Helenium Loysder Wieck

Helenium 'Loysder Wieck' is a recent, original and colourful variety of Helenium. It is unique in its curled petals, revealing both a yellow face on top and a brown-red underside. The peripheral florets are few in number, spaced apart like the wings of a windmill around a large brown heart. These inflorescences, reminiscent of daisies, appear in late summer, carried by sturdy stems emerging from beautiful lanceolate foliage. It is a robust perennial, easy to grow in sunny and moist soil. It is ideal for making bouquets.

Natural varieties of Heleniums are perennials belonging to the Asteraceae family, native to North America; they are generally found around marshes. The 'Loysder Wieck' cultivar offers a very rich colour and an unusual inflorescence. The upright habit of the plant is supported by stems reaching 90cm (35in) in height. The leaves, coloured in a fresh and bright green, with a lanceolate shape and smooth margins, are arranged alternately along the stems. From July to September, a myriad of flowers appear at the top of the stems. Resembling daisies, the heads are composed of almost tubular outer florets, with a two-tone appearance, around a cone coloured in brown that gradually gives way to yellow stamens. It is when the sun highlights them that these colours are most astonishing. The warm tones of this flowering announce the beginning of autumn blooms.

The 'Loysder Wieck' Helenium is a hardy plant and never gets sick. It appreciates ordinary soils and sunny exposures.  Easy to cultivate, it blooms equally well in slopes, flowerbeds and large pots. Despite all these qualities, Heleniums remain rare in gardens. Perhaps because their warm tones announce autumn and the end of the beautiful days... This Helenium goes very well with autumnal plants such as asters, Heucheras, perennial chrysanthemums or Rudbeckias, but it can also be associated with deciduous Euonymus with sublime foliage from the first cold spells. In a more Mediterranean atmosphere, the velvety foliage of Stachys or sage greatly enhances the warm hue of its flowering.