Echinacea purpurea

One of the first flowers I ever grew from seed were purple coneflowers – Echinacea purpurea, the poster child of the North American native plant movement and a key species in everything from pollinator gardens to giant prairie plantings everywhere.

I also knew that echinacea was a great cut flower – both in its flowering form as well as its seedhead form. In fact, echinacea is only available in its seedhead form from wholesalers (since the flowers themselves don’t transplant very well), working nicely as a strong, structural plant with a great textural presence in a design.

It’s a great plant to grow – doing well in even the worst conditions of poor soil, hot humid summers, freezing cold winters, and will support itself with long strong stems and a great upright habit. It will support a great variety of native pollinators, grows well nearly everywhere and is a robust and hardy perennial that will reward you with long flowering stems year after year.

Echinacea will do well in just about any soil – they will even thrive in hard-packed clay (which most would not do well in) without any issue, so finding a site for them isn’t too hard. The main issue will be drainage – echinacea may not survive in areas where their roots are constantly being flooded by water, so be sure to plant them where they will stay moist during the summer and a bit drier during the winter.

We transplant them out once they are hardened off and have their first set of leaves. They’re very hardy and vigorous plants, so even if they get a bit rootbound in the container they still will do just fine, establishing very readily.

When planting out echinacea, ensure they get a good deep watering to help them establish well, and then water them every day for a week to ensure that their root ball stays moist and can start growing into the surrounding soil.

Note that we can have our echinacea flowering the first year from seed (by August usually) if we start them early enough, but most people will require at least one full growing season before seeing them flower, especially if you have a short growing season. They will form a rosette of glossy, broadleaf foliage first, then will go onto send up their flower stalks later.