How to Grow Organic Echinacea from Seed
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Echinacea is an easy-to-grow flower
Echinacea is a low maintenance, sturdy and drought tolerant perennial that releases a pop of color in the garden. Echinacea, also known as coneflower, is an important source of nectar for butterflies, bees and birds. Its compact growth habit makes it the perfect border plant for your seasonal edibles.
Common Echinacea Facts
What are echinacea’s benefits?
Echinacea is known as “nature’s antibiotic” because its leaves, roots and flowers have been used for hundreds of years to fight infection and boost the immune system. Diverse in its uses, this beautiful coneflower is pleasant as a companion plant to the garden, a striking cut flower for arrangements and edible in teas and tinctures.
Is Echinacea a Perennial?
The best way to ensure this beautiful perennial reseeds itself for the next growing season is to refrain from cutting back echinacea at the end of the fall season. This will not only provide food for wildlife over the winter but will ensure an emergence of blooms in the spring. The following spring, you may then cut back your coneflower before any new foliage appears to stimulate growth.
What are the Best Echinacea Companion pLants?
I find that pairing coneflowers with other native pollinator plants in the garden, like Butterfly weed, boosts the attraction for butterflies, bees, beneficial insects and hummingbirds. Echinacea is a supportive companion for almost every plant, but as with most things in the garden, I recommend keeping it away from invasive mint plants in raised garden beds.
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Echinacea’s ideal Growing Conditions
Season - When to Plant Echinacea
For the best display of blooms, plant echinacea seedlings in the fall for a spring show or after your last frost for fall display. Coneflower will bloom mid-summer to fall (July-Sept) but expect its second growing season to produce more blooms.
Soil:
Echinacea prefers soil on the dry side and can be found in rock gardens but does not do well in boggy conditions. For this reason, it makes an effective and beautiful perimeter plant in the garden where water lacks and has been knows to survive periods of drought.
Sunlight:
Plant echinacea in an area with 4-5 hours of full sun with a shade break either in the morning or afternoon. To be a successful companion plant in the garden make sure to place coneflowers on the sunny side of tall vegetable plants such as corn, garden trellises, etc.
Fertilizer:
Easy to please, compost is your number one go-to nutrient for echinacea, once in the spring growing season and once in the fall. Be cautious to not over fertilize with nitrogen because your main goal is to see blooms and not just green leaves.
Water:
Once echinacea is established, it requires a minimum amount of water throughout the growing season; however, due to forming a long tap root in the seedling stage it’s important to water deep and more often until the flower is strong and sturdy. If you want to water less often, a little mulch around the base goes a long way to shade the soil and lock in moisture in drought situations.
Planting Echinacea
When to Plant Echinacea from Seed
Organic echinacea is very easy to start from seed indoors and can be transplanted outside after the last frost or just as easily can be sown directly outside in the summer for a fall bloom. A typical bloom season is from late June to September.
How to Sow Echinacea Seeds:
In my experience, echinacea takes a little more time to germinate when growing from seed compared to other companion plants but with a little patience you will have a sturdy, blooming perennial supporting your edibles in no time. This is why I personally choose to start my echinacea under grow lights to get a head start on each growing season.
Sowing seeds indoors
Sow echinacea seeds indoors at least 8-10 weeks prior to your last frost date. To do this follow the below schedule from seed to garden:
Use a sterilized seed starting mix in a seed cell tray or small bio pot
Cover the seed with ¼” loose seed starting mix
Keep soil moist and temperature constant around 65-70° until seedlings emerge (10-20 days)
Once echinacea has germinated, provide bright light for up to 16 hours a day and at least 8 hours of darkness. This is easily managed by using grow lights but if you don’t have any make sure to place seedlings in a window with direct light for most of the day and rotate cells so the seedlings don’t get leggy reaching for light.
When up to two sets of true leaves have emerged, you are able to pot up the plant to a larger container or start hardening off to move to the garden depending on your last frost date.
Hardening off: This process can take up to a week. Slowly acclimate your seedlings to the outside by introducing them into shaded, protected areas for a few hours each day working up to longer hours and into the sun and elements all day by the end of the hardening off period.
Pro-tip: you can simulate a process of hardening off indoors by placing gently air flow from fans onto your seedlings or running your hands across the leaves while they are growingMove to the garden: Plant your plants 1-3’ apart and be conscious of the location being able to receive light throughout the whole growing season.
*A note about seeds not germinating. If after 20 days you find that your seeds are not germinating you may have to stratify your seeds. Personally, I have always had luck following the above steps but if you don’t experience germination, place your package of seeds in the fridge for up to 30 days before following the above steps to start indoors.
Sowing directly in garden
If you don’t want to fuss with starting echinacea indoors, coneflower seeds are relatively easy to sow directly into the garden.
Sow seeds up to 3 months before your first freeze of the year in late summer. This takes care of the stratification phase discussed in the steps above.
Work in organic matter to amend your soil for planting and make sure all weeds and debris are removed from your planting space
Evenly sow seeds and cover the seed with ¼” loose soil and gently press in soil
Keep soil evening moist until seedlings emerge in 10-20 days
How to Plant Echinacea Seeds
How to transplant echinacea seedlings
As mentioned above, you should plant your plants 1-3’ apart and be conscious of light exposure throughout the whole growing season. Since coneflower’s growth habit is compact you can plug into locations where you want extra visual interest or pollinator support. The hardy stalks grow upright, have a spread of 12-36” and can grow up to 4’ tall. There is no need to stake these beautiful flowers.
When planting echinacea from a nursery transplants, the first step is to be sure to isolate the plant when arriving home for at least a week. Observe the plant daily for any pests or disease before introducing the flower into your garden space. Once ready, place in an area with healthy well drained soil following planting instructions above.
Caring for your echinacea
How to Deadhead Echinacea
In lieu of fertilizing, one way to stimulate larger more robust blooms off each plant is to ‘deadhead’. If you see blooms at top of leaves below the existing flower this is the perfect time to ‘deadhead’ those individual flowers to promote larger blooms of developing flowers. Simply cut just above the first set of leaves on the stem above new blooms.
But unlike other flowers such as marigolds that bounce back quickly after plucking a flower head, echinacea is a seasonal bloom variety. If you wish to extend your growing season, stagger pruning the batch of coneflowers to once mid-summer to see more blooms in the fall season. If you choose to prune all the flowers, keep in mind you won’t see any blooms again until the fall.
Common Echinacea Growing Problems
If you will recall this plant is not fussy. Echinacea is willing to live in various soil situations and is somewhat drought tolerant yet some pests can affect the flower. Mostly whiteflies, aphids, japanese beetles, and personally rabbits have sought after my coneflower seedlings in the garden. The best solution I’ve discovered to prevent any pest infestations has been to protect echinacea with a physical insect barrier cloth until the flowers are established and if I continue to see issues I will use natural sprays such as insecticidal soap or hot pepper, garlic spray,etc. For the munching bunnies.
Generally speaking, I have only witnessed pests in the seedling phase of growth. Once mature they seem tolerant of any attacks.
How to Harvest Echinacea Blooms
Harvesting Echinacea Flowers
Let the fun begin! We talked about pruning the flower so why not enjoy what you prune!? If I have a large crop of echinacea in a season I like to harvest the flower early in morning or late evening for cut flowers to enjoy. Once harvested, immediately place in a vase of cold water. You can usually enjoy echinacea as a cut vase flower for up to 7 days. Or dry the flowers to enjoy the beautiful seed head in dried flower arrangements.
My Favorite Varieties of Echinacea to Grow
The most common echinacea variety we see is the purple coneflower, echinacea purpurea. I love seeing all the new hybrid varieties of coneflower on the market. My advice is if you want more unique displays I would opt to start your own seeds to enjoy an array of blooms in your garden. From more unique colors to varied heights and new types of bloom growth habits, some of my favorites are the following:
Echinacea, PowWow- show-stopping varieties for their rich, deep colors
Echinacea, Sombrero- unique varieties with lateral blooms which are different from the traditional drooping petals you see.
Echinacea, Green Twister- for a striking, bi-colored show in the garden
This article was featured on the Gardenary website in May 2022.
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