“The perennial sunflower 'Lemon Queen' is a real powerhouse at the back of a garden border, and it brings those much-appreciated late blooms when it flowers from late summer into autumn. Its yellow…”
Leucothoe major
Lemon Queen Perennial Sunflower Impresses with Its Size and Late Bloom
The perennial sunflower 'Lemon Queen' is a real powerhouse at the back of a garden border, and it brings those much-appreciated late blooms when it flowers from late summer into autumn. Its yellow flowers are smaller than your typical annual sunflower, but what they lack in size they make up for in numbers — they cover this shrubby plant for weeks on end. As a North American native, 'Lemon Queen' is also a pollinator magnet, feeding bees and butterflies, and then small birds once it goes to seed.
Commonly called: 'Lemon Queen' perennial sunflower
Botanical name: Helianthus 'Lemon Queen'
From late summer into fall, 'Lemon Queen' pumps out tons of two-inch-wide sunflowers with yellow petals around a golden center — just cheerful as can be.
Long, narrow, medium green leaves line the stems — nice and clean-looking.
'Lemon Queen' is a big, bold herbaceous perennial that can reach a bushy six to eight feet tall and four to six feet wide by the time it starts blooming in late summer. After the first frost, the top growth dies back — but it'll be back next year!
'Lemon Queen' is a selection of a naturally occurring hybrid between two sunflower species native to the central US. Its parents are Helianthus pauciflorus var. subrhomboideus and Helianthus tuberosus — so it's got some impressive wild roots!
Plant 'Lemon Queen' in full sun and average soil — nothing too rich, please. In fact, skip the fertilizer entirely, because too much fertility just makes it floppy and weak-stemmed. Water consistently while it's getting established, but after that 'Lemon Queen' is surprisingly adaptable to both dry and moist soils. Leave the spent stems and dried flower heads standing through winter — they provide cover and seeds for songbirds like American goldfinches. This sunflower is perennial in USDA Zones 4 through 9.
Heads up: If you're shopping for the perennial 'Lemon Queen' sunflower, make sure you don't accidentally grab the annual one — there's also an annual sunflower called 'Lemon Queen' (Helianthus annuus). The annual version has bigger flowers with chocolate-brown centers, is usually started from seed, and dies off at the end of the season. Don't mix them up!
Image credit: Mark, licensed CC BY 2.0
