Sneezeweed
Helenium flexuosum
Drooping yellow petals around a purple-brown disk fill the late-summer color gap on moist sites. Butterflies work it hard; cut stems last a week.
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
A late-summer native for moist sites with yellow-orange flowers and prominent dark disk heads that stand out when the garden needs color most.
Purple-head Sneezeweed earns its surprising common name from a historic, now-discredited use: dried and powdered leaves were once used as snuff to induce sneezing as a folk remedy. The flowers are striking: drooping yellow petals around a prominent rounded purple-brown disk that gives the plant an almost cheerful, disheveled look entirely different from the neat composites of summer. The yellow-orange flowers deepen toward orange on the ray tips in full sun. It blooms in the gap between midsummer and fall when some gardens run short on color, and it does it on moist sites where few other natives perform as reliably. A great companion for cardinal flower and blue cardinal flower along rain garden margins. Butterflies work the disk flowers heavily and cut flowers are excellent: they last a week or more in a vase with minimal care.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown sneezeweed 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
- 2–4 ft · 18–24 in wide
- Bloom time
- July–September
- USDA zones
- 4–8
- Family
- Asteraceae
- Native range
- Eastern and central North America. moist meadows, roadsides, and stream banks from New England to Kansas south to Florida and Texas
Care notes for sneezeweed.
Plant in full sun to part shade in moist to wet, fertile soil. Consistent moisture produces the best performance; this is a plant for rain gardens and moist borders, not dry sites. Pinch stems by one-third in early June to produce bushier plants with delayed, more abundant bloom. Divide every two to three years in spring to maintain vigor. Leave dried heads for late-season seed predators. Cut back in early spring.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside sneezeweed.
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’.