Tuesday 8 August 2017

Plant of the Month : Helenium "Goldrausch"

Helenium or "Sonnenbraut" (Sun's Bride) is a very old cottage garden plant. I received my first plant from my grandmother more than forty years ago and still have it. It is probably the old cultivar  Helenium x cultorum "Goldrausch", bred by Karl Förster in Potsdam-Bornim in the 1940s, an amazing and long-lived healthy plant. 


 

It grows very tall, sometimes up to 1,50 m, if a loamy rich soil sustains it and if it receives full sun. In my garden it opens its first flowers punctually on August 1st. It looks good in front of the dark purple leaves of Cotinus Coggygria "Royal Purple". Its bright yellow sun disks with its knobbly heads are a delight to look at and often buzzing with honey bees and bumble bees.



"Moerheim Beauty" is another good cultivar with orange tinged flowers, but in my garden it has not been long-lived. 









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