The Top 10 Coneflower Varieties to Grow
Updated: May 22, 2024
With dozens of new coneflower varieties on the market and at garden centers, learn how to pick the best plants for your backyard.
How can you not love coneflowers? After all, they feed the birds, offer some of the longest-lasting blooms around, and are naturally drought-tolerant. Make a statement with these colorful coneflower varieties.
Fun coneflower fact: The word echinacea originates from the Greek word echinas, which means “hedgehog” or “sea urchin.”
Guatamala Gold Coneflower
Zones 5 to 9
New for 2024, this compact golden orange cultivar creates a dense mound of foliage and blooms from late spring to early summer. This herbaceous coneflower needs full sun and well-draining, fertile soil. Water it deeply during the first growing season. It will tolerate some drought once established.
Why we love it: This coneflower grows to 10 inches high and wide, staying tidy with no need for staking.
Keep your perennial coneflowers coming back year after year.
Color Coded One in a Melon
Zones 4 to 8
Featuring 5-inch fragrant, melon-colored flowers and matching cones, this new type has overlapping, horizontally held petals. This coneflower does well in part to full sun and well-draining soil. Reaching 24 inches tall and 20 inches wide, it blooms from mid- to late summer.
Why we love it: Leave the flowers intact over the winter, and birds will flock to your garden to enjoy the seed heads.
SunSeekers Apple Green
Zones 4 to 9
Yes, you can grow green coneflower varieties! With its striking ruffled green petals that later develop white highlights, this unique plant features masses of semi-double blooms that look fabulous in bouquets or beds. Plant it in full sun and well-draining soil that doesn’t get too moist in winter.
Why we love it: The fragrant green-orange cones are a magnet for pollinators, and the flowers bloom from early summer to early fall.
Green Jewel
Zones 3 to 8
These fragrant coneflowers have vibrant light green petals radiating from a darker green cone. With its upright habit and sturdy stems, there’s no need for staking. The plant will grow to 24 inches, and it blooms from July through September.
Why we love it: Hummingbirds, bees and butterflies love it, while rabbits and deer generally stay away.
Award-winning Cheyenne Spirit coneflower dazzles.
Double Dipped Watermelon Sugar
Zones 4 to 8
From summer through fall, masses of 4 1/2- inch double pompom magenta-pink blooms transform into rich pink bursts of color in the garden. Reaching up to 26 inches tall and 2 feet wide, these coneflowers grow in an upright mound with dark green leaves.
Why we love it: This perennial is resistant to drought and deer, and it is lovely in arrangements of cut or dried flowers.
Prairie coneflower thrives in hot, sunny spots.
Tomato Soup
Zones 4 to 9
At 32 inches tall, this vibrant perennial features fragrant, 6-inch tomato red blossoms with a dark yellow-brown center cone. It blooms from summer to early fall. Plant it in full sun for the richest hues, but it will tolerate part shade too. Its sturdy stems don’t need staking and are great for cut flower bouquets.
Why we love it: Tomato Soup is easy to propagate by division in spring or fall.
Marmalade
Zones 4 to 9
Blooming from early June through August, these fragrant, fluffy double blooms provide intense tangerine orange color against dark orange cones. They grow in upright clumps up to 30 inches tall on vigorous stems. These flowers are deer resistant and attract birds and butterflies.
Why we love it: You’ll sometimes get additional blooms until first frost.
Learn how to grow cutleaf coneflower.
Flame Thrower
Zones 4 to 9
This sweet-smelling coneflower features 3-to-4-inch blooms, with petals that fade from red-orange centers to golden edges. Reaching 40 inches high, making it one of the tallest coneflower varieties, Flame Thrower offers a massive flowering clump and blooms from summer through fall.
Why we love it: A spectacular addition to wildflower gardens, it has no pest or disease issues.
Artisan Soft Orange
Zones 4 to 9
Blooming from late spring through fall, the large deep-orange petals lighten as they mature and surround a greenish-caramel cone. It is drought tolerant and grows up to 34 inches tall.
Why we love it: This type creates a showy display the first year, and for many seasons afterwards.
Enjoy colorful pictures of coneflowers in bloom.
Pink Double Delight
Zones 4 to 9
You get two colors with these fluffy double-flowered dwarf plants—the skirt of pink petals softens to lavender-pink as they mature. Growing 20 inches tall, the sturdy stems make ideal cut flowers. This drought-tolerant type loves full sun.
Why we love it: Pink Double Delight thrives in heat and humidity.
Five More Fun Coneflower Varieties Worth Trying
- Kismet Red
- Ferris Wheel
- Mac ’n’ Cheese
- Adam Saul
- Milkshake
Sources
- Monrovia – Guatemala Gold
- Proven Winners – Color Coded One in a Melon
- Brecks – Apple Green
- Walters Gardens Inc. – Green Jewel
- Proven Winners – Double Dipped Watermelon Sugar
- Missouri Botanical Garden – Tomato Soup
- Terra Nova Nurseries – Flame Thrower
- Perennial Resource – Flame Thrower
- Bluestone Perennials – Tomato Soup
- Missouri Botanical Garden – Marmalade
- Ball Horticultural Company – Artisan Soft Orange
- Perennials.com – Artisan Soft Orange
- Terra Nova Nurseries – Pink Double Delight
- Missouri Botanical Garden – Pink Double Delight
- The Ohio State University – Department of Plant Pathology, Purple Coneflower
- Iowa State University Extension – Echinacea purpurea
Originally Published: May 22, 2024
