Helenium Dunkle Pracht

Helenium 'Dunkle Pracht' is a variety of Helenium with a beautiful intense and rare red that fades to orange towards the edges. It is a perennial with large flowers, ideal for borders and for making bouquets. Heleniums bloom in summer and accompany the garden until autumn, they are perfect, docile, hardy and easy to grow perennials, every garden should have them!

Hybrid Heleniums are often derived from Helenium autumnale, a perennial native to North America, which is usually found on the edges of swamps. The cultivar 'Dunkle Pracht' is darkly beautiful, its upright habit corresponds to numerous thin stems that reach 90cm (35in) in height. The colourful leaves are a bright green, lanceolate in shape with smooth margins and are alternately arranged along the stems. From July to September, a myriad of flowers succeed each other at the top of the well-branched stems. Resembling 5cm (2in) in diameter daisies, the heads have a prominent reddish-brown cone in the center. At the periphery, a row of intense red florets is tinged with orange, this unprecedented colour harmony is perfect for illustrating autumn in a garden.

Robust, hardy and rarely diseased, this Helenium thrives in ordinary soil. Easy to grow, it appreciates sunny positions, plant it in slopes, borders or even containers. Despite all these qualities, Helenies remain rare in gardens. Perhaps because their warm tones announce autumn a little too quickly. A good companion, 'Dunkle Pracht' pairs well with asters and Heucheras, but can also be associated with a spindle tree, Lavateras or poppies.