echinacea2

There is one coneflower that stands apart from the others in a more noticeable way. The variety of Echinacea paradoxa from
Arkansas and Missouri has yellow ray petals. Like a red-haired child among a family of brunettes, yellow purple coneflower is a bit
of a mystery. As a garden plant it is interesting but not outstanding as there are a plethora of yellow daisies available that grow
more easily and have larger, flatter flowers. However, several breeders realized that if you cross this plant with purple coneflower, all
manner of white, orange, red, purple and pink progeny result. Some crosses also bring in Tennessee coneflower to flatten out the
rays. In recent years, a number of yellow, orange, and red coneflower hybrids have hit the perennial market and most are quite
beautiful. However, many have suffered from the same problems that the taprooted species face under cultivation - namely root
rot and transplanting difficulty. The best hybrids have a double dose of the fibrous-rooted purple coneflower in their background
and you can distinguish these by their wider leaves.
Color is not the only option as regards coneflowers. When I worked at Niche Gardens in the early 1990's, we selected and
introduced a compact coneflower I named Kim's Knee-high after the owner of the nursery, Kim Hawks. It grows to only 16-18
inches - a half to two thirds the height of a typical purple coneflower yet it flowers prolifically. This was one of the first coneflower
cultivars to be tissue cultured and it has proven itself in gardens over the last 15 years. Tissue culture and the natural variability of
the plants have both yielded other forms including types where some or all of the cone or disk flowers develop ray petals (Double
or semi double). As Itsaul Plants, one of the primary coneflower breeders operating today puts it - we have "gone cone crazy!"

Though some of the hybrids are sterile, you can raise the species easily from seed, and if you grow yellow purple coneflower
together with the purples, you might even find some hybrids among its seedlings. The seed is ripe when the cone dries out. At this
time the bristles turn dark brown and rather sharp and spiny. The silvery gray seeds are packed in among the bristles and both fall
out when you shatter the cone. I don't bother separating the seed from the bristles. The seed germinates after 6-12 weeks of cold,
moist temperatures. Sow seeds outdoors or in pots in late fall (cover them lightly). Alternatively, you can soak the seeds in a cup of
water for a few hours then towel them lightly dry before putting them in a sealed baggie in the refrigerator for the requisite number
of weeks. After their chilling the seeds can be sown indoors or outside after the danger of frost is passed and they should sprout in
2 weeks. IN the nursery, coneflowers mature rapidly and often flower the first summer from seed germinate in the spring.
Transplant your plants into well-drained but moist topsoil where they will receive at least 5 hours of summer sun. Many coneflower
species are restricted to high pH soils, so add lime of your soil is naturally acidic (below a pH of 6.0). The narrow-leaved species do
better in slightly nutrient poor soils, but purple coneflower and its hybrids need higher fertility to do their best. I have found that
most of the hybrids and fancy cultivars are less vigorous than the wild-type purple coneflower, so you will need to give them more
attention. Unlike their wild cousins that grow just as well in the meadow or prairie, the fancy cultivars are really strictly garden plants.