'Wavyleaf Purple Coneflower' or 'Glade Coneflower'
Very much like E. pallida, with long thin drooping ray petals and upraised center cones. This species has slender flowering stems growing 2 to 3 feet tall. Plants often have multi-stemmed clumps under cultivation, normally one when growing in the wild, with one flower head per stem, above clumps of long strap like basal foliage with few to no stem leaves. The flowering heads or cones have long lavender pink colored petals that droop from the brown colored cones. Plants bloom in June and July.
This species has orange pollen and E. pallida has yellow pollen. Both species make nice cut flowers. Plants will bloom the second or third year after germination, the first year they produce only a few long thin leaves and a deep taproot.
Grow in full sun in well draining soils, plants are tolerant of rocky and very dry situations. In the fall goldfinches feed on the seeds they remove from the dried cones.
Zones 4-9
Native from Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee, were it is found growing in rocky soils on open to wooded hillsides and in dry prairies. Seed are dormant and a simple method to break the dormancy is to leave the seeds in the packet and soak it in water for a few hours, then place the packet while it is still wet in a plastic bag and seal it up, then leave at room temperature for two days. After the two days put the bag with seeds in the fridge for 5 to 8 weeks. Seeds can be sown in spring and summer with some germination the same year and the rest of the seeds will germinate in the spring of the next. Best methoid is to sow in the fall and over winter outside for germination in the spring.
40 seeds.
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