My relationship with purple coneflowers has been rocky. I planted them, got disappointed, evicted most of them out from my showy flower beds — and nearly wrote them off forever. And then, discovered what I have been doing wrong! I'm now convinced they're a must-have for every garden.

Take a look at this purple coneflower... disappointing.

And this one? A picture of elegance!

What makes echinacea so special

I have this lovely coneflower right near my walkway and it stops me every time. It's a daisy-like bloom with an impressive seed head — quite hard to touch — and a sweet and citrusy fragrance, absolutely adored by bees and butterflies. It can grow quite tall with a lot of stems; one plant easily can have 20 blooms on it. And it's extremely heat resistant.

It's also a budget gardener's dream! When I first started my garden I bought one packet of echinacea seeds and the germination rate was absolutely through the roof (btw, that was also my experience with Cosmos and Zinnia seeds) I had so many seedlings I didn't know what to do with them. You can practically make a meadow from one packet of seeds, which is exactly what happened to me.

Why I fell out of love with echinacea

Here's my honest confession. With my many many seedlings, I planted them in droves across different flower beds. They were tall and dominated other perennials, and when they were spent, their soft pink become papery and brownish. Those first years really thought me a lot about many flowers that are easy to grow from see like Echinacea, Cosmos and Zinnias — I learned there is a right way and a wrong way to plant them!

Here are my flowers in the first year of gardening. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed. :-/

The following years, I moved most of my purple coneflowers and replaced them by other perennials, evergreens, hydrangeas and roses. My garden was taking shape… a mix of cottage and formal gardens.

Then August arrived.

It was scorching here in Zone 7A and most of my perennials were struggling. Except for the few purple coneflowers that I left in my flower beds. They were perfectly happy in the scorching sun, blooming beautifully and looking spectacular.

That's when I realized the beauty of echinacea IF PLANTED THE RIGHT WAY!

How to grow echinacea to look stunning

Echinacea is a perennial. it comes back every year and gets bigger and fuller over time. It prefers full sun and well-drained, lean soil. Skip the fertilizer.

You can grow echinacea two ways:

As a border plant

This is where most people go wrong. Echinacea grows tall stems with most of its leaves at the bottom. It's not a bushy, full plant. Plant it against a wall or house with nothing behind it and it just disappears — the pink isn't strong enough to stand alone. The secret is giving it a backdrop and a companion.

Get seeds here (10% off): https://collabs.shop/j25q2r

Backdrop: evergreens are perfect. That deep green sets off the pink beautifully and gives the whole planting structure year round. Companion plant: pair it with Baby Joe, the compact variety of Joe Pye weed. It blooms at the same time, fills in the middle layer, and together they look like a perfectly arranged bouquet that put itself together.

As a meadow

Plant densely from seed. Space them closely so they fill in and support each other. The key to keeping a meadow looking beautiful is deadheading. The moment spent blooms go papery and brown the whole planting looks neglected. Make a habit of walking through and snipping off faded flowers every few days in peak season. Done right, a mass planting of echinacea in full bloom is genuinely spectacular and keeps going all summer.

The exciting new cultivars

While I'm not planning to grow many more of the standard purple coneflowers, I did discover the world of echinacea cultivars and picked up a few that I'm very excited about:

Delicious Candy Coneflower
Semi-double flower in a deep fuchsia pink color. Shorter (1.5-2 ft) and more compact than its companion varieties. Perfect as cut flower!

GET IT HERE (10% OFF) https://tidd.ly/4dunbNQ

Sombrero® Lemon Yellow Coneflower Wide, overlapping petals ensure that the flower's bold color makes a big impact. Shorter (1.5-2 ft) and more compact than its companion varieties.

GET IT HERE (10% OFF) https://tidd.ly/3RY8uLB

Echinacea Pink Double Delight

Reliably double flowers, compact growth habit, and multiple blooms on each sturdy stem. About 1.5 ft tall is impressively drought-tolerant. Perfect as cut flower!

GET IT HERE (10% OFF) https://tidd.ly/4dunbNQ

Check out other beautiful varieties at Plant Addicts where you can buy plants in containers or Eden Brothers where you can get roots and seeds.

Watch my full video about Purple Coneflower here: