Echinacea purpurea
Red coneflower
Common names: Purple coneflower, Echinacea
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Pot size
- from 15 l
- Lifespan
- Perennial
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −25 °C
- Water need
- Medium
Photo: Burkhard Mücke · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The Red coneflower is a striking perennial with large purplish‑pink flowers and a tall, spiky, conical flower head that attracts bees and butterflies. In the garden it provides color from July to September, and dried flowers can be used in tea for a mild, slightly bitter flavor.
Care instructions
Begin cultivation in March or plant purchased perennials in a sunny spot with fertile, well‑drained soil. Water regularly during the growing season; later the plant tolerates drought well. Leave seed heads over winter, they add ornamental value and feed birds.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingMar–May
HarvestJul–Sep
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 12 °C, ideally 20 °C
- Days to sprout
- 10 to 21 days
- Light
- Sprouts in light or dark
- Sowing depth
- 0.5 cm
- How to start
- Start indoors, then plant out
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, sandy, humus-rich, well-drained
Put the coneflower in deep, humus-rich, free-draining soil. Loamy-sandy is ideal. Waterlogging is the most common cause of death, especially in winter; slightly chalky soils, on the other hand, it tolerates without problems, and you improve pure sand with mature compost.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
In spring as it starts into growth (March/April), work in a thin layer of mature compost shallowly. That is enough for this undemanding prairie perennial. On lean sandy soil, you can additionally rake in some horn shavings on the surface. Feed sparingly: too much nitrogen produces soft, flopping shoots and fewer flowers.
Overwintering
The purple coneflower is a robust, hardy perennial and survives the winter in the lowlands of Germany, Austria and Switzerland without problems in the ground, without protection. Leave the stems and seed heads standing over winter and cut them back close to the ground only in early spring. All that matters is free-draining soil, because waterlogging in winter harms the roots more than frost; to be on the safe side, cover young plants in their first winter and plants in containers with leaves or brushwood.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
- Division
- Cuttings
Echinacea purpurea can be propagated in three ways. Sowing (seeds): sow under glass from March in spring, or directly outdoors from May. Cover the seeds only thinly with soil. Echinacea is a light germinator close to a dark germinator, with mixed behaviour; in practice it germinates most reliably under a thin layer of soil that holds the moisture. Cold stratification is not strictly necessary, but clearly improves the germination rate: for this, store the seeds moist and cool at about 4 °C for around 4 weeks. Germination takes place after 10 to 20 days at warm room temperature. Seedlings from sowing usually flower only in the second year. Division: the most reliable method for plants true to type. Divide every 3 to 4 years in early spring (April, at the first new growth) or alternatively in autumn after flowering. Dig up the root ball and separate it with a sharp spade into pieces, each with at least one strong shoot and enough root mass. Plant straight away and water in well. Division rejuvenates the plant and maintains its vitality. Cuttings: in spring, when the basal rosette is 10 to 15 cm long, cut strong, flowerless basal cuttings with a small root base. Put them in seed compost, keep them in partial shade and evenly moist. After about 4 to 6 weeks the cuttings are rooted and can go outdoors. Alternatively, in late autumn/winter, when the plant is dormant, root cuttings are also possible: cut off root pieces a few centimetres long with a strong bud and lay them in free-draining seed compost. Important: cultivars such as ‘Magnus’ or ‘PowWow’ are propagated true to type by division or cuttings; from seed they often differ from the mother plant.
Companion planting
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow Red coneflower yourself
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