töne' is a variety of hybrid Autumn Sneezeweed selected for its vigour, strong stems, healthy foliage, and long flowering in shades of red edged with gold. Its flowers, large for a sneezeweed, bloom from summer to early autumn and remain decorative for a long time. A hardy and reliable perennial, it is an extraordinary plant for flower beds, especially in slightly moist soil.

Heleniums are perennials in the Asteraceae family native to North America. In the wild, they most often grow near marshes. The 'Helena Rote Töne' cultivar is derived, among others, from the species Helenium autumnale, a perennial with very richly coloured flowers and vigorous growth. The plant forms a beautiful clump of ramified stems, reaching up to 1.20m (4ft) in height when flowering. Despite its size, this sneezeweed does not collapse under the weight of its flowers. The leaves, coloured a bright green, lanceolate in shape with smooth margins, are arranged alternately along the stems. Between July and October, a large number of flowers continuously bloom at the top of the stems, forming what are called heads. These heads resemble large marguerites with a diameter of 7-8cm (3in). In the centre, the cone is shiny and orange-brown, gradually giving way to yellow stamens. At the periphery, the florets transition from red to brown-red, with a copper-orange to golden-yellow border. This flowering, which attracts many pollinating insects, heralds the beginning of autumn flowers and foliage.

Helenium 'Helena Rote Töne' is a robust, hardy, and never diseased plant. It appreciates moist to wet soils and sunny exposures. Easy to grow, it integrates well into a cottage or English-style garden. Despite all these qualities, sneezeweeds remain rare in gardens. Perhaps because their warm tones announce autumn a little too soon, while the garden and gardener are still trying to hold onto the last summer blooms; however, they are the perfect complement to asters. 'Helena Rote Töne', in combination with black-eyed Susans, pairs very well with autumn plants like Heucheras and sunflowers, but it can also be associated with a dwarf winged Euonymus, whose foliage ignites with the first cold, or with the sumptuous dyer's madder. In a different setting, the gray foliage of Stachys or shrubby wormwoods greatly enhances the warm hue of this flowering.