Featured Plant - Purple Coneflower

Claire Shady
11 minutes ago
1 min read

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia) is an easy to spot classic garden accent that grows to about 2 feet high and produces pink blooms in the early summer heat of June and July.

You can find Purple Coneflower across the Intermountain and Mid-west, south from Saskatchewan across the historical Great Plains area and into the Southwest.

Purple Coneflower attracts a multitude of pollinators and the small hairs on its leaves and stems deters deer from munching it down. It is a widely used medical plant of the Plains Indians and other indigenous communities.

This plant prefers to be planted in full sun and thrives in alkaline soil. If your soil needs to be amended, you can add lime when planting Purple Coneflower in your yard or garden. While not essential, this amendment can help this plant thrive. For a more uniform plant, avoid planting Purple Coneflower in soils with high fertility as it will lead to leggy plants.

In the garden, it’s recommended to deadhead the first bloom to encourage a later second bloom. To prepare for the next growing cycle, you should cut stems to the ground in late fall or you can wait until early spring.