Echinacea

Echinacea produces beautiful, long-lasting purple and pink blooms with an attractive cone shaped center. It’s leaves shrink in size as they progress up the stem and it has daisy-like petals. Great for attracting beneficial insects, small birds, butterflies and bees to your garden. Produces flowers over a long period from early summer through to late autumn. Good for borders, beds, wildflower meadows and as a cut flower. Also known as coneflower, it has gained popularity in the herbal world.

Germination rates can be improved by cold stratifying the seed prior to sowing. To do this mix equal parts of seed and damp sand in a container and store in the refrigerator (not freezer) for 6 weeks. Do not use sand that is dripping wet otherwise your seeds may rot.  Remove the container from your refrigerator and sit the container in lukewarm water overnight before sowing out the seeds. This process tricks the seeds into thinking they’ve experienced a cold Winter and the warm soak afterwards helps to speed up germination.

Echinacea are drought resistant and will thrive on the available moisture from rain except in extremely dry areas. It will perform best when exposed to full sun and planted in well-drained soil. If your soil is too rich, flowering may begin to diminish. Once the echinacea blooms begin to look spent, cut the plant down by a third of its height. This will help to reenergize the plant and keep it beautiful.

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