I cant spell it but you know what I mean ! How hard or easy is it to grow ? What sort of size is it? Does it have flowers ? Is it pretty ? Where does it grow ? tell me all about it please!
These? I love them - if you're quick off the mark, Wilkinsons, Homebase and I think Sainsbury's are still selling boxed roots/crowns of them and now is a great time to get them planted as mine have started to reappear after winter. Beware though, the tender shoots are beloved of slugs and the like. I started mine in pots... Common name, Cone flowers, or Echinacea Purpurea (I think!)
I don't know much about it, but I think it had pink (ish) daisy type flowers, and are a perennial. The attract Bees and Butterflies from what I can remember. I'm sure that treated like other flowering perennials they would be fine. I don't think they need too much staking, and I'm sure they can be grown from seed. Have a look in a garden centre or nursery, for one, buy it and propagate your own with division etc. Hope this Helps!
They can certainly be grown from seed. There are a number of named varieties that must be bought as plants, as named varieties generally don't come true from seed. I have grown about five or six different red varieties - but quite frankly, with the odd exception, they all look exactly the same. The normal variety has red flowers, but you can get white ones. There is an unusual yellow one Echinacea paradoxica, and there are now some hybrids from America between the red E. purpurea and the yellow E. paradoxica. These new crosses tend to be in various shades of orange. But I think they are not as robust as the original red one. They grow to about three feet, and normally don't need any staking. They are said to be greedy eaters, so need a good dollop of manure or similar. They appear in all the books as drought resistant, but when its dry mine quite easily go limp and bend over. However they always recover when watered. They don't expand as fast as some other perennials do. So if I was starting again I would plant a lot of them reasonably close together. You can divide them as you do any other perennial. But my experiance is that they sulk a bit afterwards, but always recover. I think they are lovely - one of my favorites. They also keep their stems and seeds into winter, if you want some winter interest.
