Coneflower Seeds
Tips on How to Grow Echinacea (Coneflower)
70-95 Days to Flower
This long-blooming perennial has extra large 5-6" blooms. Strong stems make this an ideal cut flower, 36" tall. Blooms mid-summer to frost. Deer resistant. Zones 3-9.The entire family of cone flower or Echinacea loves the open sunny garden. It thrives in drier gardens as it has deep tap-roots more so than most other plants so it's a good choice for that hot, dry spot.
Do water it to establish new plantings but once established, it can thrive on its own. The really nice thing about this plant is that it will also tolerate some light shade and good soil.
The only thing that will shorten the cone flower lifespan is heavy clay soils or constantly damp soils; it does not like to have its roots constantly wet.
I have found the plant does really well in moderately fertile soils and if there is enough water in mid summer when it is setting seed.
When to start outside:
- Sow in early spring, cover seed with 1/8" soil 3-4 weeks before average last frost.Germination 10-14 days.
- Can plant as late as 2 months before first fall frost.
When to start inside:
- Sow 8 weeks before average last frost.It may take up to 2 months to germinate (May bloom 1st year if started indoors.)
- Photoperiod response: intermediate-day plant will
flower most rapidly and uniformly at 13-14 hours
daylength.
- Vernalization: not required but beneficial as
flowering will occur two to three weeks earlier
following a minimum of ten weeks cold treatment.
- Flower timing:
Sown in January as Spring production will
flower naturally in middle to late June.
Sown from July to early September for
overwinter production; will flower late May to
early June of the following year.
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