Description

Looking for another plant to provide for pollinators in the fall in addition to your goldenrods and asters? Here you go!
Helen’s flower is an upright clumping perennial wildflower with unique winged stems and bright green leaves. Wedge-shaped, yellow petals surround a raised, greenish-yellow, spherical center. Each petal has three lobes. Attracts butterflies. Special value to native bees.
May be cut back in early June (at least six weeks before normal flowering) to reduce plant height and encourage branching. Deadhead to encourage rebloom. A truly adaptable native that thrives in sunny, moist open areas along ponds, waterways, and meadows. While other native plants don’t like to sit in wet, heavy clay, sneezeweed finds this to be a preferable condition. Intolerant of dry soils.
Please note – this plant will NOT make you sneeze! The alternate common name of sneezeweed is based on the former use of its dried leaves in making snuff, inhaled back in the day to cause sneezing that would supposedly rid the body of evil spirits.
Height: 3-5 ft.
Spread: 2-3 ft.
Family: Asteraceae
Bloom time: August to October
Sun: full sun
Water: medium to wet
Rain garden
Deer resistant
photo credit: Melissa McMasters