Helenium Dakota Gold is our Plant of the Week for the last week of August. This annual is a powerhouse bloomer, going from June until frost. It is a cultivar of our native Helenium amarum, bitter sneezeweed. It can be found native in the Lower Great Plains and Lower Midwest. https://www.kswildflower.org/flower_details.php?flowerID=161
I do not use a lot of annuals in my own landscape, but I do for my clients. Helenium Dakota Gold is an unstoppable force of full sun color. The pure yellow flowers just keep going through the hottest temperature. And it reseeds itself!
It grows 6 to 12 inches tall and wide. Plant Dakota Gold in full sun, in well-drained to heavy clay soils. Then you can sit back and watch it do its thing!
Pollinators of all sorts love this little annual. I have seen numerous bees, butterflies, wasps, and hover flies sipping nectar and taking pollen.
Use Dakota Gold in containers, rock gardens, fairy gardens, borders, or massings. Remember that it will reseed itself, but that seedlings pull out easily.
Buy Helenium Dakota Gold from Grimm’s Gardens locations outside of Hiawatha, KS or in Nebraska City, NE. Check out our online availability at http://www.grimmsgardens.com/shop/
Happy planting!
