Tennessee Coneflower
Echinacea tennesseensis
A once-endangered coneflower, now recovered, with strongly reflexed pink-purple petals on tidy 18 to 30 inch plants. Ideal for smaller gardens.
Typically 1 pint–1 gal · $9–$30 · final price at pickup
- Thu, Sep 248 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Sep 258 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Sep 268 AM – 2 PM
A once-endangered native coneflower. compact, tough, and deeply attractive to goldfinch and butterflies.
Tennessee Coneflower is a conservation story with excellent garden performance. Once listed as federally endangered, this compact coneflower is now recovered enough to propagate for home gardens, and it's worth growing. The pink-purple petals reflex more strongly than purple coneflower, and the plants stay tidier at 18 to 30 inches, making them better suited to smaller gardens and formal borders where the sprawl of species Echinacea can be too much. It blooms from midsummer into fall, attracting the same goldfinch and butterfly parade as other coneflowers but in a more manageable package. The spent seed heads are as important as the flowers: leave them standing through winter and you'll watch goldfinch work them systematically on cold December mornings. Tolerates dry, rocky soil with excellent drainage, which mirrors its native cedar glade habitat.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown tennessee coneflower propagated on-site at Hill House from regional genetics. Includes a one-page care card. We make every effort to supply plants as listed; occasionally we substitute a similar species of equal value.
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry
- Mature size
- 1.5–2.5 ft · 12–18 in wide
- Bloom time
- Midsummer to fall
- USDA zones
- 4–8
- Family
- Asteraceae
- Native range
- Tennessee. endemic to cedar glade habitats in Middle Tennessee (federally delisted from Endangered Species Act in 2011)
Care notes for tennessee coneflower.
Plant in full sun in well-drained to dry soil. Excellent in rocky or sandy conditions. Do not over-fertilize or plant in rich, moist soil. this will cause flopping. Leave seed heads through winter for goldfinch. Divide every 3-4 years in early spring if the crown becomes woody.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside tennessee coneflower.
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