Garden Bloggers' Blooms Day: Helianthus 'Lemon Queen'

Helienthus 'Lemon Queen'

Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' is a late summer stalwart on my patio. I have a longish narrow bed in the corner, dominated by a fig tree and with a couple of winter flowering clematis growing up our neighbour's garage wall. This is a perennial sunflower, which grows to 5 or 6 feet tall, with lighter yellow flowers than most of its perennial and annual cousins. Personally, I think the lighter lemon suits the softer rays of autumn's sunshine.

This area doesn't have a decent depth of soil, which is fine for the fig, but at the height of summer my sunflowers suffer a little. As a consequence this is the only garden bed which gets an additional watering, usually the waste water from our kitchen. I now have a couple of options to consider: either to build up the soil depth with a thick mulch so my sunflowers fare better, or to replace them with something else. Earlier in the year I was all for replacing them with raspberries as part of my Allotment at Home endeavours as that's one of the crops I miss the most. Raspberries don't mind a relatively shallow soil but now I have sunny blooms on show, I'm swithering in my decision.

I will have to do something though: I've never split these plants and a quick look back in my blog and I can see they're not flowering so well as they have previously. To split or replace, that is the question.

Hoverfly on Lemon Queen

It's a good plant for pollinators which is most definitely in its favour, though of course the abundant honey bees all flew away when I appeared with my camera. Thank goodness the pictured hoverfly wasn't so shy earlier on in the autumn. Another factor to consider is NAH's concerns about the possibility of raspberry canes invading the rest of the garden. He mentions it every time I talk about planting raspberries as he has childhood memories of them marauding all over the garden at his parents. He's not convinced by my reassurance they'll be kept in check by our huge patio!

I have all winter to decide. What would you do?

Garden Bloggers' Blooms Day is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Comments

  1. Lisa15 October 2020 at 17:25

    I'd probably try to relocate them totally. I have two helianthus. One is a nice fertile bed, where it gets tall, and the other in shallow, less fertile soil, that stays short. The one in the shallow soil (it's shallow because of cedars growing nearby and the roots keep me from getting in deep) is so fussy about getting water. It wilts when everything else is fine. So pretty though. Both are about done and ready to be pruned back. Do you go to soil level on yours?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP22 October 2020 at 08:34

      You've given me an idea, thanks Lisa! I have a new border which needs some taller plants... and yes, I do cut these down to soil level and give them a good mulch.

      Delete
  2. Karin / Southern Meadows15 October 2020 at 21:13

    I love helianthus. I would want to include it simply to support pollinators but the gold color is a lovely addition to the fall garden. But, I also love raspberries. Tough choice!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Arun Goyal16 October 2020 at 07:12

    Lovely Helianthus.It would be my pleasure if you join my link up party related to Gardening here http://jaipurgardening.blogspot.com/2020/10/garden-affair-fruit-harvest.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anna18 October 2020 at 21:29

    What a cheerful flower VP and oh what a dilemna. From my experience of growing raspberries at the allotment you certainly need to keep an eye on them as they can be thugs. I inherited some plants and also planted some autumn fruiting 'Polka' which take the biscuit for taste. 'Swithering' is a delicious new to me word 😄 Thanks for introducing me to it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP22 October 2020 at 08:38

      I was looking at Polka for my new raspberries Anna. I grew 'Autumn Bliss' at the allotment which we loved and they fruited from July. However, the area I have is much smaller and so I'm looking at the newer varieties which crop more heavily. And yes they did root themselves all over the place, but were pretty easy to keep in check.

      Delete
    2. Anna25 October 2020 at 16:46

      'Polka' fruit from July too. Monty Don was planting some on Friday nights episode of GW.

      Delete
  5. Yvonne20 October 2020 at 17:20

    Beautiful plant. I don't know about raspberries, but we have wild blackberries that come up in our gardens and they spread everywhere. Very hard to get rid of.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP22 October 2020 at 08:39

      Ahh, you're referring to the brambles which I also have in my garden as they popped over the fence when I wasn't looking! They are much harder to get rid of - I have a garden bed in a half fallow state whilst I try and deal with the problem.

      Delete

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