Echinacea SunSeekers Tequila Sunrise - Purple Coneflower

Echinacea SunSeekers Tequila Sunrise is named after a nostalgic cocktail: a splash of red grenadine and orange-yellow fruit juice. Indeed, this echinacea has golden yellow petals tinged with red at the base around the central cone. It is a compact variety that attracts pollinators, with a warm and beautifully contrasting colour, useful for its floribundity and good performance in flower beds and pots. The flowers bloom on the plant for several weeks in summer. It is an easy-to-grow perennial that blends easily with all other plants in the garden or on the terrace. Ideal for cutting or drying.

Echinacea SunSeekers Tequila Sunrise is a recent horticultural hybrid. This cultivar is part of the remarkable SunSeekers series, which stands out from other echinaceas with their unique shapes and colours that do not fade over time. The SunSeekers also have exceptional vigour, and produce masses of flowers on short stems, above narrow dark green leaves. This variety Tequila Sunrise forms a dense and compact clump, 60 cm (24in) tall and 50 cm (20in) wide. The plant does not weaken or collapse, demonstrating very good performance. The opposite lanceolate leaves are covered in rough hairs. Abundant flowering from June to September is loved by butterflies. The branched stems are each topped with a solitary flower head, with a prominent, bristly, brown-orange central disk, surrounded by flat petals or ligules, a beautiful and warm golden yellow, nicely highlighted with red at the base. The fruit is an achene that releases seeds sought after by birds. This plant firmly and deeply anchors itself in the soil, thanks to its well-developed root system.

Rudbeckia SunSeekers Tequila Sunrise can be grown in pots or in the ground. This perennial fits well in border plantings mixed with other varieties of echinaceas or inulas, compact tritomas, yarrows, daisies, Echinops, coreopsis... Lighten up the scene by mixing in some ornamental grasses like Stipa tenuifolia. Splendid in flower beds, the beautiful colours of echinacea are also highly loved in fresh or dried flower bouquets.

A medicinal plant: In homoeopathy, the root of echinacea is used to fight colds and strengthen the immune system. These properties were first used by Native Americans. The name Echinacea comes from the Greek echinos, which means "hairy or like a hedgehog," and acea, which means "having the shape of," referring to the appearance of the flower's centre.