The Coneflowers Next Door

The Echinacea, aka Coneflowers, were the plants I was most excited about this year.

‘Tomato Soup’ was a red coneflower that was hyped up pretty good by the industry. It was a pretty good plant, true red that lasted about 3-4 weeks. It probably would have lasted longer if we would not have had so much rain.

‘Tiki Torch’ was the next coneflower we were excited to get. This was an orange introduction from a couple years ago we finally managed to get a hold of. This plant is a winner. This plant was orange until late September. I will be growing this one for years to come.

The next coneflower that was a new one for us was the golden yellow ‘Mac n Cheese’. This plant was also a winner. Although ‘Harvest Moon’ had been my previous yellow favorite ‘Mac n’ Cheese’ seems to have won my heart for the time being.

This year was the first year we had not had a white coneflower. We had grown Coconut Lime the past few years. This is an outstanding double white coneflower with lime highlights that really matches the name of the plant. We may have this one back next year or maybe a shorter variety that is similar named ‘Maringue’.

There are many other new varieties coming from the breeders to look forward to. One of the new ones I am looking forward to is ‘Hot Papaya.’ This is a red/orange double that reaches 30-36” tall.

In the past the perennial world has been dominated by pastel blues, purples and pinks. It is nice to see some of the hot colors everyone is looking for coming through the line in some different species we typically do not expect to see them in.