Exciting Echinacea!

You know the heat is on when you start seeing Echinacea, aka coneflowers coming into bloom. Loving the warmer temperature, the full sun, and good drainage, this is truly a great perennial for the cape cod garden.

This year we grew a total of 23 different varieties. As growers we can see fairly quickly which ones will be the stronger, more vigorous plants, and which ones need a bit more coaxing along.

The top performer in the “new” category was Double Scoop Cranberry. With its very large cranberry-red cushion center and flared outer petals, it is a garden show stopper! Its robust foliage and height of 24” keeps things sturdy and would be perfect as a mid-border perennial.

The Butterfly series is also a wonderful selection of hardy and visually stunning coneflowers.

The colors range from the bright orange of Julia to the deep yellow of Cleopatra, the orange sherbet of Rainbow Marcella to the magenta Purple Emperor. All growing to a smaller height of 15-18” these are suitable for containers as well as a front border plant.

As always, we have our reliable standbys. Echinacea purpurea the tall native, along with Magnus and its shorter version, Kim’s knee High are all truly hardy, and can even be somewhat overly vigorous in the ideal spot!

No matter what variety you choose, you can expect a carnival of color from now until frost!

Other varieties available are:
Cheyene Spirit