Echinacea SUPREME™ 'ELEGANCE'

SUPREME™ Elegance is almost an iconic pink coneflower bred by Harini Korlipara from TerraNova^® Nurseries in Oregon, USA. It makes fully double, anemone type inflorescence with rich pink disc florets and slightly paler pink ray florets. They are up to 10 cm large and bloom from July until early autumn, and belong to the SUPREME™ series comprising of fully double coneflowers (Cantaloupe, Elegance, and Flamingo so far). US patent No. 24926 was issued in 2014.

The flowers are attractive for butterflies, bumble bees, and also bees can find a way to suck some nectar from them. Flowering begins at the top of the stems and continues from the axils along the stem. Regular deadheading will promote formation of new buds and flowers. Once you remove the flowers from one phase feed the plant to encourage formation of more large flowers in another phase. Leaves are mid green, lanceolate and may suffer from diseases if grown in wet or compacted soil.

The plant is usually trouble-free and resistant, just be careful is slugs are present in your garden. Since coneflowers emerge quite late, often when slugs are already in their lethal strength, they could gobble up newly emerging foliage totally and thus destroy the plant before it even comes out.

Coneflower will tolerate almost any soil type but boggy. It loves full sun. It is suitable for mixed borders with perennials, or can be used as a flowering feature among low shrubs and conifers, and looks lovely when planted in a mass in a container on patios and balconies. Fully hardy to min -34°C (USDA zone 4).

Last update 11-08-2018