Purple Coneflower

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea, pronounced eck-kin-NAY-see-uh pur-pur-EE-uh) is one of our favorite native wildflowers here at Native Nurseries. It’s a strong, drought tolerant perennial, for full sun to part. Although it’s tough and easy to grow - not fussy at all – it does prefer well-drained, neutral to alkaline soil. So unless you’re putting it in garden soil that’s been amended with mushroom compost over the years, adding a little dolomite lime to our acidic Tallahassee soil is a good idea.

You (and the butterflies and bees) will enjoy almost non-stop blooming from summer to frost with this impressive wildflower. It’s a member of the compositae family, so what looks like one flower is actually a flower head containing many small flowers. In the case of the purple coneflower, the flower head is orange and cone-shaped surrounded by pinkish/purple petals (bracts). They occur on sturdy stalks, which may reach five feet in height. Despite that height they rarely require staking. Purple coneflower also makes a great, long lasting cut flower.

Propagation is easy. It reseeds readily and can also be started from root division. For best results, divide purple coneflower plants in the fall and no more than once every three to four years.

If it starts to look tired or ragged in late summer, you can cut purple coneflower back by about a third. This will rejuvenate the plant and most likely cause a new flush of blooming that lasts till frost.

There are many cultivars of purple coneflower; and although they are beautiful, so far we are not very impressed. While most probably do well for the season in which you plant them, many do not come back the next spring, at least not in this part of the country – or they are not as pretty if they do. Lilly has had some success with Cheyenne Spirit, Pow Wow Berry and Pow Wow White; but she’s only had them for two years, so the jury’s still out. Donna says Kim’s Knee High was nice for two years but has not performed well since then. So far you just cannot beat the native species for longevity and reliable performance.

I did touch on butterflies and bees, but the capacity of this wonderful wildflower for attracting these pollinators to your yard deserves another mention. Plant it in or near your vegetable garden to ensure plenty of pollinators for your tomatoes and such. Plant it anywhere there’s adequate sun to invite more butterflies into your yard. Just plant it, and you’ll be glad you did.

At Native Nurseries, we typically stock purple coneflower in 4” and 1-gallon pots. Currently we have both. As always, give us a call to check availability before making a special trip (although we’re always happy to see you). Sorry . . . we do not ship plants.

Some information for this blog post came from the following sources –

http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/database/documents/pdf/shrub_fact_sheets/echpura.pdf

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/coneflower/growing-purple-coneflowers.htm

Cardinal Guard a/k/a Firespike

If you like hummingbirds and have a shady yard, you’ll love cardinal guard, also known as firespike (Odontonema cuspidatum). Its beautiful, crimson red flowers will brighten your shady nooks in late summer and fall – just in time to provide plenty of nectar for the hummers as they’re bulking up for their trip across the Gulf to their winter range in Central America and Mexico. With enough water, cardinal guard will grow in the sun, but we recommend it for shady landscapes. In its native Mexico and Panama, cardinal guard is evergreen and blooms all year. Here in Tallahassee, it is an herbaceous perennial. It dies to the ground each winter but sprouts again reliably in the spring. Plant it in good fertile soil. It grows in clumps, spreading by root suckers. The stems grow to four to five feet in height. The foliage is a beautiful, dark glossy green.

Cardinal guard is easy to grow and mostly pest free. You may occasionally find mealybugs or leaf hoppers on them; but personally, I’ve never seen them infested to the point I would recommend any treatment. Let the birds and beneficial insects take care of this one for you.

At Native Nurseries, we typically stock cardinal guard in 1- and 3-gallon pots. Currently we have both. As always, give us a call to check availability before making a special trip (although we’re always happy to see you). Sorry . . . we do not ship plants.

NOTE – As you would expect, we here at Native Nurseries encourage you to use native plants in your yard and garden. When planted in locations that meet their requirements, they are well adapted to our climate and soils and have long established ecological relationships with the animals that share their habitats. We also carry some non-natives (such as cardinal guard) that are non-invasive, easy to maintain and serve a purpose.

Lemongrass

My favorite herb (this week) is easy to grow lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus). It shines in the garden in these hot, hot humid hazy summer days. It looks great, smells great and tastes great - what more do you need? Lemongrass is a clumping grass, so it won't spread and overrun your garden. It gets 3 feet tall by 2 feet wide, doesn't need constant water and is very showy as a landscape plant as well. Plant it in full sun and well-drained soil. It’s a fairly hardy perennial here in Tallahassee if you mulch it well in the winter.

I use lemongrass in salad dressing, teas and Thai recipes. It’s also used in homemade insect repellants, and you can add it to bath water for a refreshing, lemony soak. Be careful when you cut it for use though. The leaf margins are very sharp and will give you a nasty cut.

Be careful also to be sure you purchase real lemongrass. There’s a pseudo lemongrass on the market which doesn't have much scent or flavor. Our source at Native Nurseries is O'Tooles Herb Farm in Madison with the original stock coming from Julie Neal in Thomasville. It is the real thing!

How to make lemongrass tea:

An easy way to enjoy lemongrass in tea is to simply add it (I use the blade and stalk) to your steeping tea. It’s delicious – or try a recipe such as this one:

Collect approximately 4 stalks of lemongrass for each quart of tea you plan to make. Boil some water. Remove the green grass-like part of the stalks. You will use only the whitest part for your tea. Use a tenderizer or hammer to gently smash the stalks on a cutting board. Pour the water over the lemongrass and steep for five minutes. Your lemongrass tea can be served hot or cold or sweetened or not. Adding some sliced, peeled fresh ginger to the water while your tea is steeping makes for a tasty variation.