Purple Coneflower

Purple coneflower is the most versatile perennial in the garden. The daisy-like flowers, rose-purple rays around a bristly orange-brown cone on stems 2 to 4 feet tall, are reliably beautiful from midsummer into autumn, the seed heads give winter structure and bird food, and the plant is extraordinarily low-maintenance once established. It is native to the eastern United States, from the Mid-Atlantic to Georgia and west to the prairies.

Plant it 18 to 24 inches apart in full sun or part shade, in average to poor soil that drains; it tolerates clay and drought and resents rich, wet ground, which makes it flop. Water through the first season and then only in a long drought. Deadhead for more flowers in summer, but stop in late summer and leave the last heads standing through winter; goldfinches rely on them. Divide every four or five years if the clump opens.

Cut for the vase when the rays are fully open but before they reflex, and the stems last a week; the cone keeps developing after cutting and dries well. Bees, butterflies and beetles work the open cones all summer, and it is a host plant for the silvery checkerspot. Deer and rabbits leave it alone. The species and the single-flowered cultivars feed wildlife; the double and pompom forms do not.