When to plant coneflowers?
- Botanical name
- Echinacea purpurea
- Family
- Asteraceae
Coneflowers are planted from September to October. They flower from June to September.
Coneflowers are perennial plants.
An echinacea set out in autumn makes its roots in the cool, damp months, before the heat arrives. Once rooted, it comes through a dry, hot summer well.
Faded flowers are cut off as they appear and the plant flowers for longer. Left on the plant, they ripen into seed heads that feed birds through the winter. The dry stems can therefore stand until spring.
Coneflowers through the year
- planting
- flowering
In short
Growing conditions
Are coneflowers toxic to cats and dogs?
No. Coneflowers are not toxic to cats and dogs.
Pests and diseases
Listed here is every problem for which the sources name this plant as a host. The problems are not listed in order of how common they are.
- Signs
- Colonies of small aphids sit on the shoot tips and the underside of the leaves. The leaf curls and puckers, and sticky honeydew is left on everything below. The viruses they carry are more dangerous than the feeding itself.
- Prevention
- Go easy on nitrogen, because soft sappy growth is what aphids are looking for. Encourage the predators (ladybirds, lacewings, parasitic wasps). Use a reflective mulch, which puts them off settling, and a strong jet of water to knock the colony off the tips.
- What to do
- Potassium soap works on contact and only while it is wet, so it has to reach the underside of the leaf. On drought-loving plants and in heat it can scorch, so apply it in the evening.
- Signs
- A white, floury coating spreads over the leaves, first on the lower and older ones. The leaf under it yellows and dries up. The fruit stays small, because the plant loses leaf surface.
- Prevention
- Plant resistant varieties, leave an airy spacing and sun, and clear the debris at the end of the season. Unlike most fungi it is not helped by wet foliage, since it spreads in heat and high air humidity, in a dry summer too.
- What to do
- Oil products meant for powdery mildew on the squash family work on contact. They do not cure a leaf that is already affected, but they stop the spread to healthy ones. On herbs cut the affected shoots back instead, since the new growth comes clean. On ornamental perennials what is left is spacing and moisture.
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Related plants
The plants below are in the same botanical family (Asteraceae).
Sources about the plant: Aktion Das sichere Haus (DSH), Clemson Cooperative Extension, CliniTox Pflanzengifte, GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, NC State Extension Plant Toolbox, University of Illinois Extension, Wikidata. Checked between 14 and 28 August 2026. The problem descriptions also draw on: KGZS, Royal Horticultural Society, UF/IFAS Extension, University of Maryland Extension, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Utah State University Extension.