Top 10 Reasons to Plant Echinacea

Echinacea is a fabulous plant to have in the garden and here are the top ten reasons why:

• it brings a pop of late summer colour to bedraggled borders
• the dusky pink Echinacea is probably the most widely known but you can also get purple, red, orange, yellow, white and even lime green forms, as well as two-tone and marbled varieties so there is bound to be a variety which will suit your garden
• it is loved by bees and butterflies for its nectar-rich flowers
• Echinacea can from a distance look like any other daisy but on closer inspection, the form is so interesting and is more like a shuttlecock with the petals relaxing downwards from a central cone
• it can grow to around one metre high which adds valuable stature to borders
• Echinacea make great cut flowers for the house and just like deadheading, cutting for vases will promote new flowers on the plant
• once the flowers have faded, the Echinacea seedheads still look great and provide food for small birds
• Echinacea is a hardy perennial so it can be left in the soil all winter and it will die back and regrow the following year
• Echinacea grows in clumps which can spread up to 2 foot in diameter. Every three years, you can dig up the clump and divide it giving you more plants for free
• if you are keen to explore the health benefits of Echinacea, the flowers and leaves can be boiled into a tea

Plant some Echinacea in your garden this month and it will bulk up for next year bringing you all the fabulousness that this gorgeous flower provides!