Today’s Harvest Basket is full of flowers.
Todays Harvest Basket is filled with Echinacea. A long keeping cut flower.
I believe these are Pink Coneflower or Echinacea ‘Magnus’ . The tag is long gone. These are the oldest coneflower in the garden. I planted them a few years ago. They faithfully put on a show with little of no attention
Like all coneflowers, these love full sun and well-drained soil. Once established they do not need extra fertilization or irrigation. Plus, you get birds, bees, butterflies. The garden is mulched with chopped leaves during fall garden clean up.
Cut flowers and deadhead blooms to encourage more flowers.
They will grow just about anywhere. They don’t need additional fertilizer, and, once established, will even grow well without additional irrigation. Deadheading faded flowers will encourage the development of more blooms, but it’s a good idea to leave some of the old blooms later in the season as they provide food for birds as well as winter interest in your garden.
And these are hardy pink coneflowers. In Missouri USA, some cone flowers are native. The natives are a bit paler than these.
Last summer I had five or six coneflowers in this bed. Summer had a lot of record-setting hot days. It was an unusually long and harsh winter, too.
Missouri Coneflower, Rudbeckia missouriensis, is commonly found on the limestone glades in the Ozark region of the State MO. The leaves are very hairy and may stay green through the winter. This perennial coneflower is beautiful grown as a native, cutting garden or in the flower bed.
Native Missouri Coneflower, Rudbeckia missouriensis
It makes a good cut flower and has a long bloom period in the June through August. It will attract insects, bees and butterflies.
Native perennial blooms in zones 5-9, full sun.Grows two to three feet tall. Tough drought tolerant belongs in all Missouri gardens.
