Echinacea dislikes competition in the garden and should be planted in swathes to make a bold statement.

Echinacea - Beautiful and Healthful

by Christina Symons
Images © Christina Symons

Echinacea is a perennial plant often referred to as purple coneflower, which grows wild in North America along roadsides, in prairie fields and dry open woods. Recently it has become renowned for its medicinal value and cultivated as a popular garden plant.

Echinacea is known to help strengthen the body’s natural defenses and immune system. It has been used for centuries by the Plains First Nations and more recently by medicinal doctors and herbalists to treat and prevent various ailments such as colds, respiratory ailments, urinary tract infections and flu.

Easy to grow, Echinacea is a real beauty in the garden. Most folks grow Echinacea purpurea because it is widely available as a perennial as well as easy to start from seed. It grows up to three feet tall and produces rich reddish-purple daisy-like flowers from July through September. These are the same flowers herbalists dry to make into healing tinctures.

Slightly shorter, narrowleaf purple coneflower or Echinacea angustifolia is more difficult to find and extremely difficult to germinate. With a 50&perc; failure rate on seeds it is not recommended for the amateur gardener. However, medicinally it is said to be more potent than E. purpurea with the active ingredients collected from the dried roots. Closely related is pale-purple E. pallida, also very difficult to germinate from seed.

A newcomer on the block, E. purpurea ‘White Swan’ will appeal to the gardener seeking something other than purple in the herb garden. This new wonder offers showy swan-white flowers. If you just can't wait to see if local nurseries will stock it, visit Richters Herbs online to order seeds or plants or call 1.905.640.6677 for a catalogue.

To learn more about the medicinal value of Echinacea (a very good idea prior to considering taking it yourself) consult a professional herbalist or read up on the herb in the definitive book by herbalist Christopher Hobbs called Echinacea The Immune Herb! published by Botanica Press, 1995 40pp.

Echinacea is widely grown on the Sunshine Coast. If you or your neighbours don’t have a specimen handy, drop by Sechelt’s Rockwood Arboretum later in the spring to check out a large and beautiful swath of Echinacea purpurea.

Christina Symons is a contributing writer and photographer for GardenWise magazine and the Coast Reporter. She's looking forward to putting into practice some great gardening ideas at her new home in Roberts Creek.