Echinacea Sombrero – Lemon Yellow Coneflower
Sunny, lemon yellow blooms sure to brighten a summer border! A must-have for a cutting garden, this drought tolerant perennial was bred for cold hardiness and compact form with prolific flowering over an exceptionally long season. Keep dried flower heads on the plants in the fall for winter interest. An herbaceous perennial.
Echinacea Sombrero – Poco Hot Coral
Echinacea Sombrero ‘Poco Hot Coral’ Coneflower is a garden superstar with its compact, well branched habit and prolific blooms. The large, single, daisy like flowers are coral hued surrounding the rusty brown cone. This petite perennial is a splendid choice for borders and does equally well in the container garden.
Attractive to butterflies, Echinacea Sombrero ‘Poco Hot Coral’ Coneflower is also a magnet for important pollinators and beneficial insects. The flower heads provide visual winter interest and are an important food source for birds.
The Sombrero series is a new introduction bred to produce well-branched, sturdy and compact plants featuring a high bud count.
U.S. Plant Patent #26,639.
Echinacea Sombrero ‘Baja Burgundy’ Coneflower
Echinacea Sombrero ‘Baja Burgundy’ is characterized by intense burgundy blooms atop strong, well-branched stems. The large, single, daisy like flowers are bright red surrounding a large brown cone. The showy flowers bloom happily from mid-summer to frost and are easy to grow plants tolerant of drought, heat, humidity and poor soil.
Attractive to butterflies, Echinacea Sombrero ‘Baja Burgundy’ Coneflower is also a magnet for important pollinators and beneficial insects. The flower heads provide visual winter interest and are an important food source for birds.
The Sombrero series is a new introduction bred to produce well-branched, sturdy and compact plants featuring a high bud count.
Grown in 4.5″ square pots.
Gaillardia grandiflora – Arizona Apricot
‘Arizona Apricot’ has yellow flowers with a deep apricot-orange center and is an AHS winner.
Gaillardia grandiflora – Arizona Sun Blanket Flower
2005 All-America Selections Winner 10″ tall x 12″ wide. 'Arizona Sun' is one of our finest Gaillardia cultivars with showy three-inch single flowers that are mahogany-red with bright yellow edges. It has better uniformity and more numerous flowers than older varieties and is a remarkable garden performer. Plant in well-drained infertile soils for best results. Deadhead occasionally to keep the flowers coming all summer long
Solidago sphacelata – ‘Golden Fleece’ Dwarf Goldenrod
Another fantastic Mt. Cuba introduction. A stunning show of sprays of golden yellow flowers from mid-August through September. Semievergreen heart-shaped leaves. Truly an excellent groundcover and bee and butterfly charmer! Hairstreaks, sulphurs and skippers are particularly attracted to goldenrod. Monarchs visit it during their autumn migration.
Goldenrod Interesting Notes
Golden Fleece autumn goldenrod was discovered in 1985 as a spontaneous garden seedling in Eden, North Carolina. It was evaluated under diverse conditions at Mt. Cuba Center and determined to be a low-growing, compact form of the species suitable for use as an herbaceous perennial groundcover only reaching 18” tall. Multi-branched stems arise from basal rosettes of broadly rounded foliage and are covered with a profusion of golden-yellow floral spires from mid-September to October. It performs best in full sun with average moisture but is tolerant of a range of conditions from sunny and dry to partial shade. 'Golden Fleece' is hardy in zones 3-8. It won the Internationale Stauden-Union’s Award for an outstanding new plant in Switzerland in 1994. – Mt. Cuba Center
In many of the gardens I design, I use goldenrod to give late summer and fall gardens just the right autumnal color. Luckily for urban dwellers with limited gardening space, goldenrod also can be grown quite successfully in a container. Beautiful in the garden, goldenrod does double-duty as a long-lived cut flower. In Europe, where goldenrod has long been shown the appreciation it deserves, it is sold by the bunch, and gardening catalogs offer more cultivars than are available in the States.
Solidago sphacelata 'Golden Fleece' Growing and Maintenance Tips
Native to calcarous woodlands and rocky pastures from Virginia to Illinois south to Kentucky and Georgia. Prefers somewhat fertile, sandy, well-drained soils in full sun. Propagate by seed or division every 3-4 years. Cut back to encourage rebloom. Used in butterfly and wild gardens or as a groundcover or border perennial.