Flower/Plant of the Week: Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

Photo by Angie

The common name of this beauty is coneflower and it is a perennial, so it will come back year after year. It flowers from summer to fall. This is a great flower to have in your garden because it attracts butterflies and birds, it is drought tolerant, which means you do not have to water it daily, it propagates itself from the seed located in the center of the flower, dropped during the prior season or when the flower dries, you can keep the seeds in an envelope in a dry place at home and put them in the garden in late spring of the following year, after the last frost in your area. Coneflowers grow up to about 5’ and spread to about 18”. They are great cut flowers, loves full sun and its hardiness in the country is far up north to Zone 3. There are new hybrids now that comes in a variety of colors. Once you plant one in your garden, the original plant will propagate every year, giving you multiple plants for free.