Echinacea 'Flame Thrower'; image from Terra Nova Nurseries

I will be speaking at the Tri-State Green Industry Conference on February 4 at the Sharonville Convention Center. I’ll be talking about perennial plants – some that are tried and true, easy-care and low maintenance perennials for our area, and some that are newer selections of these plants.

For example, the Purple Coneflower, Echinaceae purpurea ‘Magnus’ thrives in our area and would be considered “tried and true”. The perennial-plant world has been bombarded with many amazing new coneflower introductions of different flower forms and colors, including:

Echinacea ‘Green Envy’ – Large 4-inch flowers emerge in early summer with each pink petal tipped with lime green.

Echinacea ‘Flame Thrower’ – This selection is fragrant, with rays of blazing yellow-orange and a central cone of deep burnt amber.

Echinacea ‘Coconut Lime’ – has numerous white, fully double pompon-like flowers. The center of each bloom begins leaf green and changes to light lime green as it ages. Unfortunately, there’s limited availability this spring because of a bacterial infection in the tissue culture lab. Expect more in 2011.

Echinacea 'Hot Papaya'

Echinacea ‘Hot Papaya‘ – Sizzling red orange, double cones with falling tails.

Echinacea purpurea ‘Pow Wow Wild Berry’ – An All-American Seed selection for 2010, this coneflower produces deep rose-purple, 3- to 4-inch diameter flowers on 20 to 24-inch plants that bloom continually without deadheading. It flowers approximately 20 weeks after sowing.

There have been complaints about the hardiness of some of the newer introductions, because they often die out over the winter. It seems that this has more to do with the planting time than the hardiness of the plants.

Many of the new cultivars – and all of the orange selections – are hybrids of E. purpurea and E. paradoxa. Echinacea purpurea, purple coneflower that we are all familiar with, is native to the eastern half of North America and is hardy from Florida to the most northern tip of Ontario, Canada. It has a tap root, and this gets established best if the plants are planted in spring to mid-summer. If planted later than July, they may die over the winter.

Echinacea 'Green Envy'

Echinacea paradoxa , on the other hand, has droopy, yellow petals and a fibrous root system. (The paradox is yellow petals on purple coneflower!) It is native to Midwestern prairies (USDA zones 5-8) where the soil is rich and well drained. In addition to needing well-drained soil, these plants need to “bulk up” their crowns before winter to survive, and this also works best if the plants are planted early in the season.

So, for best success, plant the new hybrids before mid-summer, in areas that are well-drained, especially in the winter. Do this, and you will enjoy these newer cultivars – and the many others on the market – for years to come.

The Tri-State Green Industry Conference is a collaborative effort between the Extension Services of Kentucky, Ohio State, and Purdue, and features a variety of education and training sessions, plus a vendor trade show. Attendees will be those in the nursery, greenhouse and landscaping industry, master gardeners, horticulture students and anyone interested in gardening. For more information, click here.

Happy Gardening!

Sue