Does anyone grow Echinacea / purple coneflower?

I want to start this in my perennial bed next year.  Anyone have any info, hints, etc?

Thanks.

AtlantaMarie wrote:I want to start this in my perennial bed next year.  Anyone have any info, hints, etc?

Thanks.

I have tons of Echinacea, most purple, but some fun hybrid colors as well. Very vigorous grower, self seeds well, if not semi-invasively! Has to be put in it's place some times. Tolerates some shade. Leaves a nice seed head for winter birds, in fact, that is the black seeded head in my avatar and the pic from Birds in winter....very rewarding and hardy. Drought tolerant. Do it!

Which one has the prickly spikes? Pin cushion flower (Scabiosa) or Purple coneflower Echinacea?

Don't know about pin cushion, but I know coneflower has prickly seedheads...

Invasive, SR?  Do you think I'd be better off putting it in a container?  How much space does it need?

Thanks!

My plant went from baseball root ball to beachball root ball in 3 years.  That is about right for perenniels.  They usually have to be divided about every 3 years to keep them in check.  I never notice many seedlings scattered through the flower bed though.  Just at the base of the mama plant.  My shasta daisy and iris did the same thing.  I cut the coneflower in half and the shasta daisy into quarters.  Dug out what I didn't want and kept the original plant in place.  Start a new bed, give away or compost what you don't want.

Kay

Hmmmm....  Thanks Kay.  I think I see some container gardening in my future...

Marie, mine are just in my big perennial bed, which is in my current avatar, and it is basically ignored over winter. They readily self sow, which is OK a for where I have them. If I wanted to keep tabs on them, I would use containers.

Very vigorous. Prairie plant......

Then I think containers it is...  That's fine!  I'm planning on doing my sunflowers that way too.  And I've got JUST the space for them - where my greenhouse will eventually go!

Thanks for the advice!!!  

I grow purple and white. Easy to grow and propagate.

CAMPRN!!!!  Hi!  How are you??  Missed seeing you around here!  

AtlantaMarie wrote:CAMPRN!!!!  Hi!  How are you??  Missed seeing you around here!  

Hiya! I've been wicked busy full time job and 3/4 time college student. One more final exam to go. Hopefully I can get a garden photo  for tomorrow. But not of my echinacea, all that's left of them are brown seed heads.

Camp's back! Good to hear from you and looking forward to your photos. Are you on winter break? Or, are you through with school now?

Can anyone share when it is safe to transplant coneflower? These are plants from last year that need to be moved to a different location in the yard (not seedlings).

I have some rudbeckia (black eyed susan) that is in the same location and also needs to be moved a bit...thanks!

Yes. They can be transplanted as soon as the ground can be worked. .

Scorpio Rising wrote:

AtlantaMarie wrote:I want to start this in my perennial bed next year.  Anyone have any info, hints, etc?

Thanks.

I have tons of Echinacea, most purple, but some fun hybrid colors as well.  Very vigorous grower, self seeds well, if not semi-invasively!  Has to be put in it's place some times.  Tolerates some shade.  Leaves a nice seed head for winter birds, in fact, that is the black seeded head in my avatar and the pic from Birds in winter....very rewarding and hardy.  Drought tolerant.  Do it!

Hi Scorpio! I started a plant from a single seed I was given. It flowered last year and I let it go to seed. When do the new Echinacea seedlings tend to pop up? The landlord gave me new mulch to put on the landscape bed. I left the area around this plant to do last -- I don't want to bury the waiting seeds, but I need an idea of when to give up waiting for any seedlings to appear so I can finish mulching the bed.

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

Scorpio Rising wrote:

AtlantaMarie wrote:I want to start this in my perennial bed next year.  Anyone have any info, hints, etc?

Thanks.

I have tons of Echinacea, most purple, but some fun hybrid colors as well.  Very vigorous grower, self seeds well, if not semi-invasively!  Has to be put in it's place some times.  Tolerates some shade.  Leaves a nice seed head for winter birds, in fact, that is the black seeded head in my avatar and the pic from Birds in winter....very rewarding and hardy.  Drought tolerant.  Do it!

Hi Scorpio! I started a plant from a single seed I was given. It flowered last year and I let it go to seed. When do the new Echinacea seedlings tend to pop up? The landlord gave me new mulch to put on the landscape bed. I left the area around this plant to do last -- I don't want to bury the waiting seeds, but I need an idea of when to give up waiting for any seedlings to appear so I can finish mulching the bed.

Don't add mulch to the area for a few months until.you can ID the babies. They should be popping up soon.

I agree. Let it get out of the ground. I will see if mine is up and post a pic, but this is what they look like when naturalized:

https://www.google.com/search?q=emerging+echinacea+plants&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=nsiv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj08Pa_tq3MAhVBJCYKHa-jDDcQ_AUICSgD&biw=1024&bih=671#hl=en-us&tbm=isch&q=emerging+echinacea+plants+spring&imgrc=IqkC7hGmWyhryM%3A

I still haven't raked out my perennial bed. Mine comes up, through leaves, etc! If you need seeds let me know, but my seed heads have been eaten by the birds all winter!

AtlantaMarie...check out Kim's Knee High Purple Coneflower...its a really beautiful dwarf variety that could work well in a container.  I had one and it did not seem to reseed itself.  

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=v630

For a more native appearance, take a look at Glade Coneflower or Pale Purple Coneflower.

Scorpio Rising wrote:I agree.  Let it get out of the ground.  I will see if mine is up and post a pic, but this is what they look like when naturalized:

https://www.google.com/search?q=emerging+echinacea+plants&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=nsiv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj08Pa_tq3MAhVBJCYKHa-jDDcQ_AUICSgD&biw=1024&bih=671#hl=en-us&tbm=isch&q=emerging+echinacea+plants+spring&imgrc=IqkC7hGmWyhryM%3A

I still haven't raked out my perennial bed.  Mine comes up, through leaves, etc!  If you need seeds let me know, but my seed heads have been eaten by the birds all winter!  

The leaves on your bed look like a great mulch, SR. I leave the fall leaves on the beds all year as mulch, and spread compost right over the top of them. Less watering and no raking!

CC

Hi All, I'm back!!(after a year's absence from posting).
My native purple Echinacea started off as a 4 inch pot from nursery.  Now it reseeds constantly from goldfinches feeding on seed heads and dropping a few.

My answer to the seedlings and extra plants is to sell the extras on Craigs List. Have more than made up for the original cost, this way.

AtlantaMarie wrote:I want to start this in my perennial bed next year.  Anyone have any info, hints, etc?

Thanks.

Funny you should ask that Marie!

I am working on getting a bunch of echinacea going.  Mainly I have planted  hybrids.  I did plant a purple one, and I'm not sure where it is among the hybrids.  In fact, you yourself shared your purple seeds that you bought from Johnny's Seeds so the purple one came from you. 

I'm going to post some photos.  I do not have any photos of mine flowering.  That has not happened for me yet.  The flower images are stock photos from Bing.

These I planted Spring 2015 and they overwintered.  I'll include an image of what they look like (Cheyenne Spirit):





These I planted fall 2015 (Warm Summer, a Burpee exclusive)








These little guys are also Warm Summer.  I planted them in early spring 2016:


I will keep you updated as to how these all progress.  I"m excited about these hybrids because I think they are especially beautiful.  Many of the warm colors are my favorite.

This last photo I bought seeds from Amazon, but I forgot to plant them.   I might still.  This is called Double Scoop Raspberry:

Marie:  Correction on the seeds you traded me coming from Johnny's Seeds.  I believe it was actually Baker Creek. 

Most of what I have is the generic purple echinachea. I bought one called tequila sunrise that is orangey and really pretty. It does not re-seed like the others, hybrid? The original purple stuff goes nuts.

I think I've got a seedling!