Yellow coneflower
Echinacea paradoxa · Asteracea
The paradox is that this purple coneflower is yellow: drooping, clear yellow petals hang from a large chocolate-brown cone, on slender stems.
- Size
- 3 ft tall, 18 in wide
- Zones
- 5 to 8
- Light
- Full sun
- Flowers
- Mid June to mid July
- Pets
- No toxicity recorded
- Job in a bed
- Drift
A bed built around yellow coneflower
The planner designed this bed around yellow coneflower when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) naturalistic planting in zone 6, full sun. It chose the other plants from the 715 that suit those conditions and its dry soil, and says below why yellow coneflower stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Yellow coneflower × 3, yellow
- 2 Winter heath × 12, pink
- 3 October daphne × 5, pink
- 4 Prairie blazing star × 3, purple
- 5 Silver sage × 1, silver leaves
- 6 Prairie dropseed × 3, tan
- 7 Tulip 'Apeldoorn' × 10, red
- 8 Blue allium × 10, blue
Why this plant
- The only daisies. The others are bells, dense clusters, spires and others. Shape reads at a distance, where colours blur.
- The only yellow.
Why here
- Anchors a back corner. At 3 ft it is one of the taller plants here, and the tallest close the ends of the bed, where they stand in front of nothing.
- A step in the back row. Next to prairie dropseed (2½ ft): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- 3 plants in one group. Massed, one kind reads as a single shape. Scattered, it would look spotty.
Why now
- In flower for six weeks. From mid June to mid July.
- Fills a gap. For two of those weeks nothing else on the plan is in flower.
Planned as a naturalistic planting: low grasses and groundcovers, the matrix, make up 64% of the planted ground. The flowers run from late January to late October, but stop for 3 weeks from mid May. Cool colours (pink, purple and blue) with yellow and red as the warm notes, and tan to calm things between them.
The planner's own design check: 12 Excellent, 4 Good, 1 Satisfactory. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where yellow coneflower goes in a border
At 3 ft it belongs in the middle of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is medium tall (2½ to 3 ft). It is airy enough to see through, so it can also come forward and veil what is behind it.
Its job: drift. Planted in a small group of three or five, and repeated further along in the other number.
A native of the Ozark glades and the parent of every orange and yellow hybrid. It is taprooted, drought-proof and long-lived in poor soil, and flowers early.
- Dry prairie and gravel planting
- Native borders
- Seed heads for birds
What to plant with yellow coneflower
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Little bluestem: its blue-green leaves are a setting for the flowers, before and after; happy in the same dry soil.
- Butterfly weed: in flower together for four weeks, from late June; happy in the same dry soil.
- Pale purple coneflower: in flower together for six weeks, from mid June; happy in the same dry soil.
Questions about yellow coneflower
Does yellow coneflower need sun or shade?
Yellow coneflower grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day).
It wants dry, sharply drained soil, on the lean side, with no feeding, and little watering once settled. Once settled in, it stands drought.
What zones does yellow coneflower grow in?
USDA zones 5 to 8. It is hardy to zone 5, which means it survives winter nights down to about −10 °F (−23 °C).
Above zone 8 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does yellow coneflower flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers mid June to mid July. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 5 | Mid June to mid July |
|---|---|
| Zone 6 | Mid June to mid July |
| Zone 7 | Early June to mid July |
| Zone 8 | Early June to mid July |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should yellow coneflower be planted?
16 in (40 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 18 in (45 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 3 ft (90 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many yellow coneflower plants do I need?
At 16 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 7 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 8 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 21 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as a group of three or five, with a second group further along in the other number.
In the bed above, the planner used three in one group.
Is yellow coneflower poisonous to dogs and cats?
No toxicity is recorded for dogs, cats, horses or people, according to NC State Extension.
"Not toxic" is not "edible": a pet that eats a lot of any plant can be sick.
Do deer eat yellow coneflower?
Mostly not. NC State lists it as resistant to deer. No plant is proof against a hungry deer in a hard winter, but this one is low on the menu.
What flowers after yellow coneflower?
Yellow coneflower is over by mid July. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Black-eyed Susan: from mid July to mid September, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Lilyturf: from early August to mid September, 16 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Garden phlox: from mid July to early September, 3½ ft tall.
What does yellow coneflower look like in winter?
Yellow coneflower dies down, but leave the stems standing: the seed heads stand through the winter, and songbirds eat the seed. Cut them down in early spring, before the new shoots come.
Is yellow coneflower good for bees and butterflies?
Yellow coneflower is visited by pollinators, butterflies and songbirds.
It is a host plant: the caterpillars of wavy-lined emerald feed on its leaves. A butterfly can only lay its eggs on its host plants, so these do more for it than any nectar flower.
It is native to the United States.
More Echinacea
- Coneflower 'Cheyenne Spirit' Echinacea 'Cheyenne Spirit'
- Coneflower 'Green Jewel' Echinacea purpurea 'Green Jewel'
- Coneflower 'Hot Papaya' Echinacea 'Hot Papaya'
- Coneflower 'Kim's Knee High' Echinacea purpurea 'Kim's Knee High'
- Coneflower 'Magnus' Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus'
- Coneflower 'PowWow Wild Berry' Echinacea purpurea 'PowWow Wild Berry'
- Coneflower 'Sombrero Salsa Red' Echinacea 'Balsomsed' (Sombrero Salsa Red)
- Coneflower 'White Swan' Echinacea purpurea 'White Swan'
- Pale purple coneflower Echinacea pallida
- Purple coneflower Echinacea purpurea
- Tennessee coneflower Echinacea tennesseensis
In these guides
- Deer-resistant perennials for full sun
- Drought-tolerant perennials for full sun
- Pet-safe plants for a sunny border
- Native perennials for pollinators
- Plants for butterflies
- Plants that feed garden birds
- Host plants for the wavy-lined emerald
Every fact on record
- Type
- Perennial
- Size
- 3 ft (90 cm) tall, 18 in (45 cm) wide
- Plant
- 16 in (40 cm) apart
- Height class
- Medium tall (2½ to 3 ft)
- Place in the bed
- Middle, or further forward: it is airy enough to see through
- Flowers
- Mid June to mid July; daisies; yellow
- Leaves
- Medium texture, herbaceous; green
- Shape
- Upright, clumping
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 5 to 8
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil
- Lean, dry and sharply drained
- Water
- Low
- Feeding
- None needed
- Family
- Asteracea
- Comes from
- Central USA
- Attracts
- Pollinators, butterflies, songbirds
- Host plant for
- Wavy-lined emerald
- Stands up to
- Deer, drought
Checked against NC State Extension. Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.