Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea
A long-blooming native with pinkish-purple daisies around dark cones from early summer into fall, a magnet for butterflies and bees, and its seed heads feed birds into winter. Once settled it shrugs off heat, humidity and drought. It reseeds around the garden; leave some stems standing for nesting native bees.
- Mature size
- 3.5 × 1.5 ft
- 1.1 × 0.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–9a
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part sun
- Water
- Dry to medium
- Blooms
- Jul–Oct
Purple Coneflower at its mature size
A mature Purple Coneflower grows 3 to 4 feet tall and 1 to 2 feet wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
Through the year
What Purple Coneflower looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Below ground · Dec–Apr
Dies back to the ground.
In leaf · May–Jun
Clump of rough dark green leaves on upright stems, no flowers.
In flower · Jul–Sep
Pink-purple daisies with drooping petals and orange-brown domed centres.
Fall · Oct–Nov
Dark brown bristly seed cones on stiff stems, leaves browning.
Photos
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Growing Purple Coneflower
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, the Pacific Northwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Drought tolerant, deer resistant, pollinators, and fast growing
- Leaves
- Dies back in winter
- Native to
- Central and Eastern North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Purple Coneflower, that’s about 1.5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Purple Coneflower in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.