Helianthems: the most beautiful varieties
to flower your garden
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Stunning in rockeries and gardens, Helianthemums are garrigue plants, cousins of cistus. They bloom under a warm sun, from spring to autumn, in a wide range of colours, from pink to yellow, including red, orange, and white. Their small flowers, which last only a day, are constantly renewed, adding joyful and silky touches to our gardens and containers. Close to cistus, these miniature bushes make beautiful groundcovers with evergreen or semi-evergreen foliage that takes on silvery to green hues. With well-drained soil and plenty of sun, they should offer you their best. Discover our selection of the most beautiful helianthemums to grow.
The 'Hartswood Ruby' helianthemum to ignite your garden
With its small crumpled flowers featuring silky petals and an irresistible raspberry red colour, the Helianthemum ‘Hartswood Ruby’ sets your garden or pots ablaze with its vibrant tones. Flowering occurs from May to August. The raspberry red of the petals is enhanced by a ruby-coloured centre and bright yellow stamens.
These warm colours contrast with the glossy green foliage of this small shrub, which reaches a height of 20 cm and spreads up to 40 cm in width. Use Helianthemum ‘Hartswood Ruby’ in a rockery or let it cascade over a wall or the edges of a pot. Pair it with Iberis and wallflowers in white and red tones to create a striking bicolour floral carpet.
Helianthemum ‘Hartswood Ruby’
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Helianthemum: planting, growing tipsThe helianthemum 'Wisley Primrose', the softness of pastel yellow
The Helianthemum ‘Wisley Primrose’ is a hybrid that charms us with the softness of its pastel yellow flowers and silvery grey-green foliage. It is covered in small, bright cup-shaped flowers made up of 5 crinkled and silky petals, from May to July. Its evergreen foliage is fluffy, adding to its allure.
Compact in size, it reaches a height of 25 cm and a spread of 30 cm, making it a perfect plant to carpet small cushions in dry, stony gardens as well as pots. It elegantly accompanies silver-leaved plants such as Stachys, wormwood, or sea lavender.
Helianthemum ‘Wisley Primrose’
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The common rockrose, charming little flowering cushions
The common rock rose or Helianthemum nummularium is a dwarf species, reaching 15 cm in height and 30 cm in width. Native to the temperate mountains of Western Europe, this plant is perfect for pot cultivation or as a small groundcover in a dry garden, as well as at the front of a sunny border.
On its glossy dark green foliage, a multitude of small sulphur-yellow flowers with golden centres appear between June and September. To provide contrast, you can pair it with lavenders, German irises, and aubrietas. If you wish to enhance the yellow in your flowerbed, add clumps of golden baskets, another resilient groundcover that enjoys the sun.
Helianthemum nummularium
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Pairing ideas with HelianthemumsThe 'Fire Dragon' helianthemum, a vibrant orange note
The Helianthemum ‘Fire Dragon’ is also a hybrid variety. It forms small cushion-like plants 25 cm high and 40 cm wide. Its undeniable asset is the bright orange and flamboyant colour of the small flowers, which bloom in a cup shape from May to August. With their striking colour, the flowers feature a centre of golden stamens, and their hue fades throughout the day. Beautifully crumpled flowers from one day, they make way for another bloom the next day.
The very small leaves are of a distinguished silvery green and are evergreen. In a rockery, they pair nicely with other flowers that have silvery foliage, such as sea lavender, or with aromatic plants like rosemary.
Helianthemum ‘Fire Dragon’
The 'Cerise Queen' rock rose, with double red flowers
With its green, evergreen foliage and small, double red flowers reminiscent of cherry colour, the Helianthemum ‘Cerise Queen’ is easily adopted in any garden. This hybrid species flowers from May to August, forming small bushes 25 cm high and 40 cm wide with pure red blooms.
The crumpled, silky flowers are well supplied with petals and constantly renew themselves throughout the flowering period. This Helianthemum effortlessly enlivens a green wall, a slope, a rockery, or a pot. You can pair it with sedums, wormwoods, or cistus.
Helianthemum ‘Cerise Queen’
The 'Tomato Red' helianthemum, an attractive tomato red.
If you love the red leaning towards orange, the Helianthemum ‘Tomato Red’ might just appeal to you. Its silvery foliage is adorned with small, brightly coloured flowers blending these two shades, between May and August. With an attractive tomato red, the cushions of young plants, 25 cm high and 40 cm wide, elegantly carpet rockeries, walls, slopes, and sunny borders.
This plant pairs beautifully with other delicate white flowers like gypsophila, which forms small clouds, as well as silver baskets, which also thrive in the sun and are floriferous. You can also plant them together in a stone trough for a unique display.
Helianthemum ‘Tomato Red’
The Apennine rockrose, a southern botanical species
The Apennine rock rose or Helianthemum apenninum is a southern botanical species with white flowers featuring a heart of golden stamens. Its grey-silver, villous foliage is illuminated by a brilliant white flowering from April to July. Native to the Mediterranean basin, it thrives naturally in Mediterranean regions and Mediterranean-style gardens, alongside lavenders, wormwoods, aromatic plants, and olive trees.
Drought-resistant, this plant forms small cushions 25 cm high and 30 cm wide, making it suitable for a rock garden.
Helianthemum apenninum
The helianthemum 'Elfenbeinglanz', a bright flowering.
The Helianthemum ‘Elfenbeinglanz’ is a hybrid variety with dark green foliage that is adorned with numerous small ivory flowers featuring a golden yellow centre, from May to August. It forms small cushions 20 cm high and 30 cm wide, carpeting rockeries with its sunny tones. Its foliage is semi-evergreen and glossy.
This is a compact variety that can be used as groundcover and is, due to its size, particularly suited for pot cultivation. Pair it with flowers in purple hues to create contrast, such as agapanthus and lavenders.
Helianthemum ‘Elfenbeinglanz’
The helianthemum 'Rhodanthe Carneum', for fans of pastel pink.
Discover this helianthemum that resembles a small fluffy cistus! The helianthemum ‘Rhodanthe Carneum’ boasts charming little pastel pink flowers from May to July, set against a backdrop of silver-grey evergreen foliage. The flowers feature a yellow-orange centre.
It forms dwarf bushes 30 cm high and 40 cm wide, perfectly and cheerfully adorning rockeries and stony corners typical of the Mediterranean. Pair it with mauve wallflowers or dwarf irises, as well as silver foliage such as stachys or lamb’s ears.
Helianthemum ‘Rhodanthe Carneum’
For further reading
If you would like to learn more about helianthemums, check out our comprehensive guide on their cultivation and discover our complete collection of helianthemums.
To avoid any failures, we recommend planting appropriately. Don’t hesitate to adopt our Plantfit web application!
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