Echinacea

Echinacea has basal spear-shaped foliage along a sturdy stem upon which is perched a spectacular 4-5” cone-shaped flower with reflexed petals. Echinacea does not need staking (or it wouldn’t last long in our garden). The species (Echinacea purpurea) has light purple petals, but there are now many different cultivars sporting different colors. ‘Magnus’ is a purple variant with less reflexed petals. ‘Virgin’ is a slightly smaller (24” tall) variety with white flowers. ‘Happy Star’ is a tall, white-flowering cultivar. ‘Flame Thrower’ has thin, striking orange-and-yellow petals. ‘Sunrise’ has pale yellow-orange flowers. ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ is a ‘box of chocolates’ selection that blooms in a variety of colors including white, cream, pink, orange, red or yellow. Echinacea will self-seed prodigiously, but you should probably expect that seedlings will not necessarily come true, and are likely to revert to the natural purple variety. Once planted, Echinacea are impossible to tell apart until they bloom. (So keep track of who went where!) Deer rarely bother Echinacea in our garden, but woodchucks and rabbits appear to have a taste for young plants, and will demolish them if not surrounded with wire mesh in early spring.