Mystery Photo Answer: Coneflower (Echinacea)

Yesterday I posted an enhanced photo of a flower from my garden and asked readers to try to identify it. I disguised it a little by removing the color and cropping and zooming the picture. I though it was a neat way to look at one of my favorite plants in the garden, the coneflower! This particular one was Echinacea pupurea or purple coneflower and is a very common one in gardens for a number of reasons: it's easy to care for, it's easy to grow, and its drought tolerance. Coneflowers grow up easily from seed and you can even to basal stem cuttings to propagate more. Right now we have coneflowers flowering in two gardens (the rain garden and the birdbath garden) and have dropped seeds in the self-sowing garden to add a few more for next year. In the fall when the seed heads have formed just sprinkle the seeds over where you want them and next spring you will have a crop of coneflowers.

Here's what the coneflower looked like before I edited the picture.

And now for a couple more gratuitous coneflower shots!

 

 

The garden guessers who got coneflower right were:

Tina from In The Garden

Xris from Flatbush Gardener

Great job!