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Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

from $8.99

Botanical name: Echinacea purpurea • Bloom season: Summer to fall • Bloom color: Rosy pink with orange cone


Rosy-pink petals that droop back from a bristly copper-orange cone, on stiff stems that stand up without staking. Coneflowers are the plant most people picture when they think of a pollinator garden, and for good reason: butterflies feed on the cone for weeks, and once the petals drop, the seed head keeps working as a goldfinch feeder into winter.

Botanical name: Echinacea purpurea • Bloom season: Summer to fall • Bloom color: Rosy pink with orange cone


Rosy-pink petals that droop back from a bristly copper-orange cone, on stiff stems that stand up without staking. Coneflowers are the plant most people picture when they think of a pollinator garden, and for good reason: butterflies feed on the cone for weeks, and once the petals drop, the seed head keeps working as a goldfinch feeder into winter.

Size:

Plant Characteristics

Botanical Name: Echinacea purpurea

Common Name: Purple Coneflower

Native: Native

Sun: Full Sun to Part Sun

Water: Moderate

Bloom Time: Summer to fall

Bloom Color: Rosy pink with orange cone

Pollinators: Bees; Butterflies

Deer Resistant: Yes

Mature Size: W 18"-24" x H 2'-4'

Soil: Well-drained; average to lean garden soil

Plant Type: Herbaceous perennial

USDA Zones: 3 to 9

Spread Habit: Clumping

Available As: Live plant

Native Region: Eastern & Central N.A. (outside western regions)

Grow Notes

Full sun to part sun in average to lean, well-drained soil. Space about 18 inches apart. It is long-lived and deep-rooted, which makes it one of the more forgiving natives for a customer starting out. Water moderately in the first year, then only in a prolonged dry spell.

  • Water: Moderate

  • Sun: Full Sun to Part Sun

  • Soil: Well-drained; average to lean garden soil

  • Mature size: W 18"-24" x H 2'-4'

Maintenance

Leave the seed heads standing all winter, which is the single most valuable thing you can do with this plant; goldfinches strip them through the cold months. Cut back in late spring, keeping about a third of the stems for insects. Deadheading during the season prolongs bloom but costs you the seed, so choose. Divide every four years if the center opens up.