Helen's Flower
Helenium autumnale
Warm yellow, orange, and gold daisies that glow in September and October light. Thrives in moist soil and delivers more flowers every year.
Typically 1 pint–1 gal · $9–$30 · final price at pickup
- Thu, Aug 138 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Aug 148 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Aug 158 AM – 2 PM
Saturated fall gold with serious midsummer moist-soil performance when other perennials check out.
Helen's flower brings the season to a blazing close. The flowers are warm yellow, orange, and gold with reflexed rays around a prominent button center, daisy-like but richer, more saturated, almost glowing in September and October light. The warm color palette is perfectly tuned to fall, pairing naturally with ornamental grasses, asters, and the deep blue of native gentians. It performs best in moist soils and can handle seasonally wet conditions, making it valuable for rain gardens and low spots where drainage is imperfect. Plants form substantial clumps that strengthen with age, delivering more flowers each year. The seeds are useful for birds through late fall, and the basal foliage holds until hard frost.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown helen's flower propagated on-site at Hill House from regional genetics. Includes a one-page care card. We make every effort to supply plants as listed; occasionally we substitute a similar species of equal value.
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Average
- Mature size
- 2–5 ft · 24–36 in wide
- Bloom time
- August–October
- Bloom color
- Yellow, Orange
- USDA zones
- 3–8
- Family
- Asteraceae
- Native range
- Widespread across North America from Canada south to Florida and west to the Pacific Coast, in moist meadows and flood plains
Care notes for helen's flower.
Full sun to part sun in moist to average soil. Divide every three years to maintain vigor and prevent center die-out. Cut back in early spring before new growth. Chelsea chop in mid-June reduces height and delays bloom by two to three weeks for staggered fall display.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside helen's flower.
Or skip the guesswork.
Curated packages bundle complementary species for an instant habitat. One reservation, one pickup day, a printed layout map.
Short on Space Package
For gardeners who have an abundance of passion but are short on space, this package features tidy, upright, clump-forming natives that behave and function well in small spaces.
Shade Bed Package
Ferns, sedges, and woodland natives that thrive under existing trees.
Birder’s Paradise Package
For the avid bird watchers and budding ornithologists in our community, the Birder’s Paradise Package consists of species that Hill House Nursery staff and longtime native plant advocates such as Doug Tallamy consider ‘premier bird garden plants’.