The Perennial Matchmaker

Echinaceas (Echinacea), often known as purple coneflowers, are equally at home in elegant borders and casual country gardens. They grow in such a wide variety of conditions, in such a range of sizes and colors, and flower for such a long time that they offer endless possibilities for subtle to stunning combinations.

The most common purple coneflower (E. purpurea) can range in height from about 18 inches to 4 feet or more, depending on the cultivar, with relatively broad, rough leaves and large, daisy-form flowers that have prominent, conical centers and outward-facing or somewhat drooping ray florets (the technical name for what we gardeners call “petals”). Narrowleaf purple coneflower (E. angustifolia) is similar but is usually just around 2 feet tall, while 2- to 4-foot-tall pale purple coneflower (E. pallida) has very thin, downward-pointing petals; both species have slender leaves. These purple coneflowers are generally hardy in Zones 3 to 9.

There are also many hybrids of these and other echinacea species, expanding the color range from pinks and whites to include shades of red, orange, and yellow. These hybrid echinaceas are stunning once they get established, but it can be difficult to get the vigor and dependability from them that you can usually expect from the time-tested favorites. The usual advice with these is to keep the flowering stems cut off the first year so the plants put their energy into making roots instead of blooms: a good approach if you can make yourself remove the flowers, but frustrating if you want to make combinations with them right away. If there are unusual colors and/or flower forms that you simply can’t resist, consider planting them in a holding bed for their first year, then moving them to your garden the next year for making matches.

Whatever your color preferences, you can probably find an echinacea in your favorite hues, except for true purples and blues. Keep in mind that photographs of the flowers may not represent their colors accurately—particularly those of the brighter hybrids—and that petal colors often soften as the flowers age, so it’s a good idea to see the blooms in person before you finalize your combination if you’re trying to make careful color matches.

Think pinks. It’s a shame that these plants aren’t known as “pink coneflowers,” since that’s the most common color range: from pale pink selections like ‘Hope’ to rosy pink ‘Prairie Splendor’ to vibrant magenta pink ‘PowWow Wild Berry’. There are loads of other summer-flowering perennials in the same color range—Joe-Pye weeds (Eupatorium), ornamental oreganos (Origanum), pink and rose turtleheads (Chelone lyonii and C. obliqua), queen-of-the-prairie (Filipendula rubra), summer phlox (Phlox paniculata), and tuberous-rooted Jerusalem sage (Phlomis tuberosa), to name a few—so it would be easy to build a whole border around pink flowers. Magenta to reddish pinks may not look good right next to soft pinks or lavender pinks, though, so consider using some green, gray, or silver foliage between them.

Pink-petaled echinaceas look terrific with white flowers and white-variegated foliage, as well as with yellows, blues, and purples, especially if you match the intensity of the hues. With vivid ‘Burgundy Fireworks’, for instance, consider a strong yellow, like that of ‘Lemon Popsicle’ torch lily (Kniphofia), or a rich purple-blue, such as ‘Caradonna’ perennial salvia (Salvia nemorosa). Rosy pink–purple coneflowers can also work surprisingly well with oranges that have some pink in them, such as ‘Orange Perfection’ summer phlox (P. paniculata) or sunset hyssop (Agastache rupestris).

Wonderful whites. White cultivars of purple coneflower, such as ‘Jade’, ‘Milkshake’, ‘PowWow White’, and ‘White Swan’, match well with a wide range of other white-flowered perennials: Think of ‘David’ summer phlox, ‘Floristan White’ dense blazing star (Liatris spicata), and wild quinine (Parthenium integrifolium), among others. To complete the theme for a marvelous moon garden or a bridal-white border for a summer wedding, include white-striped foliage, like that of variegated Japanese iris (Iris ensata ‘Variegata’) and variegated obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana ‘Variegata’), and silver-leaved perennials, such as artemisias (Artemisia).

Blue with white is an elegant color theme for a bed or border, and it’s easy to accomplish: Simply expand the previous ideas for white echinacea combinations to include blue and purple-blue perennials, such as anise hyssops (Agastache), catmints (Nepeta), lavenders (Lavandula), and Russian sages (Perovskia), along with silvery blue to blue-gray foliage, like that of ‘Dallas Blues’ switch grass (Panicum virgatum) or ‘Sapphire Skies’ beaked yucca (Yucca rostrata).

Delicate pastels. Besides the pastel pinks of the purple coneflowers, echinacea hybrids expand the range of soft colors to include peachy orange, as on Summer Sky (‘Katie Saul’) and ‘Supreme Cantaloupe’, and buttery yellow, as on ‘Sunrise’. Combine any of them with other summer perennials in sorbet colors—Anthea (‘Anblo’) or ‘Apricot Delight’ yarrow (Achillea), for instance, or ‘Apricot Sunrise’ or ‘Summer Glow’ hummingbird mints (Agastache)—and with soft blues and lavender purples. They also combine beautifully with foliage that’s striped with creamy yellow, like that of ‘Color Guard’ or ‘Golden Sword’ Adam’s needle (Yucca filamentosa) or variegated sweet iris (Iris pallida ‘Variegata’), and with the tan to golden brown seed heads of feather reed grasses (Calamagrostis), Mexican feather grass (Stipa tenuissima), and other ornamental grasses.

Bright and bold. New echinacea cultivars in particularly bright reds, corals, oranges, and yellows are appearing every year, with breeders attempting to produce selections that hold on to their rich petal colors longer. Many of these colors are already available among the rudbeckias (Rudbeckia) on less expensive and more vigorous plants, but the echinacea hybrids do provide some other heights and flower forms. Any of the hybrids can be vibrant additions to summer borders with other bold bloomers, such as Asiatic lilies (Lilium Asiatic Hybrids), bee balms (Monarda), daylilies (Hemerocallis), and heleniums (Helenium), perhaps with ‘Powis Castle’ artemisia (Artemisia) and other silver leaves for extra sparkle or ‘Black Truffle’ cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), ‘Obsidian’ heuchera (Heuchera), and other dark foliage for depth.

You can match other foliage colors with the bright echinaceas for intriguing combinations: orangey ‘Southern Comfort’ heuchera with ‘Flame Thrower’ or ‘Marmalade’ echinaceas, for instance, or red-tipped Japanese blood grass (Imperata cylindrica ‘Rubra’) or ‘Shenandoah’ switch grass (P. virgatum) with ‘Firebird’ or Sombrero Salsa Red (‘Balsomsed’) echinacea.

A Perfect Match

Ordinary purple coneflowers thrive in my Pennsylvania garden, but I’ve had a hard time with many of the showier hybrids. One that has done well for me is Sundown (‘Evan Saul’). The rich orange color of its newly opened blooms is eye-catching, but I like it even better a day or two later, when it softens to peachy pink. At either stage, it shows off beautifully against a taller, dark-leaved companion, such as Summer Wine ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Seward’).

With echinaceas, it’s all about the flowers, even from a form and texture perspective. Because the flowers are large and close together, established clumps tend to have a broad, horizontal appearance in bloom, and that’s emphasized on cultivars that have outward-facing petals. They benefit from having mounded companions, such as catmints or hardy geraniums (Geranium) in front of them, for lower color, and more narrowly upright companions, such as Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum) and ‘Heavy Metal’ switch grass (Panicum virgatum), behind them for contrast.

The horizontal bloom form of many echinaceas pairs well with shorter or taller partners that have blooms packed into broad clusters, such as showy sedum (Sedum spectabile) or yarrows (Achillea). Ball-shaped blooms, like those of drumstick allium (Allium sphaerocephalon), rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium), or globe thistles (Echinops), do a great job repeating the prominent center cones of echinaceas.

The big, bold blooms of single-flowered echinaceas also lend themselves well to dramatic shape contrasts. Pair them with spiky-flowered companions, such as blazing stars (Liatris) and obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana), or with plumy blooms, like those of giant fleeceflower (Persicaria polymorpha), Korean feather reed grass (Calamagrostis brachytricha), Russian sages, or white mugwort (Artemisia lactiflora).

Some echinaceas have such eye-catching flower forms that they deserve to be the star of a combination. The slender, drooping petals of pale purple coneflower, for instance, have a very dainty, delicate look, while many hybrids and selections are distinctive for their quilled petals, frilly centers, or other unusual features. Instead of drawing attention away from them with a strongly contrasting flower shape, focus mostly on foliage companions, or consider combining them with much smaller daisy-form blossoms, like those of asters, coreopsis (Coreopsis), feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium), and pincushion flowers (Scabiosa). Or let them mingle with tiny blossoms, like those of catmints, Bowman’s roots (Gillenia), flowering spurge (Euphorbia corollata), or lesser calamint (Calamintha nepetoides).

In southern gardens, echinaceas are typically in bloom by mid- to late spring; in cooler areas, early to midsummer is the usual beginning of their flowering season. The plants may take a break during the worst heat of southern summers, but mostly they continue flowering through the summer months, especially if you clip off the old flowers as they finish. Their long bloom period gives you a wide range of flowering partners to choose from: daylilies (Hemerocallis), summer phlox, and many more. (See “Bloom Buddies” for other suggestions.)

Keeping up with regular deadheading through summer may prolong the flowering season into fall, when your echinaceas can mingle with asters, chrysanthemums, and other late bloomers, as well as with fall-colored foliage. Or stop deadheading after midsummer and leave the finished flowers in place to dry into interesting seed heads for fall and winter. Besides providing welcome food for winter birds, they also look great with the seed heads of blazing stars (Liatris), Culver’s roots (Veronicastrum), and goldenrods (Solidago), and with the dried remains of ornamental grasses.

Purple coneflower species, such as E. angustifolia, E. pallida, and E. purpurea—and the older, single-flowered cultivars, too, such as ‘Magnus’ and ‘White Swan’—look perfectly at home in naturalistic plantings with other native perennials and grasses, such as little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), milkweeds (Asclepias), prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis), wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), and wild quinine (Parthenium integrifolium).

Consider the Cones

As the tiny, tightly packed “disc florets” in the center of echinacea (Echinacea) flowers open, they typically have a reddish orange to golden orange cast against a deep green to dark brown base. Instead of going for the obvious petal color when choosing a companion for echinaceas, consider those secondary colors instead to create more subtle echoes. Form harmonies with flowering and foliage partners in similar colors, such as butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) or ‘Mango Popsicle’ torch lily (Kniphofia), for instance. Or create contrast by setting them against a partner with very dark or bright foliage, such as deep purple ‘Royal Purple’ smokebush (Cotinus coggygria) or vivid yellow Mellow Yellow spirea (Spiraea thunbergii ‘Ogon’).

Bloom Buddies

Marvelous Matches for Flowering Combos

Echinaceas (Echinacea) typically thrive in full sun and average to moist but well-drained soil, but they can adapt to partial shade and drier soil. Many terrific perennial partners, such as those mentioned below, overlap or coincide with their long bloom period.

Agastaches (Agastache)

Bee balms (Monarda)

Blazing stars (Liatris)

Bowman’s roots (Gillenia)

Culver’s roots (Veronicastrum)

Daylilies (Hemerocallis)

Filipendulas (Filipendula)

Fleeceflowers (Persicaria)

Globe thistles (Echinops)

Hollyhocks (Alcea)

Jerusalem sages (Phlomis)

Joe-Pye weeds (Eupatorium)

Knautias (Knautia)

Milkweeds (Asclepias)

Obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana)

Ornamental oreganos (Origanum)

Penstemons (Penstemon)

Perennial salvias (Salvia)

Pincushion flowers (Scabiosa)

Purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea)

Rudbeckias (Rudbeckia)

Russian sages (Perovskia)

Sea hollies (Eryngium)

Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum × superbum)

Stoke’s aster (Stokesia laevis)

Summer phlox (Phlox paniculata)

Torch lilies (Kniphofia)

Turtleheads (Chelone)

Yarrows (Achillea)