A woman in a green shirt and hat stands among Echinacea Purple Coneflower by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden, surrounded by blooming flowers and trees under a blue sky with white clouds.
A woman in a green shirt and hat stands among Echinacea Purple Coneflower by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden, surrounded by blooming flowers and trees under a blue sky with white clouds.A butterfly perches on the vivid orange center of a Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Echinacea Purple Coneflower, surrounded by colorful blooms in a lively pollinator garden.Close-up of vibrant pink Echinacea Purple Coneflower blooms from Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden in a pollinator garden, with a bee collecting pollen. A house with white siding and a window is softly blurred in the background.A vibrant field of Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden’s Echinacea Purple Coneflower with orange-brown centers, perfect for pollinator gardens, glows in sunlight with tall purple flowers blooming in the background.A vibrant butterfly with red, blue, and black eye spots perches on a Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Echinacea Purple Coneflower, its bright pink petals and lush green leaves inspiring any pollinator-friendly garden.A woman in sunglasses and a green shirt stands among blooming Echinacea Purple Coneflower from Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden, gently touching the flowers beneath a partly cloudy sky.A vibrant field of Echinacea Purple Coneflower by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden shows striking pink petals and orange centers amid lush green leaves—a perfect pollinator display beneath a cloudy sky.Echinacea Purple Coneflower by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden features orange-brown centers and green foliage, creating vibrant blooms ideal for pollinator gardens, all set against a softly blurred natural background.Close-up of Echinacea Purple Coneflower by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden, featuring spiky orange centers and drooping pink petals among lush green leaves in a vibrant pollinator-friendly garden.A close-up of Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden's Echinacea Purple Coneflower in a pollinator garden, featuring a small insect on its petal, more coneflowers, green foliage, Echinacea seeds, and sunlight near a white building.A bee gathers nectar from the vibrant center of a Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Echinacea Purple Coneflower, surrounded by other blooms in a lush pollinator-friendly garden.A vibrant pollinator garden features Echinacea Purple Coneflower from Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden alongside wildflowers, lush green foliage, and trees under a bright sky.Close-up of vibrant pink Echinacea Purple Coneflower by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden, featuring orange centers and green foliage, blooming under a partly cloudy blue sky in a lush pollinator garden.Close-up of Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden’s Echinacea Purple Coneflower with striking orange centers, blooming in a pollinator garden amid lush green leaves beneath a partly cloudy blue sky.A close-up of Echinacea Purple Coneflower by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden shows vibrant purple blooms with spiky orange centers and lush green leaves, set beneath a partly cloudy sky—a stunning summer pollinator garden scene.A vibrant field of Echinacea Purple Coneflower by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden blooms under a cloudy sky, its orange centers attracting pollinators as a bee lands on a foreground blossom.A field of Echinacea Purple Coneflower by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden blooms with vibrant pink petals and orange centers amid green foliage under a cloudy sky, creating an ideal pollinator garden scene.Close-up of Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden's Echinacea Purple Coneflower, featuring vibrant purple petals and spiky orange centers—a standout addition for any sunny pollinator garden.
Perennial Pollinator

Echinacea Purple Coneflower

Echinacea purpurea — purple coneflower; the species form

£2.50approx. 50 seeds

The original prairie coneflower — magenta-pink reflexed petals around coppery-orange cones. Self-seeding hardy perennial that improves every year. RHS Pollinators.

Sowing months
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Height
80–100cm
Spread
45cm
Spacing
45cm
Position
Full sun
Soil
Free-draining essential; tolerates poor/lean; drought-tolerant once established
Grow guide
How to grow Echinacea Purple Coneflower
Read the full guide →
About this variety

The species, and the plant every named coneflower was bred from. Magenta-pink ray petals sweeping downwards from a prominent coppery-orange cone, at 80 to 100cm, flowering July through September.

The drooping petals are not a fault. That reflexed, swept-back shape is what the wild prairie plant does, and in a naturalistic or prairie-style planting it looks right in a way the flat-faced cultivars do not. It is a question of which effect you are after rather than which is better.

Where the species genuinely beats the named sorts is fertility. Many modern echinacea cultivars set little or no viable seed and a good few are sterile. This one self-seeds freely, so if you leave the cones standing through winter you will get volunteers, and over five or six years a single sowing turns into a self-renewing colony that flowers bigger every year and costs nothing further. The winter cones feed goldfinches too. Like all echinacea it emerges late in spring, so mark where it is before you plant over it.

Plant alongside

Echinacea Purple Coneflower pairs beautifully with these cottage garden classics

Echinops ritro Veitch's Blue
Echinops ritro Veitch's Blue
£2.30
Agastache Liquorice Blue
Agastache Liquorice Blue
£2.20
Verbena bonariensis
Verbena bonariensis
£2.20

RHS Plants for Pollinators

This plant has been assessed by the Royal Horticultural Society and recommended as especially beneficial to bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Growing plants like this directly supports UK pollinator populations — something close to our hearts at Salle Moor Hall Farm, where we see the difference a cottage garden full of the right plants can make.

Learn more at RHS.org.uk →