While I've always adored echinacea - i.e., coneflowers - in its traditional purplish-pink form, in our new digs I decided to branch out and embrace a multitude of colors in the near-rainbow they come in. Coneflowers are fantastic all-summer bloomers, super hardy even on the hottest of days, and are obviously wonderful pollinator attractors - perfect when your fruit trees are done blooming and you want to keep those bees and such happy (not to mention bringing low-maintenance color into your garden)! It's also a native plant to the United States, so it is a great addition - particularly planted en masse for both effect AND serving as a great weed suppressant....
Here are the three we've got in our garden here in the Valley (so far...):
"Artisan Soft Orange"
"Magnum"
"Sombrero Granada Gold"
While they love the sun, they're also fine with part sun / dappled shade, so if you have a backyard garden that gets morning sun/afternoon shade, it can handle that as well as all-day light. They die back almost completely to the ground in winter so I've got the plant tag stakes already near them, and are SO easy to divide at the end of the season to expand your flower abundance in a sustainable - and economical - way!
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