Love, Lust and Despair- Echinacea

From deep crush to unconditional love, my romance with Echinacea started in my formative plant geek stage and continues today but with deeper understanding.  I’ve loved learning the history of this great plant while watching all the fascinating developments in Echinacea breeding.

Purple Coneflower has been a garden staple for years.  Gardeners enjoy the flat or reflexed pink petals surrounding a central cone with orange highlights.  ‘Magnus’ emerged as the industry standard for many years, receiving the Perennial Plant of the Year Award in 1998.  And rightly so, this seed selection had sturdy stems, dark green foliage, and large flowers.  For those who wanted a little variety, ‘White Swan’ was a great complementary selection with white flowers.

Up to this point the Coneflowers we knew were roughly 3’ or taller, had a long season of bloom, and were a wonderful food source for Goldfinches.  Planted in full sun, Echinacea purpurea blooms in summer and into fall with deadheading, hardy in zones 3-9.

Then in 1999 Kim Hawks (formerly of Niche Gardens) introduced ‘Kim’s Knee High’, a wonderful dwarf cultivar that was the first coneflower to be vegetatively propagated.  shortly thereafter came ‘Kim’s Mophead’, a dwarf white version of a perennial favorite.  But heed this warning – no Miracle Gro for dwarf Echinaceas or they will no longer be dwarf.  I had a client who learned this the hard way (grin).

As a newly emerging plant geek, I was enthralled by Echinaceas.  I began growing every cultivar of Echinacea purpurea I could get my hands on, plus several species Echinaceas (like E. paradoxa, E. tennesseensis, and E. pallida). Only a true geek would be giddy over different shades of pink and slight changes in petal shape and habit, right?  Little did I know of what was coming down the pipeline…..

2004 brought the introduction of the first ORANGE coneflower – from the Chicago Botanic Garden.  I had full blown plant lust.  I scoured catalogs, websites, called vendors – I needed this plant.  I paid an insane amount of money for my first ‘Orange Meadowbrite’, but when you have an addiction the price tag doesn’t matter.

Later that season a wholesale grower offered cell flats of these beauties – I thought Christmas had come early – until they started to bloom, they were not orange, they were mango.  The devastation began to set in and my ear was to the phone trying to find out what had happened.  Apparently they was a problem in the tissue culture lab and some teeny tiny plants were switched at “birth”.

My 2^nd devastation of the year came the following spring, when my lovelies did not overwinter.  I was no longer going to let myself be drawn into the hype.  I would have patience when new cultivars of any plant came on the market, I would use restraint – yeah right!

The next generation of orange coneflowers came from Saul Nursery in Georgia, I had hope.  However, plant after plant failed to overwinter in my Pennsylvania garden.

So what have we learned from this?  The hybridizers have learned to test their new releases a bit more prior to introducing them, the winter hardiness complaint has been a major issue.  Gardeners have learned that they are just plants – and sometimes plants don’t make it – but enjoy them while you have them.  That’s my feeling.  I continue to buy and try the new cultivars that come out each year.  I successfully over-wintered Echiancea ‘Sunrise’ this year, a beautiful yellow form, only to have my husband accidently hit it with weed killer.  I believe some of my luck was due to siting and more protection from winter winds.

This past weekend we planted Echinacea ‘Tomato Soup’ – a deep red orange selection from Terra Nova Nurseries, we will see what happens.  There are also many double flowers selections with promise, including ‘Milkshake’ and ‘Hot Papaya’, and several with great fragrance.

So where do you begin if you are just starting out?  Don’t shy away from Echinacea, it is a great native plant and a star of the summer garden.  If you are uneasy, start with a tried and true pink or white variety.  As you venture into newer cultivars, start with one and see what happens, don’t be like me and buy 50!  Also – keep in mind that many Echinacea will self sew – or drop lots of seeds – especially if you do not deadhead your plants.  Don’t get too excited that you have the next best thing as your seedlings begin to flower.  If you think you might have something extraordinary, however, send me a picture and I’ll put you in touch with the right people.  (When you strike it rich, I should get a referral fee – right?)

If you would like additional information about this wonderful genus of plants, check out http://www.plantdelights.com/Tony/Articles/Coneflower/ for a nice article by from Plant Delights Nursery.