I’m joining Cathy this week as she hosts seven days of colour to remind us of the beauty from this past spring and summer – all with the goal of making a cold and perhaps grey and snowy December a bit more bearable. Gardening these days is much more than growing pretty flowers; it’s about creating habitat and growing food for wildlife and especially for pollinators, choosing native plants when given the choice and not manicuring trees, shrubs and borders to within an inch of their lives. Up close, my gardens look messy. But get even closer and you’ll quickly spot bees and ants and butterflies and crickets and the occasional frog, all to a soundtrack from pre-dawn to sunset of dozens of bird species. My favourite Echinacea, and the tallest, I think, is a pollinator magnet.
County Gardening 
Beautiful! I too am focussed very much on plants that are attractive to pollinators and I do love Echinaceas in general. I really like your Echinacea pallida, which do so well for you. Your bees obviously like them too. 🐝I hope mine will spread a little each year.
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I think one of the reasons I love this coneflower is because the flower petals are often not perfect looking…long and narrow and bent in unexpected angles sometimes…and so strong and tall!
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Well, lookie here! Another of our natives has made it into your garden. I most often find Echinacea pallida in east Texas; it’s always interesting to find it growing in the midst of native ferns.
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Shade loving ferns and sun loving coneflowers – what a fascinating combination of heights and colour and texture…
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Echinacea pallida is not native here in California, but I have tried to grow it anyway, for years. I couldn’t get seeds to sprout. Last fall I bought three nice plants which thrived and bloomed — I was so happy! I had to move them to a different place in the garden in October and I hope they come out of dormancy okay…
Bees on echinacea compose one of my favorite scenes ❤
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I hope yours survived also!! I’ve discovered they have a tremendous thick deep root system; once established they’re hard to both dig up and to kill unless you’re truly invested in it. One of their survival traits I guess.
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Is Echinacea pallida always that color? I get the impression from looking real quick online that it is. I thought that it was lavender blushed white.
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No – mine are all like this – very similar to E. purpurea in colour, but shaped differently. Although I imagine there are breeders somewhere coming up with different variations, as they have with E. purpurea.
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Sounds like we have similar gardening ethic, Chris. It’s all about the pollinators/natives. 🌼
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Absolutely! Although I’m not manic about the native part – hard to fill a vase all summer with just native flowers!
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Yes, same here. This garden is 35 years old and that was way before we knew about the connection of natives to pollinators.
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The more pollinators the better…lots of people still need to learn how important they all are. And they need to learn how interesting they are to watch.
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Yes! The watching part is my favourite!!
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