Which went on sale in 2013, Special attention should be given to echinacea. Besides bright color and variety of shapes, these flowers will delight the gardener with their unpretentiousness and ease of care.
Echinacea "Julia"
This variety of echinacea has bright orange flowers, is one of the types of the Butterfly Kisses variety and belongs to dwarf varieties. This echinacea is perfect plant for small spaces, it reaches a height of only 38-45 cm. It blooms in early summer and produces buds on and off throughout the season. This flower is loved by butterflies and bees and makes a nice addition to a bouquet. This echinacea, like all echinaceas in principle, easily tolerates heat and drought. So this plant is a must-have plant in the “no maintenance” landscape.
Latin name: Echinacea "Julia"
Dimensions: up to 46 cm in height and up to 61 cm in width
Echinacea "Double Scoop Cranberry"
Well, how beautiful this flower is! The color, bright as cranberries, catches the eye. In addition to all its external extraordinary advantages, "Double Scoop Cranberry" boasts all the other qualities of Echinacea: drought tolerance, ease of care, attractiveness to butterflies. Flowers bloom on this Echinacea variety late spring and last until the end of summer. Plant a few extra - "Double Scoop Cranberry" is good in a bouquet too.
Latin name: Echinacea "Double Scoop Cranberry"
Growing conditions: open sunny areas
Dimensions: up to 66 cm in height and up to 56 cm in width
Frost resistance zones: 5-9
Plant next to: Russian
Echinacea "Cleopatra"
You have probably already seen this kind of echinacea, or one similar to it, somewhere. The bright yellow "Cleopatra" is named after the bright yellow butterflies. The flowers are single, 7.5 cm in diameter, attractive to butterflies; the petals grow clearly horizontally from the center of the flower and therefore the flower looks like the sun in a child’s drawing. The orange center of the flower, by the way, is also very spectacular. In winter, Echinacea will provide food for finches.
Latin name: Echinacea "Cleopatra"
Growing conditions: open sunny areas
Dimensions: up to 46 cm in height and up to 41 cm in width
Frost resistance zones: 4-8
Plant next to: Monarda
Echinacea "Passion Flute"
Over the past 7 years, Echinacea has evolved significantly. With its tube-twisted petals, the "Passion Flute" variety looks somewhat unusual. This petal shape was bred from the variety "All That Jazz", which is a pink-flowered coneflower. This time “Flute of Passion” is its yellow version. The curled petals are golden yellow in color and radiate out from the center. Large flowers adorn the bush from mid to late summer. The variety "Flute of Passion" ("Passion Flute") is a member of the "Let's Boogie" series of echinaceas. All echinaceas are unpretentious in care, as they are dry-resistant. In winter, the faded heads of echinacea will be sources of food for birds, and therefore lovers nature is simply obliged to plant them.
Latin name: Echinacea "Passion Flute"
Growing conditions: open sunny areas
Dimensions: up to 1.2 m in height and up to 0.6 m in width
Frost resistance zones: 4-8
Plant next to: Echinacea 'All That Jazz'
Echinacea "Butterfly Kisses"
Compact, upright, and covered in beautiful pink pom-pom flowers, Echinacea "Butterfly Kisses" certainly deserves a special place in a perennial border or container garden. Flowers have pleasant aroma and reach 7.5 cm in diameter. They look like small umbrellas over dark green foliage. If you love double coneflower varieties, try this 2013 variety. This variety is attractive to butterflies, the seed-rich heads are attractive to birds, and the plant also looks beautiful in a winter garden.
Latin name: Echinacea "Butterfly Kisses"
Growing Conditions: Full sun or partial shade and moist but well-drained soil
Dimensions: up to 46 cm wide
Frost resistance zones: 4-8
Plant next to: ornamental grasses
Echinacea "Cheyenne Spirit"
The solar face of echinacea reflects their essence. This new coneflower, which won the 2013 AAS (All-America Selection) title, has flowers different colors: pink, purple, red, orange, yellow, cream and even white. An excellent plant for perennial borders and mass plantings in the landscape. Echinacea is a dry-hardy plant that is attractive to pollinators, including butterflies.
Latin name: Echinacea "Cheyenne Spirit"
Growing conditions: open sunny areas
Dimensions: up to 0.6 m in height and width
Frost resistance zones: 4-9
Plant next to: Coreopsis
Echinacea "Evening Glow"
You will love this soothing new variety Echinacea for its color, similar to the color of the evening dawn (hence its name). 'Evening Glow' produces single flowers with horizontal yellow petals and orange streaks like blush (you can also see a hint of pink on them). The cone-shaped center is large and dark. Use this spectacular coneflower in perennial borders or as flowers for bouquets. This echinacea is good even in pots. The flowering period of "Evening Glow" is from spring to autumn.
Latin name: Echinacea "Evening Glow"
Growing conditions: open sunny areas
Dimensions: up to 66 cm in height
Frost resistance zones: 4-9
Echinacea "Cantaloupe" ("Supreme Cantaloupe")
Exactly the color of a ripe cantaloupe, Echinacea "Supreme Cantaloupe" luxury flower for bouquets. Brown-eyed flowers with a double frill of petals are very reminiscent of a gerbera in their appearance. This ambitious coneflower blooms non-stop all summer and even into fall, attracting butterflies and bees to the garden. The heads of this echinacea left for the winter will become good help finches. Let us remember that the homeland of Echinacea is America and that it is one of the most simple plants in care.
Latin name: Echinacea "Supreme Cantaloupe"
Growing conditions: open sunny areas
Dimensions: up to 76 cm in height and up to 61 cm in width
Frost resistance zones: 5-9
Plant next to: Russian sage
Compiled by Doug Jimerson and Karen Weir-Jimerson
Translation: Anna Zhurbenko
especially for the Internet portal
garden center "Your Garden"
If you still think that echinacea is a nondescript pink chamomile with a convex center that is used in medicine, then you are a little behind the times. Actually the best modern varieties Echinacea can compete in beauty with dahlias and asters, and propagation, planting and growing of Echinacea is so easy that even a beginner can do it.
Therefore, we invite you to take a fresh look and re-evaluate this interesting, beautiful and unpretentious plant, learn about it medicinal properties ah, the possibilities of use in design garden plot, the brightest varieties, the history of the “conquest of the world”, and of course about how to grow echinacea.
Echinacea: a little history
The name of the hero of our article comes from Greek word echinoc – that is, “hedgehog”. Echinacea was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus, who assigned it to the genus Rudbeckia, calling it Rudbeckia purpurea. Much later, Echinacea was separated into a separate genus of the same name, which currently includes 10 species. Most often, Echinacea purpurea is used in medicine (both folk and official), as well as in gardening.
It comes from the North American continent, its eastern part, where it prefers to settle in prairies, fields, rocky hills and sandy river banks. In Europe, they learned about the existence of echinacea after the discovery of America, and until the 30s of the twentieth century they used it only as a medicinal plant V folk medicine. Fortunately, in 1938, Dr. Madaus from Germany became interested in her. He carefully studied chemical composition echinacea, described the possibilities of its use in official medicine, opening the way for medicines with echinacea to pharmacy counters.
And since about the 50s, American, Belgian, Norwegian, Soviet, Italian, French and other gardeners began breeding work, developing more than a hundred not only medicinal, but also very beautiful varieties.
Echinacea: botanical features
Echinacea purpurea is a herbaceous perennial about one meter high, possessing a discreet, discreet beauty. The stems of this plant are erect, ranging in height from half a meter to a meter, and sometimes up to one and a half meters. Root system branched, with many shoots penetrating into the soil to a depth of 0.2-0.3 m. The leaves are collected in a rosette, broadly lanceolate, with the basal ones located on elongated petioles, and the stem ones on shorter ones. Echinacea blooms mainly in the summer, and blooms for one and a half to two months with large flowers with a basket diameter of 10-12 cm.
A characteristic feature of a flower is a convex center and hard petals. Inflorescences, as a rule, crown the top of the stem or grow from the axils of the upper leaves. Echinacea fruits are small (5-6 mm in length) tetrahedral achenes.
Medicinal properties of Echinacea
IN medical purposes All parts of echinacea that have reached two to three years of age are used. First of all, Echinacea purpurea is a powerful immunostimulant for physical and mental fatigue, after radiation and cytostatic therapy, and antibiotic treatment. This plant promotes the release of interferon, a protein that is responsible for increasing the body's immunity. If you take the correct dose of echinacea tincture at the beginning of your illness, you are guaranteed to recover faster.
Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the use of Echinacea-based medicines for a long time is not addictive and does not depress the nervous system.
Total for this moment Almost two and a half hundred drugs containing echinacea have been patented in the world, including a drug for the treatment of AIDS.
Echinacea stems and roots The Indians also used it against snake and insect bites. And they are still actively used to treat burns, wounds, poisonous bites. And also Echinacea roots are a strong metabolic stimulant, adaptogen, aphrodisiac, antiseptic and a very good diaphoretic for colds.
Professor Sergei Arkadyevich Tomilin at one time compared echinacea with ginseng in its medicinal properties, and was one of the first scientists to recommend its use for depression, fatigue, parametritis, sore throat, and inflammation internal organs, typhoid fever, tonsillitis, diphtheria, erysipelas, cerebral meningitis, osteomyelitis.
To everything else, we add that the juice from the fresh inflorescences of this plant has a beneficial effect on the healing process of wounds in severe bedsores and first-third degree burns, and improves blood clotting.
Preparations containing echinacea , are also used to treat diseases caused by exposure to pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, heavy metals and others chemical substances contained in food and in the air.
But, still, not a panacea - Echinacea: contraindications she also has. In particular, you should not take Echinacea by nursing and pregnant women, with multiple sclerosis, leukemia, collagenosis, progressive tuberculosis and people in whom this plant causes severe allergic reaction. Thus, use of echinacea preparations possible only after a doctor's prescription.
The best varieties of Echinacea: photos, description
Echinacea, depending on the variety and hybrid, may not be traditional pink (raspberry, cherry), but also orange, yellow, white, and even green. But, regardless of color, all varieties have large, eye-catching inflorescences and a pleasant aroma.
Echinacea Doubledecker (Doubledecker)
Let's start with the most unique - so far the only, stunningly beautiful semi-double variety. Its flowers are pale pink with a “tuft” different colors(a mixture of green, dark and light pink, dark and light green petals). This is a frost-resistant variety of Echinacea that blooms from July to September. Very demanding of the sun, height - no more than half a meter.
Echinacea Double Scoop Cranberry
One of the most new varieties of echinacea , is characterized by increased drought and frost resistance. It blooms in June-August with large double flowers the color of ripe lingonberries. The height of the bush itself is up to 60 cm. Can be used for cutting. Very picky about varieties.
Echinacea Supreme Flamingo (Suprim Flamingo)
This variety stands out for its soft coral or soft pink double flowers, exuding wonderful aroma. It blooms all summer, the height of the bush is up to half a meter. Feels good only in sunny places.
Echinacea Supreme Cantaloupe
This variety has large, double, salmon-colored flowers that are very fragrant. The height of the bush is more than 70 cm. It blooms in June-October and needs sunlight.
Echinacea Secret Passion
Frost-resistant variety with a bush height of up to 60 cm, blooms in July-October. Its flowers are large, double, with a deep pink center and pale pink lower petals. Planting is recommended only in sunny places.
Echinacea Secret Affair (Secret Afea)
This variety is distinguished by its double flowers of rich burgundy color and its tolerance to slight shade. The height of the bush is up to 60 cm, flowering is observed in July-September. The variety is frost-resistant.
Echinacea Meringue (Meringa)
This coneflower is short (30-60 cm), with full white flowers, frost-resistant, requiring sunny places for planting. Blooms in June-August.
Echinacea Meteor Red (Meteor Red)
Frost-resistant variety with bushes up to 60 cm high, and large double flowers with deep red upper petals and orange-red lower ones. It blooms in July-September and can grow in slightly shaded areas.
Echinacea Eccentric (Eccentric)
The main feature of this variety is its very long flowering period, from June to October. The variety is frost-resistant and tolerates slight shading. The height of the bush is up to 60 cm, the flowers are large, double, red, with a purple tint in the middle.
Echinacea Coconut Lime
A frost-resistant variety with a unique color: the upper petals are bright green, the lower petals are white. The color itself is double, large, and the bush is tall - up to 70 cm. Flowering is observed in July-September. The variety is loyal to shaded areas.
Echinacea: cultivation and care
In addition to its stunning appearance and medicinal properties, Echinacea has one more advantage: its unpretentiousness to growing conditions and ease of care.
Place to plant echinacea
Echinacea is a sun lover, but some varieties do well in light partial shade; they tolerate heat and summer drought well, just like strong ones. winter frosts. When to plant echinacea? Around the end of spring, a distance of half a meter or a little more is left between plants. As for the soil for Echinacea, the main thing is that it is not acidic or soggy, and rich in organic matter.
Echinacea care: watering and fertilizing
On windy and hot days, as well as during periods of prolonged drought, Echinacea must be watered regularly, preferably in the late evening or early morning.
Echinacea is fertilized every year: at the end of May or at the beginning of June, 20 g of the complex is added to a bucket of irrigation water. mineral fertilizer, after a month and a half, the fertilizing is repeated. And after pruning the stems in the fall, apply a generous layer of compost mulch.
Pruning Echinacea
In order for the plant to bloom longer and more abundantly, faded flower stalks should be removed. In the fall, all branches are cut off level with the ground, and in the spring, the damaged parts of the bush are cut off.
Preparing Echinacea for Winter
Like everyone else herbaceous plants, ground part Echinacea dies in the winter. It does not require any special shelter for the winter - just mulch it well. In spring it wakes up quite late, in May, and if the spring is cold, even later. But unexpected spring frosts she is not afraid.
Echinacea propagation
Echinacea is propagated either by dividing the bush or by seed.
Dividing the Echinacea bush, unlike most herbaceous plants, is carried out not at the end of summer or autumn, but in the spring - before the leaves have fully blossomed and the bases of the shoots have become lignified. It is recommended to soak root cuttings and divisions in a liquid solution of an immunostimulant for several hours before planting. When planting, make sure that the root collars are flush with the ground.
Sowing of Echinacea seeds is carried out in the spring, so that before the onset of cold weather the seedling has time to take root reliably and bloom already. next year. It is better to germinate the seeds in advance. To do this, in February they are sown in a box with soil to a depth of 0.5-1 cm, sprinkled the thinnest layer sand, carefully water and place in a warm place. The seeds hatch in 15-35 days. IN open ground The seedlings are transferred in early May. If you sow Echinacea seeds directly into open ground, you should do this no earlier than May, when the threat of night frosts has passed.
Diseases and pests of Echinacea
Echinacea is quite resistant to diseases and pests, and if provided good soil, a suitable sunny location and a minimum of proper care, there should be no problems.
However, diseases do occur in Echinacea. If the soil is waterlogged, spots first appear on the leaves, then the plant begins to wither, or in extreme cases, dies. In conditions high humidity the plant becomes easy prey for fungal diseases, so at the first alarming symptoms, immediately stop watering and remove the affected leaves. If the disease covers the entire echinacea, you will have to use fungicides.
If the plant's peduncles are deformed, and the leaves turn yellow and stripes appear on them, most likely we're talking about about the virus. Treatment of echinacea in this case will be ineffective - the affected specimens are removed from the site and burned.
Echinacea in the garden
Echinacea looks very impressive in mixed borders, planted in separate large groups. different varieties in the middle levels of mixed flower beds, as well as against the backdrop of tall trees. And for the front line of mixborders they are well suited low-growing varieties Echinacea.
This plant goes well with perennial low-growing herbs and looks good in gardens. natural style. Echinacea will always look like a bright spot in the garden, attracting birds and butterflies, and if the seed pods are not removed for the winter, it will also make a nice decoration for the winter garden.
Echinacea in the garden coexists well with rudbeckia, dahlias, yarrows, monardas, ornamental grasses, salvia and other plants. It is also worth mentioning that Echinacea is a first-class honey plant that attracts many bees to the garden.
There are many varieties of Echinacea, new ones appear every year. I have my favorites. They captivated me with their spectacular coloring and abundance of flowering, the strength of the stems and neat appearance after flowering, longevity in flower beds. But there are also varieties that I said goodbye to.
Favorite Echinacea
The most reliable, in my opinion, is specific Echinacea purpurea. Every year it regularly pleases with its flowering, “architectural” appearance and expressiveness large flower with a convex middle. Due to the lignified base of the stems, it is not afraid of rain, winds and snow. Dry fruit cones will also decorate the winter flower garden and become a treat for sparrows and other small birds. Where I am mulched with pine bark, Echinacea purpurea is not sown too abundantly, but in open space it is sown very, very much. But this is more a joy than a problem.
Just as good and reliable white variety White Swan.
There are echinaceas that once you see, you will keep in your memory for the rest of your life. They are so impressive that they become an accent that attracts all attention in any flower garden. Most of these varieties were created with “garden drama” in mind. For example, Echinacea Fatal Attraction with reddish-black peduncles and magenta-pink, literally glowing petals. At the same time, it goes well with other plants in the flower garden.
Flower Echinacea Green Envy changes color from green when half-opened to lilac-pink - this tone gradually spreads from the center of the flower, and the green fades and remains only at the tips of the petals. It grows quite quickly. An absolutely fantastic variety that allows you to observe the play of tones on the petals day after day.
Most red Echinacea varieties are characterized by a change in flower tone over time. However, terry Echinacea Hot Papaya practically does not fade. I don’t like double echinacea (more on that later), but I made an exception for her.
Variety with a simple flower Tomato Soup The color also lasts a long time. The red color is so intense that it attracts attention from afar - a real “bonfire” in a flower garden. In the second year after planting on the bush Echinacea Tomato Soup I counted more than 20 flowers at the same time, and bright red new ones always replaced the faded, faded flowers.
Without a doubt, the greenest echinacea is the variety Green Jewel selection by Piet Oudolf. Herbaceous perennials with green flowers are very rare, and echinacea of such a rich green color did not exist before the appearance of this variety. A real revolution!
No other variety can compare with it: Echinacea Green with a green center, devoid of marginal petals, looks like an alien and does not make the right impression in the garden. And pale green Jade Compared to Green Jewel, she looks like a poor relative, and besides, she reacts poorly to rain. One at Echinacea Green Jewel disadvantage - fragility. But I will still buy and plant it, even if I have to do it every 3-4 years.
Echinacea for collectors
The most yellow one is strange coneflower (Echinacea paradoxa). This is the only species among the Echinaceae that has yellow flowers. Long narrow golden petals, a high conical center - everything about this flower is reminiscent of its closest relative, rudbeckia. Echinacea strange is not tall (50 cm), but tends to lie down on the ground - it may require a garter. It is quite winter-hardy, but grows rather slowly. Blooms in early July. This species is more for a collection than for decorating flower beds. However, it was he who became one of the parents of the “colored” hybrid varieties Echinacea.
A charming inhabitant of the stony prairies - pale coneflower (Echinacea pallida) reaches a height of 90-120 cm, the stems are highly branched. Pink narrow and long (up to 9 cm) petals are lowered down, which gives flowering plant very graceful, graceful appearance. The flower of this echinacea does not look like a chamomile at all. The only pity is that it needs exceptionally well-drained soil - on my loam it consistently fell out after wintering, and I stopped buying it.
Failed experiments
To the Echinacea series American selection Big Sky includes hybrid fragrant varieties of the most interesting colors. Most famous Echinacea Sunrise, Sunset, Sundown, Twilight, Harvest Moon. Unfortunately, they are not often successful in cultivation: they grow poorly, fall out after wintering, and do not hold the declared color well - all these features are also noted by European flower growers. Lasted me for several years Echinacea Sundown, while every year by mid-summer its foliage turned brown (it did not dry out, but rather mummified, maintaining its volume).
I prefer simple varieties to terry varieties - they retain their decorative properties longer. You can admire their dried fruits in late autumn, while varieties with double flowers look rather sloppy when they fade. Especially if new flowers keep appearing and appearing, and the old ones have turned into untidy shaggy brown balls. A striking example of this is Echinacea Coconut Lime. Pleasant light green color at the beginning of flowering, it seems quite harmonious.
