Echinacea purpurea Sunset - Purple Coneflower

Echinacea 'Sunset' is a novelty with a soft colour like a sunset, a collar of salmon-orange petals around a large brown heart highlighted with dark orange on particularly compact and vigorous vegetation. This floriferous and easy-to-grow perennial is magnificent until the end of summer, in sunny beds, in ordinary soil. It adapts to difficult conditions, tolerating occasional intense heat, humidity, and drought. It can even grow in poor soils and is ideal as a cut flower or for drying.

Echinacea 'Sunset' belongs to the Asteraceae family. This cultivar is the result of cross-breeding between E. paradoxa x E. purpurea, both native to North American prairies. This introduction comes from ItSaul Plant Nurseries in Atlanta. This perennial combines the qualities of robustness and vigour from its two parents while offering a combination of harmonious shades and exemplary floribundity on strong vegetation. It has a dense and sturdy habit, reaching a height of 60 cm (24in) and a width of 40 cm (16in). This plant does not weaken or collapse, showing very good durability. The deciduous, lanceolate, green leaves are oppositely arranged and covered in rough hairs. The fragrant flowering takes place from July until the end of summer, accompanying inulas, asters, and ornamental tobaccos. It is loved by butterflies. The reddish-green, branched stems are each topped with a solitary, large flower head measuring 5cm (2in) in diameter, with a prominent disk resembling a pompom of tiny florets in burnt orange with a darker centre. The recurved petals are salmon-orange. The fruit is an achene that releases seeds which birds are fond of. This plant firmly and deeply anchors itself in the soil with its highly developed root system.

Rudbeckia 'Sunset' offers a very colourful flowering, pleasant to see on slightly misty autumn days. It is used in mixed borders with other pink or even lavender-blue flowers with contrasting forms (shrubby salvias, lavandins, dwarf gladioli, daylilies, carnations) or with inulas, asters, yarrows, daisies, echinops, phlox. Lighten the scene by mixing in some ornamental grasses such as Stipa tenuifolia, Muhlenbergia capillaris... Splendid in beds, the beautiful and somewhat nostalgic colour of the Sunset echinacea is also beautiful in fresh or dried flower bouquets.

The scent of the Echinacea varies depending on the stage of flowering. Initially, when the florets are in an upright crown, the scent is barely noticeable. At full bloom, when the florets droop as if drained of their strength, it exudes a delicate honey scent, very attractive to bees, butterflies, and other insects. Once the capitulum is pollinated, the scent takes on a more vanilla note.

Properties: In homoeopathy, its root is used to fight colds and strengthen the immune system, properties first used by Native Americans. The name Echinacea comes from the Greek echinos, which means "bristly or like a hedgehog," and acea, meaning "having the shape of," alluding to the hearts of the flowers. Purpurea means "purple."