Bracted Helichrysum

Native range: Australia.

A perennial herbaceous plant of , family. Compositae. Cultivated as an annual. In cultivation since 1799.

Plant description: Shrubs slightly spreading, reaching 60-80 cm in height. Stems erect, branched, slightly ribbed. Leaves narrow, lanceolate, sessile, entire, glabrous, dark green.

Flowers small, tubular, gathered in inflorescences — heads (capitula), which have very bright and numerous involucral bracts in white, pink, yellow, orange or red of various shades.

Blooms abundantly from July until the first frosts.

Fruit — achene with a pappus. Seeds ripen in August. Up to 1500 seeds per 1 g; germination remains viable for 3 years.

Best cultivars:

In cultivation almost exclusively the large-flowered form (f. monstrosum) is used, which is often considered a separate species and called large helichrysum (H. monstrosum hort.), with heads up to б cm in diameter, clothed with numerous, large involucral bracts creating the impression of "double" inflorescences. The most widespread cultivars were bred in Germany and the Netherlands:

'Файербаль' — Shrub up to 115 cm tall, upright. Leaves linear. Inflorescences convex, 5-6 cm in diameter, surrounded by a many-row involucre. Bracts membranous, red with a brownish tint. Flowers in July — August.
'Виолет' — Shrub up to 110 cm tall. Inflorescences 4-6 cm in diameter. Involucral bracts dark red with a violet tint. Blooms from July to September.
'Уайт' — Shrub up to 110 cm tall. Inflorescences up to 6.5 cm in diameter. Involucral bracts white, membranous. Blooms from July for 70 days.

'Иеллоу' — Shrub up to 105 cm tall. Inflorescences up to б cm in diameter, involucral bracts membranous, golden-yellow. Blooms from the end of June until the end of August.

In addition to single-color cultivars there are several color-mix series. The best of them: Double Mixed and Unwins Summer Spectrum. These are tall plants 90—100 cm high with very large bright inflorescences of white, pink, yellow, red and orange colors.

Recently another cultivar Sombrero appeared, combining delicate pastel shades: lemon, cream, and various shades of pink.

Position: Helichrysum is light-loving, although it can tolerate slight shading; it is frost-hardy and drought-resistant.

Soils: Prefers fertile, loose soils.

Care: Simple, however to obtain a large amount of good-quality cut flowers, plants should be fed periodically, once every two weeks, with a complete complex fertilizer or cow manure infusion, and watered in hot dry weather so that the inflorescences do not become smaller. To obtain good cut flowers the central shoot of tall cultivars must be pinched above the 5th—6th leaf. Dwarf cultivars do not require pinching.

Propagation: By seed. Seeds are sown in March. Seedlings appear on the 8th—10th day. Pricking out begins two weeks after seedlings appear. Seedlings can be pricked into small pots, or into boxes or greenhouse soil, since thanks to the powerful fibrous root system helichrysum tolerates transplanting well. Seedlings are planted into open ground in mid-May at a distance of 15—25 cm from each other depending on the cultivar. With the seedling method, flowering begins in mid-July. Some cultivars, especially low-growing border types, can be sown directly in the ground on May 5—10. After emergence they should be thinned to 10—15 cm. This method is much simpler than the seedling one, but flowering in this case begins only in the second half of August.

Uses: For drying, it is advisable to harvest helichrysum stems at a specific stage, when the lower 3—4 rows of involucral bracts have already separated from the bud, while the inner ones still tightly cover the center of the inflorescence. In this case, during drying some "petals" will still open, while the center of the inflorescence will remain slightly covered, and the inflorescence will look most attractive. If the disc of tubular flowers has already appeared on the plant, it is better to leave them for seed or remove them, since when drying the involucral bracts will bend strongly toward the stem and the inflorescence will become unattractive. Low-growing cultivars of helichrysum can provide a very large amount of cut material — smaller inflorescences on short peduncles, which are used in small compositions and for various crafts, panels, artificial bonsai, etc. Helichrysums are dried, like all the previously described species of dry flowers, by hanging small bunches in a dry shaded place. Leaves should preferably be removed from the stems before drying.

Besides cutting, helichrysums can be successfully used in landscaping. They are especially good in borders, beds and groups of low-growing cultivars whose plants have a globular form and are for a long time covered with numerous bright flowers. Tall cultivars can be used on high beds and in the back of rose mixed borders.