Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea. ASTERACEAE (COMPOSITAE).
Planting and Growing Purple Coneflower
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow purple coneflower in the accompanying table’s tabs:
-
- Flowers, foliage, and root structure of purple coneflower
- Plant hardiness and growing conditions for purple coneflower
- Season of bloom and planting time for purple coneflower
- When, how deep, and where to plant purple coneflower
- How to plant purple coneflower
- Watering, fertilizing, care, and pests or diseases of purple coneflower
- Landscape and container uses of purple coneflower
- Comments about purple coneflower and its features
Growing Purple Coneflower
Many cultivars of erect, spreading, upright, deciduous perennial herbs, 2–4 ft. (60–120 cm) tall and wide. Alternate, textured, green, oval to bladelike leaves, 4–8 in. (10–20 cm) long.
Common cultivars include Echinacea purpurea ‘Bright Star’, ‘Robert Bloom’, and ‘White Lustre’.
See also Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), closely-related annual and biennial species and hybrids. Mexican Hat Flower (Ratibida columnifera), or Red Prairie Coneflower, are a related North American native plant with similar care needs.
Planting and Care Guide
Blooms
Showy, pink, purple, red, white, flat or drooping flowers, 3–6 in. (75–150 mm) wide, with dark, button- or conelike centers, on tall stalks, in late summer, form abundant seed, in autumn.
Best Climates
Hardy. Zones 3–10.
Soil Type and Fertility
Damp to dry, well-drained soil. Fertility: Average. 6.5–7.5 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Spring in full sun to partial shade, 18–24 in. (45–60 cm) apart, after soil warms.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep moist until established; allow soil surface to dry between waterings. Drought tolerant. Fertilize quarterly. Mulch. Propagate by division, seed.
About This Plant
Good choice for backgrounds, borders in cottage, meadow, natural, wildlife gardens. Good for windy sites. Attracts birds, butterflies. Japanese beetle, mite and southern blight, downy and powdery mildew, rust susceptible.