Echinacea Sundown™ PP#17,659

The 3 1/2-inch blooms begin in early summer and continue well into fall, held on super-strong stems that last a week or more in the vase. These flowers have long, crowded petals of golden-orange held straight out around a giant central brown cone. In late fall, when the petals have dropped, this cone becomes an important part of your garden. It's full of seeds that dry during the cool autumn weather, and songbirds arrive to feast on them in great numbers! (Get your camera ready.)

Older Coneflowers tend to be long on foliage and short on blooms, but Sundown™ is quite well branched and compact. It's a cross of two Echinacea species -- E. paradoxa and E. purpurea, which gives it broader petals, more vigorous growth, and better branching. It reaches up to 3 feet high and spreads up to 2 feet wide, but you will find it covered with blooms for months on end. This is a "cut-and-come-again" variety, so the faster you cut or deadhead the flowers, the quicker new buds spring up to take their place. But it's also a fine plant for an open or natural setting, and repays neglect with season after season of blooms!

If you've got a hot, sunny, slightly dry garden spot, Coneflower is exactly what you need to fill it! Enjoy this carefree perennial. Zones 4-9.