Echinacea purpurea Kims Knee High - Purple Coneflower

Echinacea purpurea 'Kim's Knee High' is one of the most colourful dwarf varieties. It is a floriferous perennial with a compact habit, and its rose-purple flowers with a prominent dark orange centre bloom from July to September. Truly attractive and intensely cheerful, this plant is highly regarded by enthusiasts, ideal for cut flowers or drying. It is also a very resilient plant that adapts to difficult conditions, tolerating occasional intense heat, humidity, and drought. It can even grow in poor but moist soils.

Native to the western United States, from Georgia to Michigan, passing through Oklahoma and Ohio, Rudbeckia purpurea is a resilient perennial with a strong character which confidently colonizes rocky meadows, savannas, open woodlands, and road edges in its natural habitat. 'Kim's Knee High' is a dwarf form of this formidable pioneer. It has a compact, dense, and bushy clump-like habit, reaching a height of 50 cm (20in) and a width of 35 cm (14in). This plant does not weaken or collapse, demonstrating excellent stability. The deciduous, lanceolate, dark green, opposite leaves are bristly with rough hairs. The flowering occurs in late summer, accompanying inulas, asters, and ornamental tobacco plants, and it is loved by butterflies. The reddish-green, branched stems each terminate in a solitary flower head, 8cm (3in) in diameter, with a prominent, bristly, dark orange-brown disk and deeply reflexed rose-purple to lilac ligules. The fruit is an achene that releases seeds that birds are fond of. This plant firmly and deeply anchors itself in the soil with its highly developed root system.

Rudbeckia purpurea Kim's Knee High' has a highly colourful flower display, lovely on slightly misty autumn days. It is used in mixed borders with other varieties or in the company of inulas, asters, yarrows, daisies, echinops, phlox, lighten the scene by adding some ornamental grasses such as Stipa tenuifolia, Muhlenbergia capillaris... Splendid in borders, the beautiful colours of the purple echinacea Kim's Knee High' are also stunning in fresh or dried flower bouquets.

These lovely plants have flowers with toothed petals and a large dark pompon. Lilac-violet with a dark centre.