After years of cultivation, there are so many new unique colors and forms of these gorgeous flowers, ranging from shades of pink, orange, red, white, and yellow! These showy perennials are heat tolerant and drought resistant, easy to grow, have long bloom times, make beautiful cut flowers, and attract birds and other pollinators to your garden. Coneflowers are the ultimate statement of simple beauty and elegance with a wild-flower aesthetic that will make your garden feel like a cottage.
How to Care for Coneflowers
Although they tolerate almost anything you throw at them, coneflowers prefer full sun and well-draining, nutrient-rich soil. You can add compost or aged manure to the soil after loosening it to a depth of 12–15 inches.
You will want to plant your coneflower in an area where they receive enough sunlight for the soil not to be wet. To keep your coneflowers blooming to their fullest, you should deadhead them after the flowers fade. Cut back stems to a leaf near a bud in the late season to prevent self-seeding and bird-feeding.
Winter Care
There are several USDA hardiness zones (3-9) where purple coneflowers thrive, but if you live in a cold winter like Iowa, you may want to give them a little winter protection in their first years. That said, once they are established, coneflowers are rugged and hardy!
Varieties of Coneflowers
There is always a perfect coneflower shade for your garden, whether you’re looking for a bold, vibrant perennial or a simple-toned flower to tie your garden together!
Pow Wow Wildberry
This variety features beautiful blooms similar to daisies, except more fun because they have a funky pinkish-purple color! The plant is shrub-like and bushy, making them perfect for filling up extra space and adding volume to your garden. It’s a classic purple coneflower with beauty that never fails to impress.
Double Scoop Mandarin
This variety offers a bright and vibrant red color to your landscape with orange undertones and coppery-bronze eyes. As ‘Double Scoop Mandarin’ blossoms age, the cones develop a ruffle of petals along the edges, slowly emerging across the entire cone. Eventually, you will have a beautiful pom-pom-looking perennial to turn up the party in your garden! It’s a great variety to attract birds and butterflies to your yard.
Double Scoop Bubblegum
This variety is the two-for-one deal of coneflowers. ‘Double Scoop Bubblegum’ coneflowers produce large magenta-pink daisies with a smaller flower on top of each dark brown central cone; literally, one flower sitting on top of another. You plant one flower and get two blooms! Does it get better than that?
Green Twister
In addition to their thick green petals that curl upwards, ‘Green Twister’ coneflower petals develop a pink flush along their length as time passes. A gorgeous bi-colored effect appears as though mother nature decorated the petals herself with her paintbrush! This cultivar is perfect for pairing with other purple-pink flowers, as it will echo the color in a subtle way.
Kismet Yellow
‘Kismet Yellow’ coneflowers shine bright as the morning sun in your flower bed and will bloom from early summer until the frost! Pastel yellow petals and green-to-copper central cones—these coneflowers make you happy just looking at them. They are great for naturalizing and supporting pollinators in your garden too. We promise, everyone who visits your garden, people and pollinators alike, will love these.
With colors and shapes for every occasion, coneflowers really are the gift that never stops giving to your garden. They’re easy to take care of, beautiful to look at, and will attract pollinators to your garden. We promise it’s a win-win situation! Visit us at Ted Lare Design Build & Garden Center in Des Moines, Iowa, for help selecting the best coneflowers for your landscape.
