How to Grow Echinacea – Coneflower

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How to grow Echinacea plants also known as Purple Coneflower. If you are looking for a wonderful flower that grows in a wide array of planting zones with little or no help from you then look no further than Echinacea.

How to grow echinacea / purple coneflower easily.  Echinaceas (Echinacea Purpurea) are a hardy perennial that grows well in a variety of conditions.  

They make fantastic cut flowers and are drought-tolerant while attracting beneficial insects like bees and butterflies in droves.

How to Grow Echinacea. Wonderful, easy to grow, drought tolerant and comes back every year, making this a perfect flower for your cottage garden. They come in a wide variety of colors, heights and pollinators love them.

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Grow Echinacea Plants from Seed

Many echinaceas are very easy to start from seed. Some say coneflowers germinate better with some cold stratification but I have yet to test that.  

Related: Grow Echinacea aka Coneflower from Seed

You can start seeds indoors in the winter or direct sow in the garden 2 weeks before the first frost date. I have done both and they work equally well.

Echinacea seeds can also be directly sown in the Fall.

Related: Sow your seeds in Fall for a Glorious Summer

How to Grow Echinacea. Wonderful, easy to grow, drought tolerant and comes back every year, making this a perfect flower for your cottage garden. They come in a wide variety of colors, heights and pollinators love them.

Purple Coneflower Care

Cut echinacea flowers for bouquets or deadhead regularly for optimum bloom.  (deadheading is the cutting off of spent flowers)

In the Fall, let the season’s last blooms go to seed for bird food and to reseed themselves.  Or gather them up yourself and seed other spots in the garden, they will snuggle down for the winter and sprout in early spring and summer.

To avoid issues with powdery mildew or other plant diseases do not water from above, only at the roots.

Note: there are many hybrids available now that can only be propagated by root division methods so do your research before buying seeds or only buy from reputable seed companies, I make this warning as I see seeds for the sterile hybrids on Amazon and eBay all the time

Where do Echinacea Coneflowers Grow Best?

Echinacea coneflowers love full sun but can take partial shade. They need at least 4 hours of sun a day. They thrive in Zones 4 – 9 and some can even be grown successfully in Zone 3

They tolerate poor soil and will grow in drought-like conditions if established but do best with regular watering. Echinacea does not like marshy or boggy conditions. Good drainage is essential to their thriving.

They grow in clumps from 12 to 36 inches wide and up to 4 feet tall, depending upon the variety. When you buy the seeds the size is noted on the packet and if you buy a plant in a can or container at the nursery the tag should inform you of the final size.

Echinacea plants are sturdy and rarely need staking unless they are in too much shade, they will reach for the sun and tend to flop. But these sturdy plant supports are easy to create and work for many types of plants.

Fertilizer is rarely needed if you have decent soil. Adding compost as mulch should be sufficient.

For how to build your soil organically this is a must-read.

Planting Coneflower Echinacea Plants

To plant a potted Echinacea, dig a hole as deep as the soil level in the pot, loosen the soil in the bottom of the planting hole, pop the plant out of the pot, place it in the hole then replace the soil, do not bury plant deeper than it was in the pot.  

Coneflowers grow best in well-drained soil. Add some compost and/or mulch around the base (not touching the plant) to suppress weeds and condition the soil. Water regularly until well established.

Another plus with Echinacea Cone Flower is that deer tend to avoid them.

what has worked in my garden

Deer Resistant Flowers

Want to grow a few flowers the deer tend to avoid? Find out which flowers the deer don’t eat in my garden.

Coneflower Colors

Pow Wow

How to Grow Echinacea. Wonderful, easy to grow, drought tolerant and comes back every year, making this a perfect flower for your cottage garden. They come in a wide variety of colors, heights and pollinators love them.

Echinaceas now come in many sizes and colors. If you want to grow echinacea in a variety of colors then seeds are the way to go.  I will note below which of the ones I grow are sterile hybrids or if you can grow them from seed.

PowWow Wildberry (photo above) is conveniently available around my area garden centers in the inexpensive 6 packs,  you will get blooms the first season.  

You can also get the seeds and start them yourself, sow them in January you will get blooms the following summer.  Pow Wow is a shorter variety growing to a height of 20 to 24″.  This one also comes in white.

This one can be grown well in Zone 3.
Botanical Interests carries Pow Wow Echinacea seeds.

Summer Sky or Katie Saul Echinacea

How to Grow Echinacea. Wonderful, easy to grow, drought tolerant and comes back every year, making this a perfect flower for your cottage garden. They come in a wide variety of colors, heights and pollinators love them.

Summer Sky (also known as Katie Saul) is part of the Big Sky series of Echinaceas available via Proven Winners.

It is a hybrid that will not grow from seed.  You need to buy the plant.  I love the soft peach color and they have a light scent.

White Swan Echinacea

How to Grow Purple Coneflower aka Echinacea. Wonderful, easy to grow, drought tolerant and comes back every year, making this a perfect flower for your cottage garden. They come in a wide variety of colors, heights and pollinators love them.

White Swan is a mid-size growing Echinacea.  It will get up to 3 feet tall. This one will reseed itself given the right conditions.

Note that it will cross-pollinate with other echinacea so the self-seeded plants with not always come up white.

White Swan adds that refreshing pop of white to the garden when most Shasta Daisies are done.

Growing White Swan from seed is so easy, it will bloom within 4 months of germination given the right conditions.  

Deadheading encourages more blooms.  At the end of the season, you can leave the seed heads for the birds during winter.
White Swan is also available via Botanical Interests

Tomato Soup

How to Grow Purple Coneflower aka Echinacea

Tomato Soup is a hybrid developed by Terra Nova Nurseries.  It truly has the color of its name.  I have found that hybrids like Tomato Soup, are not as tough or prolific for me as the basic varieties, but they are fun to have.

You can find Tomato Soup at High Country Gardens and Bluestone Perennials

DO NOT buy the seeds from anyone. I see the seeds for Tomato Soup for sale on various sites like Amazon, eBay etc and you will not get plants from those seeds. Tomato Soup is a sterile hybrid, which means the seeds will not germinate and grow.

Hybrids like this one only can be propagated by root division, basal cuttings, or tissue culture.  

Here is a post on How to Divide Coneflower if you want to learn how easy it is.

Purple Coneflower

How to Grow Purple Coneflower aka Echinacea

Purple Coneflower grow to nearly 4 feet so plant them where they won’t block the view of other lower-growing flowers.  They like full sun but will tolerate some afternoon shade. Seed packets will have more planting and growing directions.

Want Sunny-colored Echinaceas?

A nice array of oranges, creams, yellows, and scarlets come in Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea seed mix. They have them at Park Seeds and Swallowtail Garden Seed.

Renees Garden seeds also carry a mix that is quite easy to grow and very pretty! Give them a try.

Update:  I just bought a potted Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea and am growing it now.  I LOVE it so far.

I am more convinced than ever to get seeds to grow echinacea like this one in different colors.

Are you ready to try to grow Coneflowers aka Echinaceas?

How to Grow Purple Coneflower aka Echinacea

Have you heard of the new cross between Echinaceas and Rudbeckias called Echibeckia.  I am anxious to see how that works out.



Happy Gardening!

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Hi, I’m Pamela

I am a 40-year master gardening enthusiast who loves to share the simple tips, tricks, and inspiration I have learned from personal experience.
My goal is to cultivate the love of gardening and help make your gardening life more enjoyable!
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8 Comments

  1. Sounds like you are doing great in alternative gardening. My cousin has his entire garden in stock tanks. His son care takes several ranches in the area and he collects the ones that are being replaced, they are dented etc but they hold dirt and that is all he needs!

  2. My Dad used to have lots of flowers around the yard, including different colors of cone flowers. He had the outdoor green thumb while Mom’s was the indoor green thumb. You bring back many memories for me. Thank you so much! I don’t have the green thumb they had but do enjoy raising different flowers and raised gardens. This year I made some raised gardens using recycled truck tires. Pole beans and tomatoes are growing in them. Stock tanks are overflowing with lots of other veggies while a big flower pot is home to cucumber plants. Polyarthritis caused me to cut back on a big “ground” garden but it hasn’t stopped me altogether!

  3. White Swan is usually available at good garden centers and nurseries. At least around here it is. I grew mine from seed.

  4. I have not seen the white swan variety before, I love it! Thanks for sharing your tips!!

    Love,
    Susan and Bentley

  5. Thank you, Peggy. I do try to be helpful and keep gardening fun and easier than most think it is.

  6. I love cone flower and had forgotten about White Swan. I need to mix some of that in with my daisies so I have white into the fall. I love flowers planted in drifts. I need to get some seed for that very thing. Nursery plants are so expensive here. You always have such informative posts.

  7. You are so welcome, Phyllis. 🙂

  8. Love your tips and the sharing of the beauty.

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