Echinacea purpurea Red Knee High - Purple Coneflower

Echinacea 'Red Knee High' is an almost-red flowered version of 'Kim's Knee High', which blooms from mid to late summer at knee height. With its large flower heads in bright magenta-red with a pretty bright orange and brown tinged cone, this variety enlivens sunny borders or flower pots like few perennials can. It is also a very robust plant, which adapts to difficult conditions, tolerating occasional intense heat, humidity, and drought. It can even grow in poor soils.

Native to the western United States, Echinacea purpurea is a perennial with a strong character which confidently colonizes rocky meadows, savannas, clear undergrowth, and roadside edges in its natural environment. 'Red Knee High' is a shorter, very colourful form of this formidable pioneer. It has a dense and sturdy clump-like habit, reaching 60 cm (24in) high and 40-45 cm (16-18in) wide. This plant shows very good resistance to bad weather. The 15 cm (6in) long green leaves are covered in rough hairs. The flowering period lasts from July to the end of summer and is very popular with butterflies. The green flower stalks tinged with red are each topped with a solitary large flower head measuring 6-8 cm (2-3in) in diameter, with a large, fairly flat central disc, like a pompom of tiny florets, burnt orange on the periphery and darker in the centre. The petals or 'ligules' are arranged in a collar around this cone, elongated, drooping, and intensely pink-red. The fruit is an achene that releases seeds which birds love. This plant firmly and deeply anchors itself in the soil with its highly developed root system.

Echinacea 'Red Knee High' has truly vibrant flowers, shining brightly under the July sun, and very pleasant to behold on slightly misty days at the beginning of autumn. It is used in border plantings mixed with other flowers that contrast in shape or colour (perennial or shrubby salvias, perennial flax, daylilies, catmints), or with inulas, asters, yarrows, daisies, Echinops. Echinaceas are particularly complementary to ornamental grasses like Stipa tenuifolia, Muhlenbergia capillaris, Eragrostis spectabilis... Gorgeous in borders, the beautiful colour of 'Red Knee High' is also stunning in large pots on the terrace and fresh or dried flower bouquets.