Echinacea purpurea is native to eastern North America. It is a perennial that is pollinated by butterflies and bees. Grows best in full sun to partial shade. The Purple Coneflower is one of my favorite perennial garden plants. They spread each year and produce many seeds to sow and share. The coneflowers are butterfly magnets and I think every garden should have purple coneflowers!

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Echinacea purpurea is an important nectar source for many butterfly species.

This plant has special value to native bees, including bumble and leafcutter species.

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This is a very easy and reliable perennial for sun or part-shade in well-drained soils. Its lovely purple flowers bloom 6 to 8 weeks in July & August. It is easy to divide and reset if ever wanted, but not needed. It does self-sow a good amount. I had one group come up by itself from seed on the east side of the front yard from the group on the west side of the yard about 20 feet away. Goldfinches and some other finches love the seeds. Lots of butterflies, bees, and other pollinators love the flowers. This species does suffer a little from Aster Yellows Disease, which makes some flower heads deform some with bigger greenish noses and fewer petals, but I have not found it deadly. Just cut below the infection. I find it somewhat commonly planted in average yards, but still not as much as Daylilies, Hostas, Bearded Irises, and Peonies. Some are sold by almost any conventional nursery or native plant nursery. Its native range is from Iowa though Ohio to Virginia to Georgia to Louisiana.

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This grows natively in the Black Hills. They look beautiful this time of year.

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I inherited a pretty large bed of echinaceas when we bought our place here in Colorado. Initially I wasn't a big fan, but year after year they grow and bloom and add a big burst of color... and they are great as cut flowers. Probably the easiest plant I have in any garden. I love them! (And so do the bees!). Very tolerant, full sun.

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Use purple coneflowers at the back of a border or along the sunny edges of woodland areas for many weeks of color. They make excellent cut flowers, and stripped of petals, their prickly centers add textural variety to dried arrangements.

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This is the most familiar and widely distributed of all coneflowers, and the one that most gardeners plant. Given rich, amended soil, plants reach a robust 3 to 4 feet in height and produce flowers 4 to 6 inches across. The reddish purple petals are shaded green at the tips, and the center is orange. In most varieties, the petals droop after growing outward from the cone, accounting for the name given to the plants in the Ozarks: droops. The 2- to 3-inch-long leaves are medium green, and toothed or smooth, dep on the variety. With their strong stems, they make an excellent addition to cut-flower arrangements. This coneflower, native to the open woods and prairies of Ohio and Iowa south to Louisiana and Georgia, makes a showy backdrop for low-growing summer annuals or perennials.

Unlike most of the other species, purple coneflower has a more fibrous root system, the reason it is more successfully propagated by division. If grown from seed, E. purpurea often blooms the first year.

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