This Elegant Plant Is the Drought-Tolerant, Wildlife Magnet You’ve Been Looking for if You Want Easy Blooms That Pollinators Adore
Discover everything this tough and reliable native plant can bring to your garden
Do you like the ease of adding low-maintenance perennials to your garden? If so, purple coneflower might be the perfect plant for you. There are so many pluses to this native plant that effortlessly combines vivid color, hassle-free care, and value for wildlife.
It is tough, can survive in almost any soil, and is drought-tolerant once established. You get two months-plus of colorful, beautiful blooms that attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, followed by architectural seed heads that feed birds through winter. That is a lot of ticks in many different boxes.
If you grow coneflowers already, you’ll understand how these plants, also known as echinacea, are usually as reliable as they come. But here we want to wax lyrical about the purple coneflower, so let’s take a look at what this wonderful plant brings to a yard and how easy it is to grow.
All About Purple Coneflower
Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is an herbaceous perennial plant native to the eastern and central US. It commonly grows in prairies or meadows, but has become a popular backyard plant for color, form, texture, and its innate ability to attract wildlife.
Purple coneflower is hardy in US zones 3-8 and grows between 24 and 60 inches tall, depending on the variety.
The plants have rough-textured leaves and upright stems topped with daisy-like flowers in shades of pink and purple (as the name suggests). The drooping petals surround a prominent, darker center.
Why Grow Purple Coneflower
There are many reasons to love purple coneflower, not least because they are very versatile and bloom from summer into early fall. Coneflower varieties tend to burst into flower in midsummer, and can bring color and wildlife to flower beds and containers for around two months.
You can plant them individually or in groups in herbaceous borders, or add them to wildflower meadows or prairie planting schemes. The erect stems and dazzling flowerheads make excellent cut flowers, too.
Once established, the plants are very low-maintenance and make excellent drought-tolerant perennials. Purple coneflower plants can cope with heat and short periods of dry weather, making them suitable for hotter climates, drier gardens, and xeriscaping.
It is commonly accepted that purple coneflower plants make excellent additions to any wildlife garden. They are superb plants for pollinators, with bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds attracted to the nectar-rich blooms.
Plus, if you leave the dried seed heads come the end of the season, the seeds become a vital food source for birds, including cardinals, goldfinches, and blue jays.
How to Grow Purple Coneflower
You can commonly find purple coneflower plants for sale in garden centers, nurseries, or online, if you want to add one to your backyard.
There are over 100 cultivars, but the most popular variety is ‘Magnus’, adored for its deep-colored flowers on stems that stay upright through the season. You can get a ‘Magnus’ purple coneflower at Nature Hills. When planting purple coneflower, be careful not to bury the crown, as this can cause rot.
An alternative, budget-friendly way to grow purple coneflower is to sow seeds. Planting purple coneflower seeds in spring requires a period of cold stratification in the fridge, or you can sow them outdoors in the fall to experience a natural winter chill.
You can get packets of purple coneflower seeds at Amazon to sow at home, but it will take two years for the plants to start flowering.
Care Tips
- Soil - Purple coneflowers are adaptable plants, and can tolerate poorer soil types in which many other perennial plants will struggle. They prefer rich, fertile soil but can survive in clay, sandy, or rocky ground. What is important is that it is well-draining, as they don’t like sitting in wet soil for long periods. Adding compost (such as this bag of premium compost at Walmart) to the bed beforehand can enrich the soil and improve drainage.
- Light - The plants will perform best when planted in full sun, ideally where they can get six to eight hours of daily sunlight. Purple coneflowers can tolerate light shade, but the flowering will be reduced. In the hottest US hardiness zones, plants benefit from some afternoon shade for respite from the scorching sun.
- Water - Purple coneflower needs regular watering during the first season after planting. After this, it is a drought-tolerant plant that only needs deep watering occasionally during prolonged dry periods. The plants will perform better with regular watering, ideally around an inch per week.
- Pruning - Deadheading coneflowers throughout the summer will encourage new flowers, extending the display. You can reward yourself with long-flowering plants by cutting back to the next set of leaves with a pair of sharp garden snips or pruning shears (I am a fan of these Felco pruning snips at Amazon for precise trimming tasks). At the end of the blooming season, leave the plants standing to feed birds throughout the winter. Cut back coneflowers in spring, pruning the stems to ground level so new ones come through unimpeded. Coneflowers are self-seeding flowers, so beware of new plants appearing if you do leave the seedheads for the birds.
What to Shop
If you want to grow a butterfly garden, this packet of seeds will grow lots of perennial purple coneflower plants. You'll get around 500 seeds per packet.
To fertilize coneflowers, use a feed lower in nitrogen than phosphorus or potassium, like this organic tomato fertilizer, and feed plants once or twice during the season.
This soil moisture meter can help you avoid overwatering purple coneflower plants. Simply insert the probe, and it will identify how wet the soil is.
Over the years, purple coneflower plants will develop into larger clumps. While this may sound good, it does bring issues. Congested clips can lose vigor due to competition, and the flowering reduces as a result.
For the best performance year after year, it is recommended to divide plants every three or four years. Digging up and dividing rejuvenates clumps and gives you more wildlife-friendly plants to add elsewhere in the yard.
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