Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

$5.00

Purple Coneflower really is a classic! It can handle drought and deer and is still a very attractive plant. Another benefit, get up close and you will be able to smell a lovely fragrance. Purple coneflower is well-known for being a pollinator magnet. It attracts many different species of butterflies looking for nectar. Purple Coneflower is recommended as a monarch nectar source by the Xerces Society (Xerces.org) and it is recommended as a preferred pollinator plant by the Xerces Society (Xerces.org). It is also a host plant to 6 different specialist bees (Johnson and Colla, 2023).

Photo credit: Cyprus Gabriel-Menegay

Purple Coneflower really is a classic! It can handle drought and deer and is still a very attractive plant. Another benefit, get up close and you will be able to smell a lovely fragrance. Purple coneflower is well-known for being a pollinator magnet. It attracts many different species of butterflies looking for nectar. Purple Coneflower is recommended as a monarch nectar source by the Xerces Society (Xerces.org) and it is recommended as a preferred pollinator plant by the Xerces Society (Xerces.org). It is also a host plant to 6 different specialist bees (Johnson and Colla, 2023).

Photo credit: Cyprus Gabriel-Menegay

Life Cycle: Perennial

Sun Exposure: Full-Partial

Soil Moisture: Medium/wet-Dry

Height: 3-4 feet

Plant Spacing: 1.5-2 feet

Bloom Time: July-September

Bloom Color: Purple

Advantages: Pollinator Favorite, Bird Favorite, Deer Resistant, Rain Garden, Great landscaping plant

Host Plant: 1 species of butterflies and moths use this as a caterpillar host plant in our area (nwf.org)

Specialist Bee: Andrena helianthiformis, Pseudopanurgus albitarsis, Melissodes coreopsis, Melissodes wheeleri, Megachile parallela, and Ashmeadiella bucconis (Johnson and Colla, 2023)

Complementary Plants: Mountain mint, Little bluestem, Beardtongues, Bee balm, Butterfly weed, Ohio wspiderwort, Black-eyed Susan, Compass plant, Blazing stars

Resource: Johnson, Lorraine, and Sheila Colla. A Northern Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants and Pollinators: Creating Habitat in the Northeast, Great Lakes, and Upper Midwest. Island Press, 2023

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