Looking great in mid-November here is Echinacea ‘Tres Amigos’. For us, many of the hybrid coneflowers are repetitive flowering machines, if they are cut to ground after each flowering. And when we say cut to the ground, it could be one of two senarios: if the basal foliage is still looking good after flowering, you can just remove the old flowering stalks at ground level, or if the basal foliage is looking bad, the whole clump can be sheared and new foliage and flowers will regrow. For us, first flowering is mid- June, followed by mid-September, followed again by mid-November. If they are not cut to the ground, you will not have re-flowering. Not all coneflower varieties re-flower as prolifically, so this is certainly one of the stars.
Do you have the issue of ‘super blooming’ echinacea not overwintering?
There are three main issues with these super flowering echinaceas not overwintering. First, they need to be planted in sunny, well-drained locations. Second, is making the proper selection of varieties that perennialize well. Sadly, most retailers haven’t made such in ground evaluations, and simply trust that the breeders have done so, which often isn’t the case. At JLBG, we have trialed 208 echinacea cultivars in ground, and only a tiny fraction of those ever performed well enough for us to offer. Third, after you get them, you must cut them to the ground when they flower for the first time. These plants are bred to flower excessively, and do so often without developing a strong base of growing points from which to perennialize. In other words, they flower beautifully the first time, but fail to develop any vegetative buds at the base. We have found that sacrificing the first flowering is essential. Taking all of that into account, echinaceas are not naturally long lived perennials. We recommend dividing them about every three years in the garden. We hope this helps.