![]() Keeping those up will allow them a safe place to over-winter and reemerge in the spring. So, it is like a natural bird feeder for your garden! Also, many beneficial insects will hibernate, or have larvae in the hollow stems. I’ve seen four goldfinches at a time eating seed from plants I have grown. The first benefit you will notice with this flower is that the birds, particularly goldfinches, love to land on the seed-heads and pick out the seeds to eat. Leaving your dormant plants up will provide many ecological benefits. Once this plant is done blooming and beginning to go dormant, don’t cut it back. Make sure you keep the rabbits/deer at bay when seedlings are young or when it is emerging from winter. As long as it isn’t in a wetland and gets sun, it should do just fine. This plant lights a lot of sun, and well drained soil. Another consideration is to avoid putting it in a space that collects too much water, or if it doesn’t receive enough sun. A big threat to Echinacea Pallida is deer and rabbits when the plants are young, or emerging from winter. It is native to the prairie, where it would receive sun all day, occasional droughts, high wind, etc. Another benefit is that bees absolutely love this plant, as evidenced by the picture at right. This is a hardy perennial, and pretty easy to grow. Be sure to check out how to start your own micro-prairie to get maximum color throughout the year, while doing the most to help bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.Ī bee doing the Happy Dance on a soon to be dormant Echinacea Pallida! ![]() They add some graceful pink hues in Early Summer while most of the other plants are still growing. We have several specimens growing in our backyard micro-prairie. Another difference differentiating this plant is the leaves are much narrower than the more common Echinaceas. But, it probably won’t survive if it is semi-wetland, or just a general moist area that doesn’t drain. This plant can thrive in any type of soil, even clay. So, if you like coneflower then you should consider adding a few of these to your garden, as it will allow you a longer duration of having ‘coneflowers’ in bloom during the summer! Another difference with Echinacea Purpurea is that the leaves are much narrower, which helps in identification prior to blooming.Īlso, the roots of echinacea typically go to around 5’ deep (1.5 m), making it very drought tolerant. In my experience this will bloom 2-3 weeks earlier than Echinacea Purpurea. The first being the flower itself, as it has very narrow petals that hang down, almost like a more delicate and graceful coneflower. There are several differences with the more common Echinacea Purpurea, which is the common Purple Coneflower. It has a long bloom time and is very showy, also being very tall (3-5’, 1-1.5 m). A tea made from powdered roots and leaves was drunk to treat sore gums and sore throats.The native perennial, Pale Purple Coneflower, (Echinacea Pallida) is a good choice for landscapes and prairies. The root was also chewed as a cold remedy and to increase saliva flow to prevent thirst. ![]() Native Americans used the leaves to treat rheumatism, mumps, and measles and the roots to treat burns and toothaches. 5 to 1.5 inch wide, taper at both ends, surfaces rough, 3-veined margins entire upper leaves sessile, reduced in size.īracts lanceolate to narrowly oblong, overlapping in 3 or 4 series ray florets pinkish purple to whitish, 1.5 to 3.5 inches long, 1/4 to 1/3 inch wide, strongly drooping disk florets 5-lobed, about 1/3 inch long, numerous, brownish purple, interspersed among stiff, spiny-tipped, chaffy bracts pollen grains white.Īchenes, small, 4-sided, glabrous, tipped with toothed crown, enclosing small seed. Erect, 1 to several, simple or sometimes branched, coarsely hairy.Īlternate, simple, stalked, oblong lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 4-12 inches long.
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