Purple Coneflowers are some of the best flowering perennials out there. They bring in the pollinators and butterflies all summer, and birds love the seeds come autumn. Those flowers come heavily, too, and don’t require a lot of effort on your part to keep them coming. The biggest downsides that I find with Echinacea is that they very often tend to grow a little over-sized and get rangy and unkempt-seeming.
That’s why the new Echinacea ‘Meringue’ impresses me so much. Sure, the huge number of blooms is marvelous, and they’re gorgeous and interesting pom-poms, but it’s the compact, easily controlled habit that really takes it for me. These plants only get to around 15 to 18 inches high and wide, so they won’t spread out like crazy. It also features more flower stems, which creates a much denser, fuller look.
And those flowers really are quite impressive. They open as flat daisies, and as they mature the center cone grows upward and develops short, puffy petals that give it that gumdrop look. These cheerful little flowers are tough, too. The shorter stems are even sturdier than other Echinacea, which helps them to hold up well in weather or in a vase. Plus, this heavy-flowering Coneflower will only produce more blooms the more you cut for inside! So, if you’re looking for loads of flowers from a tidy, low-maintenance plant, give ‘Meringue’ a try.