Echinacea purpurea 'Zonnehoed'

Echinacea purpurea, also known as Rudbeckia purpurea, is a flowering perennial, with an upright habit and vigorous growth. Its large flowers, with a deep pink colour and prominent orange-brown centre, bloom from June-July to August-September, attracting butterflies. It is ideal for flower beds, as well as for cutting or drying. It is also a very resilient and adaptable plant in relation to the soil. It is easy to sow and always successful in ordinary garden soil.

Native to the western United States, from Georgia to Michigan, passing through Oklahoma and Ohio, Echinacea purpurea is a resilient perennial that thrives in rocky meadows, savannas, open woodlands, and roadside edges. This intrepid pioneer has a dense and upright clump habit, reaching a height of 1m (3ft) and a width of about 40cm (16in). The leaves, opposite, lanceolate, and green, are covered in rough hairs. The fragrant flowering period lasts throughout the summer. The branched flower stems, reddish-green in colour, are topped by a solitary inflorescence with a prominent central disc, forming a cone of tiny florets in shades of copper-orange to brown. The outer collar is composed of ligules in a pink-red colour that fade slightly in the sun. The fruit is an achene that releases seeds that birds love. The deciduous foliage disappears in winter and regrows in spring. This plant firmly and deeply anchors itself in the soil with its well-developed root system.

The Purple Coneflower offers abundant and colourful flowering, pleasing to the eye when mixed with other pink flowers with contrasting forms (such as shrubby salvias, dwarf gladiolus, daylilies, carnations) or in the company of inulas, asters, yarrows, daisies, and globe thistles. Lighten up the scene by mixing in some ornamental grasses like Stipa tenuifolia or Muhlenbergia capillaris... Its flower is also beautiful in fresh or dried flower arrangements.

In homeopathy, the root of Echinacea is used to fight colds and strengthen the immune system. It was highly regarded by Native Americans. The name Echinacea comes from the Greek word echinos, meaning "hedgehog-like," and acea, meaning "having the shape of," alluding to the flower heads. Purpurea means "purple."