Do Coneflowers Come In Different Colors?
Coneflowers come in colors of yellow, red, orange, white, green and pink. Some are pure saturated color and some are gradient color mixes. Some even change color as they age!
While often thought of as a single petal daisy-like flower, there are also multi-petal varieties available.
Echinacea (Coneflower) is an American native that has been a mainstay of gardens since the first ones were discovered in the vast prairies of the mid-west. Due to intensive breeding programs over the last decade, their popularity has skyrocketed. In addition to the initial purple and yellow, they now come in a rainbow of colors.
There are over 60 different Coneflower varieties available, and the future promises to see new ones developed. Here are popular hardy varieties available for you to enjoy today.
Proven Winners® Cone-fections™ Hot Papaya Coneflower
Zone: 4-9
Height: 30″ – 34″
Spread: 18″ – 24″
Hot Papaya Coneflower
A two-toned coneflower with huge 3” double red/orange blooms. The deep orange central cone grows larger as the flower matures and rises higher as it opens. See the amazing petal shapes that form the raised center of this beauty.
Amazing as an accent plant or with other hot-colored perennials such as Black-Eyed Susans, Butterfly Weed or Tall Phlox.
Plant in groupings or drifts for a combination of vibrant orange shades and showy flowers that provide non-stop display.
Coneflowers are very drought tolerant once established. Since not particular on soil type, Echinacea does great in most soil types. They even tolerate clay soils, just as long as they drain. In winter the crowns can rot in soggy conditions, so ensure you have great drainage or create it by planting into a mound or raised bed. For better results, enrich the soil with compost and organic material.
Sombrero® Lemon Yellow Coneflower
Zone: 4-9
Height: 24″ – 26″
Spread: 16″ – 22″
Sombrero Lemon Yellow Coneflower
Fiery yellow color glows in the full sun. The blooms return vigorously and profusely, especially if you remove spent blooms.
Plant Sombrero Lemon Yellow in full sun and average soil and watch it explode with super-charged blooming power. It is compact but covers itself in lightly scented bright yellow, daisy-like flowers for months on end. The unique raised centers have curious spikey, colorful centers that will usually be filled with pollinators.
Perfect for the perennial border, a natural meadow, a butterfly or pollinator garden and wildlife garden.
Sombrero Lemon Yellow will look as fresh and current in July as it does in October.
Thriving in those hot, dry spots in the garden, Echinacea loves the sun and excels in tougher conditions. Provide moderate, yet consistent moisture while becoming established, afterward Echinacea is drought tolerant and only needs moderate waterings.
This article may contain affiliate links. Click here for full disclosure.
Purple Coneflower
Zone: 3-8
Height: 24″ – 60″
Spread: 18″ – 24″
Purple Coneflower
The Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is a prairie native that comes back year after year and produces long-lasting blooms all season.
You’ll love watching butterflies, hummingbirds and goldfinch birds flit from flower to flower.
Purple Coneflower pairs beautifully to create a restful oasis with other cool tones, such as False Indigo, Butterfly Bush, Salvia or Russian Sage. Underplant with Ajuga groundcover to complete the look.
See how Purple Coneflower and Russian Sage compliment each other!
Butterflies and hummingbirds love Coneflowers! These long-lasting flowers provide lots of vital nectar resources for a wide range of beneficial pollinators.
PRAIRIE STARS™ Tomato Soup Coneflower
Zone: 4-9
Height: 30″ – 32″
Spread: 24″ – 30″
PRAIRIE STARS™ Tomato Soup Coneflower
These bright red blooms are 3.5″ across and have a strong spicy fragrance! As the flowers mature, they fade to vivid pink, giving the entire plant a two-tone effect. This Echinacea will present a season full of red daisy-like flowers and is praised for its prolonged blooming after other perennials have faded.
This plant is deer resistant so don’t worry about planting this in out-of-the-way locations.
Growing up to 32″ high, combine this coneflower with other hot-colored perennial planting combinations such as Black-Eyed Susans, Butterfly Weed Plant, Blanket Flower, Gaillardia and Red Hot Poker Plants.
Well branched and a vigorous grower, plant in your favorite barrel or large planter as a dramatic focal point on a hot sunny patio.
Birds love the seeds in the high central cones of Echinacea. As the season winds down leave some spent blooms on the plants in the fall so their seeds provide winter food for birds. You can enjoy the dried seed heads as well because they will provide architectural interest in the winter.
Want to harvest seeds and grow your own Echinacea? See article Harvesting Coneflower (Echinacea) Seeds
Butterfly™ Rainbow Marcella Coneflower
Zone: 4-9
Height: 15″ – 18″
Spread: 18″ – 24″
Butterfly Rainbow Marcella Coneflower
Yes, the different colors you see are all blooming on the same plant! Butterfly Rainbow Marcella Echinacea starts off with tangerine orange and ages from the center out to a blushing raspberry pink. The two-toned effect of the orange and pink together makes the petals glow. With its luminescent orange center cone this flower is non-stop charm all season.
A hardy plant that loves full sun and average soil, heat and drought tolerant.
Use as beautiful cut flowers too. The more you cut, the more they flower.
Coneflowers are great in cut flower arrangements. Their intense saturated colors make bold floral arrangements and long-lasting bouquets. Deadhead and prune coneflower plants to keep buds forming all season.
White Swan Coneflower
Zone: 3-8
Height: 24″ – 36″
Spread: 18″ – 22″
White Swan Coneflower
An easy to grow perennial flower that produces large, fragrant, daisy like flowers with graceful bright white petals that reflex downward,. The flowers rise on sturdy stems above neat clumps of foliage from early summer into early autumn.
The native coneflower ‘White Swan’ has prominent coppery-green central cones that are surrounded by the white radial petals. These flower heads turn black as the seeds mature, adding further interest and contrast.
This plant is deer resistant so don’t worry about planting this in out-of-the-way locations.
Divide Echinacea clumps when they become overcrowded, which can be about every 3 – 4 years. Gently tease the roots apart and replant. Provide moderate, yet consistent moisture until established.
PowWow® Wild Berry Coneflower
Zone: 3-9
Height: 16″ – 20″
Spread: 12″ – 18″
PowWow Wild Berry Coneflower
Showy Purple Coneflower stays Small and Compact. Perfect for a patio or deck container. This special shade of pinky-purple works beautifully in just about any color pot, including orange or purple. The hues will pick up on that underlying tone in the petals.
Fill a wide, open area with a mass planting of these low maintenance perennials. Space them 12 inches apart on center, measuring from the center of one to the center of the next. With their well-branched stems, a mass planting of these long blooming plants will become a fabulous focal point.
In early spring, if you’ve left your perennial plantings to stand over the winter, just snip the stalks back down to an inch above ground level.
Sombrero® Adobe Orange Coneflower
Zone: 4-9
Height: 18″ – 20″
Spread: 22″ – 24″
Sombrero Adobe Orange Coneflower
Pumpkin-orange flowers cover this plant all season. Looks as fresh and current in July as it does in October. The blooms return vigorously and profusely, especially if you remove spent blooms.
Plant Sombrero Adobe Orange in full sun and average soil and watch it explode with super-charged blooming power. It is compact but covers itself is lightly scented orange daisy-like flowers for months on end. The unique raised centers have curious spikey, colorful centers that will usually be filled with pollinators.
Perfect for the perennial border, a natural meadow, a butterfly or pollinator garden and wildlife garden.
Gray-Headed Coneflower
Zone: 3-8
Height: 3 – 5 feet
Spread: 18″ – 24″
Gray-Headed Coneflower
A standout with it’s Droopy form, the native Yellow Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) adds a wild-flower characteristic to the garden.
Once established, this is a water-wise plant that blooms from June to August.
Not only is it easy to take care of, it has quite the reputation for bringing many pollinators and other benefitial insects around. Butterflies, bees, and many others will flutter to this specimen, pollinating an abundance of plants along the way!
Create an effective contrast against Bee Balm, Salvia, Russian Sage and other blue-violet selections. Try this in a fun seasonal container as a “Filler”.
Magnus Purple Coneflower
Zone: 3-8
Height: 24″ – 48″
Spread: 18″ – 24″
Magnus Purple Coneflower
Magnus’ Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’, is a gorgeous native plant of the dry prairies and open woodlands of North America. ‘Magnus’ was awarded the title of 1998 ‘Plant of the Year’ by the Perennial Plant Association.
‘Magnus’ Purple Coneflower is a relative of the sunflower and features a central cone surrounded by wide, flat purple-pink petals. The stems can be 2 to 4 feet long making ‘Magnus’ an excellent cut flower. Butterflies and bees will adore it! After they flower, the cones can be dried to use indoors or left on the plant for the birds to enjoy during the winter.
This brilliant purple-pink color works well with blues (like Perovskia) and the rounded shape nicely complements the linear lines of plants like Liatris.
Proven Winners® Green Jewel Coneflower
Zone: 3-8
Height: 20″ – 24″
Spread: 12″ – 18″
Green Jewel Coneflower
The Coneflower Green Jewel (Echinacea ‘Green Jewel’) is a fragrant jewel featuring a large, green cone-like center that is surrounded by soft-green petals that stay true to their color as they age.
This perennial sprouts every spring and fill out with rough scratchy dark green sword-like leaves and pointed upright clumps. Green Jewel has truly lime-green flowers on a nice compact habit.
These long-lasting blossoms usually rebloom without deadheading, but if spent flowers are removed, this procedure will encourage continued beautiful blooms and improve general appearance.
Echinacea is known for its large flower heads that turn to seeds in the fall. Pot up on large planters or add to garden beds and borders, pollinator gardens and unique cottage gardens. Not only is it a prized perennial for many gardeners, but it is also said to be potent medicine.
Sombrero® Sangrita Coneflower
Zone: 4-9
Height: 18″ – 22″
Spread: 22″ – 24″
Sombrero Sangrita Coneflower
Throughout summer Sombrero Sangrita Coneflower blooms with sombrero-shaped flowers that have a daisy shape with maroon to brown cones and scarlet-red to burgundy petals tipped with perfect points. Its stems are even a rich burgundy!
These large and showy blossoms are a butterfly favorite. Other beneficial pollinators love their enchanting reds and oranges, too.
This glowing plant will perform its best in full sun with medium moisture soil that drains well. And when it’s not in bloom, its lance-shaped foliage will keep your garden green and lively.
This variety outperforms others with its winter hardiness and even blooms.
Cone-fections™ Lemon Drop Coneflower
Zone: 4-9
Height: 15″ – 18″
Spread: 18″ – 24″
Lemon Drop Coneflower
These pure bright yellow flowers are puffy balls on top with elegant drooping petals around the base. These are showstoppers in the garden and especially in the vase. They combine well with any other flower color in the garden – try them with cool purples, whites, and blues for a classic Cape Cod look or with rich reds, pinks, and oranges for a hot tropical garden. If you keep them deadheaded they will bloom all summer and often well into fall, right alongside your mums and pansies.
Like all Echinacea’s, Lemon Drop is a tough and healthy plant that tolerates heat and drought and thrives in well-drained average garden soil – no pampering needed.
PRAIRIE PILLARS™ Tiki Torch Coneflower
Zone: 4-9
Height: 28″ – 36″
Spread: 18″ – 26″
Tiki Torch Conflower
Glowing orange ray petals surround a spikey, raised center that’s a lovely reddish-brown and provides a spicy scent.
These vibrant orange Coneflowers can be used as accent plants or in mixed borders, open woodlands, and mass plantings. Try planting in masses for a bold color impact in your garden.
Sized wonderfully for containers, the 3″ blooms command attention all season long amongst spiky green mounded foliage.
This tough plant is drought tolerant once established but will perform its best with medium moisture soil that drains very well. Use a raised bed, or grow them in containers if you have poorly drained soil that retains water for a long time.
Green Envy Coneflower
Zone: 3-9
Height: 30″ – 36″
Spread: 18″ – 24″
Green Envy Coneflower
The Coneflower ‘Green Envy’, Echinacea purpurea ‘Green Envy’, is an easy to grow perennial that produces beautiful, light-green fading to pink, Daisy-like flowers. The pretty flowers rise high on tall, dark-green stems with dark-green foliage.
The ‘Green Envy’ blooms from July to September and is a major attractor to butterflies and bees. It usually reblooms without deadheading, but if spent flowers are removed, it will encourage continued blooms and improves the general appearance of the plant.
‘Green Envy’ is deer and rabbit resistant.
Grow a variety of Coneflower colors with a variety pack of seeds. This short blend is a nice addition to patio containers or borders. First year blooms will benefit butterflies and hummingbirds the same season.
Paradiso Dwarf Blend Echinacea Seeds This first-year flowering, dwarf echinacea comes in vibrant colors that will light up the garden. The blooms are loved by pollinators, and the seed cones create interest in the winter garden and attract birds. A great fresh or dried cutting flower. Practically care free, echinacea adapts to heat, drought, humidity, and poor soil. Perennial in USDA zones 3–8. |
Find Coneflower (Echinacea) seeds at Botanical Interests and a large variety of plants at Nature Hills Nursery.
Explore More:
Comments
Do Coneflowers Come In Different Colors? — No Comments
HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>