The Purple Cone Flower has daisy shaped flowers that have a spiny center cone that is surrounded by pink-purple ray petals that can spread up to 5 inches wide. (Photo by Ginny Rosenkranz)
October still has enough warm days for many late fall herbaceous perennials to bloom, and one favorite is the purple cone flower (Echinacea purpurea), which has daisy shaped flowers that have a spiny center cone that is surrounded by pink-purple ray petals that can spread up to 5 inches wide.
Some of the cultivars have one or two rows of ray petals that are held horizontally while the species usually has the ray petals that droop downwards.
The colorful ray petals are sterile, but act as a wonderful advertisement to many species of butterflies that use the petals as a landing pad while they feed on the nectar rich dome shaped center cone that is filled with tiny disc flowers.
Butterflies feed on the flowers but this lovely native plant is also an important food source for some butterflies young caterpillars include the Silvery Checkerspot butterfly that has bright orange yellow wings bordered by dark brown and their two broods of dark brown on top of orange caterpillars which feed on the leaves.
Another native butterfly, Wavy-lined Emerald moth also has its young, an inchworm that decorates itself with pieces of plants and flower petals feed on the foliage. The plants can grow 2-4 feet tall and thrive in full sun in well drained soils with the colorful flowers perched on top of stiff stems that carry broad lance shaped dark green leaves.
These lovely long blooming plants can be planted in mases in native or pollinator gardens or in meadows or borders.
By October, many of the flowers have matured to seed bearing cones that attract goldfinches and other beautiful songbirds to the garden.
(Editor’s Note: Ginny Rosenkranz is a commercial horticulture specialist with the University of Maryland Extension.)
