All About Growing Echinacea

This Old House landscape contractor, Jenn Nawada explains how to identify echinaceas and gives a general overview of the perennial. Jenn also demonstrates how to take care of and maintain the plant.

Echinaceas are popular for a reason, and Jenn shares why they are a great plant for even the inexperienced gardener.

What is Echinacea?

Echinaceas are a full sun plant that can be grown in zones 3-8, which is almost everywhere in the continental United States.

Echinaceas are drought-tolerant, have long bloom times throughout the summer, attractive to pollinators, and have the ability to reseed themselves.

How to Maintain Echinaceas

1. Each plant has multiple blooms. Jenn recommends deadheading them around midsummer.
2. To deadhead, wait until the flower is fading out of bloom. Then, take bypass pruners and look at the spent flower. Follow down to where you see the fresh set of blooms, and make the cut right above that.
3. There’s no set time to divide the plant, just do it whenever it outgrows the space. To divide, carefully dig up around the plant with a shovel. Take the shovel and create a clean cut at the roots.
4. Plant to a new hole.

Resources

Jenn discussed a variety of echinaceas, which can be found at The Home Depot and nurseries.

Expert assistance with this segment was provided by Stonegate Gardens.