Purple Coneflower

Purple coneflower is the native perennial that does the most for the least attention. Echinacea purpurea grows 2 to 4 feet tall and 18 to 24 inches wide in full sun to part sun, hardy from Zone 3 through Zone 9, and it blooms the first summer after planting rather than making you wait.

Rosy purple daisies with a raised orange-brown cone open in early summer and keep going into fall, longer than almost any other perennial. Bees and butterflies work the flowers heavily while they are open, and cut stems last well in a vase.

Leave the seedheads standing when the flowers finish. Goldfinches strip them through late fall and winter, and the dark cones on stiff stems hold their shape under snow, which gives a winter bed some structure instead of bare ground.

Coneflower takes drought, poor soil, heat, and humidity without complaint, and it tolerates clay better than most prairie natives. It self-sows modestly, so you will get a few volunteers, and it is easy enough to pull what you do not want. Deer usually leave it alone, though they will sample it where pressure is heavy.