Looking for a flower that’s tough, pretty, and pollinator-friendly? Coneflowers (aka Echinacea) are native wildflowers that bring color, charm, and goldfinches to your garden, with barely any fuss.
Let’s get growing! Learn more about growing coneflower and coneflower care—from planting to pests to deadheading.
Echinacea are tough perennials in the daisy family (Asteraceae) and hardy in Zones 3 to 9. They are native to the eastern and central United States, blooming in midsummer and continuing to flower sporadically until frost.
Of course, this plant is good for humans, too, with many medicinal properties; today, it’s especially popular as an herbal tea to strengthen the immune system.
Do Coneflowers Spread?
This is not an aggressive plant, but it will naturally self-seed and spread, which you can encourage if you wait to cut back until late winter (or prohibit self-seeding if you deadhead the flowers right after they fade). Hybrids will not self-sow; most are sterile (they do not produce viable seeds). Hybrids aren’t of much interest to birds, either.
Coneflowers are striking when planted in masses, especially as a mix of various colors. They are trouble-free once established in a traditional garden or wildflower meadow. They are commonly seen in perennial flower gardens.
Growing
- Coneflowers are drought tolerant, but new plants need water occasionally—and more often if the spring season is especially dry.
- Native in-ground coneflowers seldom need fertilizer.
- To delay blooming for fall enjoyment (and compact growth), cut back stems 1 foot when plants come into bloom. For staggered bloom heights and times, cut only a few stems.
- Beneficial, wasplike soldier beetles may appear in August. They feed on insect eggs and larvae, and they pollinate plants. Do not harm them. Learn more about insects that help out around the garden.
- In late fall, lightly spread mulch in colder regions.
- Cut the stems back to soil level when they wither or after frost.
- Divide or transplant coneflowers in spring or fall.
Deadheading Coneflowers
Should you deadhead coneflowers? There are pros and cons. Deadheading right after a flower fades prolongs blooming and prevents reseeding. However, if you can wait until late winter, your birds—especially goldfinches—will enjoy those seedheads. Plus, coneflowers self-seed prolifically, so where you had only one, you’ll have multiple places in the garden with lovely blooms that attract butterflies and bees.
How to deadhead coneflowers? After the flowers fade, cut back stems to a leaf near a new flower bud or a set of leaves. Use sharp, sterilized shears, as coneflowers are too thick to snap back the spent flower head with your fingers.
Growing Coneflowers in Pots
We tend to grow coneflowers in the ground as perennial plants, but you can certainly grow them in pots if the containers are deep enough for the plant’s taproot.
- Use 2- or 3-gallon (or larger) pots with drainage holes. Spread crushed gravel in the bottom of the pots for drainage.
- Fill the pot halfway with the potting mix. Tamp down. Plant the root ball an inch below the rim of the container, spreading out the roots. Add soil slowly until it is even with the top of the root ball, tamping down lightly. Water deeply.
- Keep pots in partial shade for 2 to 3 days, then place in full morning sun and partial afternoon shade.
- Always water deeply at the soil level, and when the soil is dry to the touch. Water on leaves can cause fungal disease.
- Fertilize every couple of weeks with a water-soluble 10-10-10 product.
- Deadhead just below the base of the flower for continued bloom.
- To overwinter, prune plants to soil level when plant growth slows in fall.
- Move to a cool (40º to 50ºF) area, with low to moderate indirect light.
- Check the soil every couple of weeks and water lightly when the top 3 inches are dry.
- When new growth appears in spring, move to a brighter, warmer (60º to 70ºF) area. Moving the plant helps to prepare it for living outdoors in the spring and summer.
- Do not water leaves from above, as this can encourage fungal disease on leaves. Instead, water at the soil level. Use an insecticidal soap or neem oil solution spray if you see any aphids or pests.
- Every 3 to 4 years, in spring, after new growth has started, divide and repot echinacea plants.
Types
The purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is the most common and readily available. The flowers measure 2 to 4 inches in diameter and have a mounded, brown, central cone of disk flowers surrounded by long, light purple rays that droop down the center cone. Up to nine naturally occurring echinacea can also be found in purple shades or yellow (E. paradoxa). They have dark green lower leaves 4 to 8 inches long.
Read about our favorite coneflower varieties here!
Comments
Coneflowers won't repel deer, but they are generally considered to be deer resistant, meaning that deer will usually pass the flowers over in favor of eating something else. As you said, deer will eat most anything, though, and coneflowers are no exception when other food is scarce.
Hi, Julie, Such a particular problem requires a particular response—and our experience with this particular combination of circumstances is shallow. So we sought out some people/sources who appear to be experts.
• This page suggests that the "vast majority of coneflower being propagated in Florida does not come from Florida stock" and so acts like annuals in Florida; this could be your problem: http://hawthornhillwildflowers.blogspot.com/2013/07/purple-coneflower-echinacea-purpurea.html
• This page says that Purple Coneflower is native, but can be vulnerable to slugs: http://orange.ifas.ufl.edu/res_hort/pp.html#Purple%20Coneflower
• As the first link suggests, there are several varieties of coneflower, more still because they were produced/introduced in a rainbow of colors a few years ago. It's not clear what your hybrid is, and that's why this page may be of interest. Scroll down through the alphabet of plants on this page until you get to "Cone Flower." You'll see a picture of a YELLOW—not PURPLE—flower. The text indicates that this variety is native to Florida and thus more likely to thrive. http://nassau.ifas.ufl.edu/horticulture/gardentalk/flowers.html (Pls note that there is a plant sale mentioned in this text; we have absolutely no information on that event; contact the source of the page for more information.)
We hope this helps! Gardening is always an experiment in nature.
If your plants are healthy and had a good-size rootball when you planted them they should be fine. You can add mulch around the plants when the ground freezes.
Coneflowers prefer full sun and lean, dry soil. Usually the stems are very sturdy but there could be many factors causing yours to bend. Are there borers living in the stems? Did you over-fertilize which causes rapid weak growth? Did they get too much water? Is the soil heavy and wet? Try moving them to a sunny spot with sandy soil and see if that helps.
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Hi, Denise: If you can find absolutely no trace of the plants, including stems and leaves, you may indeed have a mystery on your hands--unless you live in Area 51, that is, and this is some kind of X-Files thing. But echinacea is tasty to a lot of critters, and many will just haul away the seedhead--and sometimes anything attached to it--for further inspection elsewhere. Our guess? Deer. Thanks for asking!