In Focus: Echinacea

Purple Coneflower
Plant

Echinacea is a genus, or group of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family, Asteraceae. The nine species it contains are commonly called coneflowers. Wikipedia

Scientific name: Echinacea
Rank: Genus
Higher classification: Heliantheae
Lower classifications: Echinacea paradoxa, Echinacea laevigata,Echinacea tennesseensis, Echinacea angustifolia, Echinacea purpurea,Echinacea atrorubens, Echinacea pallida, Echinacea sanguinea,Echinacea simulata

Echinacea, more commonly know as a Coneflower. Beautiful purple flowers on long stems that last for weeks. Easy to grow hardy Perennial once established will come back year after year. Easy to maintain and they need very little maintenance during the year. Just cutting back at the end of the season  to remove the dead stems and leaves from the base. They can be susceptible to attacks from slugs and snails as they find the leaves nice and tasty. The will decimate a plant in a few nights. 

Echinacea are also available in other colours, Yellow, Orange and white to name a few. The purple ones tend to be more hardy in my experience. Generally will do well in the middle of the border as the flower spikes can get quite tall. I have grown all mine from seed, they are easy to propagate. I tend to May time as there is more room in the greenhouse and then bring the smaller plants outside to get the most from the sun and growing time. Then pot them onto bigger pots and over winter in the greenhouse so i have nice healthy plant for the next season. 

Very popular with Bees, as gardeners we must do as much as we can to provide food and habitat for Bees. I always try to have the plants that attract butterflies, insects and of course Bees which are in decline