Echinacea, also known as purple Rudbéckia, is a beautiful summer-flowering perennial. Its large flowers with a prominent, bristly centre, resembling a single daisy or a tousled pompom depending on variety, open all summer in beds, continuously and without wilting in the wind.
Easy to grow, its only requirement is well-drained soil and a sunny position.
Echinacea is an indispensable perennial for meadow gardens or English-style mixed borders.
→ To find out all about echinaceas, read Echinaceas: sowing, cultivation and maintenance.
Echinaceas, radiant and floriferous all summer
Sowing echinaceas is simple. It is also the most effective way to multiply this perennial: it does not like being divided and root cuttings give unconvincing results. Note however that if seeds collected do not come from a type species (Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea pallida, Echinacea angustifolia...), but from a horticultural variety, the flower will not be true to the parent plant.
Materials needed
- Seed compost or, if necessary, a good universal compost
- Seed tray
- Tub and compost scoop for mixing the medium
- Mister or watering can with rose
- Transplanting buckets
- Heated mini-propagator (facultative)
- Sieve (facultative)
When to sow echinaceas?
Sowing is done in spring (April–May) with fully ripe seeds harvested in autumn as soon as they turn brown and before they fall. You can also buy packets of echinacea seeds commercially.
Harvest seeds in autumn when the plant's cone browns
How to sow echinaceas?
- Keep seeds in the refrigerator for 5 to 6 weeks (between 1 and 4 °C) before sowing to encourage germination;
- Sow seeds in a tray in spring in a mix of two-thirds seed compost and one-third good garden soil. Cover seeds lightly with a little fine seed compost;
- Place your tray under a heated frame at 15–20 °C (ideally use a heated mini-propagator);
- Water regularly, but never waterlog the medium: it should remain moist without excess;
- Germination takes 2 to 4 weeks: this depends on warmth and echinacea type;
- The first "leaves" to appear are the cotyledons. True leaves appear afterwards. At the stage of 4 to 6 true leaves, you can prick out each seedling into individual buckets using the same compost mix;
- Plant out into soil in autumn or the following spring: prefer spring if your soil is heavy and poorly drained or if the seedlings' roots are still too fine;
- Plants will already flower by the second year of cultivation.
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