Purple Coneflowers - Echinacea purpurea

I've tried for a few years to get Purple Coneflowers (and the Green Wizard) to establish at the farm, but have found, like most plants that they dry out and they die. And the farm has been pretty tough on plants !

This year I managed to get my Coneflowers established in a manure enriched garden bed, topped with mushroom compost. The substrate was still the aweful grey sand, leading to clay. But the surface improvements have been enough to help them establish and retain some good soil moisture.

They have performed really well in FULL SUN standing up strongly to the wind and heat.

Flowering stems reached about 100cm and have grown happily with Heleniums and Echinops in the Cutting Garden beds.

When cut, the flowers have lasted about three to five days, they are very thirsty so vase water needs to be topped up daily.