Echinacea purpurea

‘Ruby Star’

RUBY STAR CONEFLOWER

Echinacea purpurea ‘Ruby Star’
RUBY STAR CONEFLOWER

Echinacea purpurea ‘Ruby Star’ glows with rich, ruby colouring.
Though it is equally as hardy, water-wise and easy to grow as the original old coneflowers.

Exceptionally long blooming with richly coloured flowers

‘Ruby Star’ holds it’s petals proudly horizontal around large, luminous burnt-orange cones.
And it is a great performer, with large flowers, produced in abundance over a long blooming period from mid summer to autumn end.
So Echinacea purpurea ‘Ruby Star’ steals the show after Christmas.

Standing proudly tall

A profusion of large and richly coloured blooms are produced on 75cm. stems.
And these are excellent for cutting with long, clean. strong stems.

Great cut fresh flowers or dried

So blooms are very useful fresh in a vase, where they last for ages.
Or for dried for arrangements and pot-pourri.
While the wonderful central cones are burnt-orange at first, then turn black as the seed matures. And these are also very decorative when dried.
Plus the spent cones are a great help to our feathered friends in the winter. When native seed eating birds love to feast from the cones you have helpfully left to over-winter on your plants.

Water-wise & dry hardy

Echinacea purpurea ‘Ruby Star’ is an excellent water-wise choice for gardeners conscious of using minimal water.
Once established, Echinacea can withstand periods of dry and heat well.
Echinacea thrive in average soil or hot, dry conditions.
They are frost hardy and enjoy full sun to light shade.
(See “Growing” section below for details).

Echinacea purpurea ‘Ruby Star’ makes an impressive, hardy perennial clump.
75cm. Tall in flower and cone x 45cm. Wide neat clump of foliage.

SEED SOWING ADVICE: QUICK & EASY

Suitable for beginners & gardening with kids

Sow seed for Echinacea purpurea ‘Ruby Star’ at any time of year in punnets indoors / or scatter in garden late winter & spring or late summer & autumn.

Indoors for fast & early plants: First sow seeds in a punnet on surface of good quality seed raising mix.
Then pat the seeds gently to the surface of the mix ensure good contact.
But only barely cover the seeds with sieved mix because light is needed for germination with these seeds.

Now thoroughly moisten the punnet by standing it in a shallow water bath.
And allowing the moisture to percolate to the surface of the mix from below.

Then stand the punnet in a warm, well-lit position (not in direct sunlight).
And continue to keep moist by misting with a spray water bottle.

Temperatures of 20-24°C approx. are ideal for rapid and optimum germination.

Germination may start in just 5 days and continue up to 20 days after sowing.
Echinacea will flower in 11 to 15 weeks from sowing – so flowers are possible in the first year grown from seed.

Then prick out the seedlings once they large enough to handle.
And transplant into 7.5cm pots to grow on before planting out into the garden in spring in well drained soil.

Seed Count: 15 seeds per pack approx.
(We always aim to exceed the stated seed count, and give a generous serve).

GROWING: Echinacea purpurea ‘Ruby Star’

Height with flowers: Blooms over summer and autumn on strong, weatherproof stems to approx. 75cm. high.
Width: Neat, tight, evergreen clump of foliage to a diameter of 45cm. approx.
Position: Echinacea are hardy growers in Full Sun, though they can also tolerate and perform well in some Partial Shade. As long as they are in a well drained position and not in damp shade.

Easily pleased, unfussy plants

Soil: Echinacea are considered very easy to please plants.
Because they will happily tolerate poor, rocky soil, sandy or dry soils, as well as normal, average garden soil.
So they perform better when they are not overfed or pampered with rich soil.
Unfussy Echinacea can also can tolerate clay soils as long as they do not remain wet and mucky.
Plus they are tolerant of alkaline, lime soils.
Frost: Echinacea are very frost hardy, as they can tolerate hard frosts to down below -20C.
Humidity: Echinacea also tolerate summer humidity well.
Water-wise: Echinacea are excellent water-wise perennials, because they have a low water need once established.

Garden assets

Fragrance: Echinacea are magnificent and long lasting cut flowers, even though they have little to no scent.
Growth: Echinacea make a neat, hardy, evergreen perennial clump.
Bees & birds: Nectar rich cones provide much needed energy food over the warmer months for bees and butterflies. Then if you leave the decorative cones to dry, they will also provide seed for small native seed eating birds into winter.

Easy, low care

Care: Echinacea are very easy care, low maintenance plants.
They are rarely if ever troubled by pests or diseases.
The only possible maintenance work is to harvest the flower stems for flower vases, or to tidy off the spent flower stems at the end of autumn (though leave the cones to dry into winter if you wish to attract small seed eating birds to your garden).
Deer & Rabbit resistant: Echinacea are fortunately not particularly attractive to either rabbits or deer.
Origin: Echinacea are native to the prairies of Eastern and Central North America, where they grow in a very wide range of conditions. This of course accounts for their hardiness and unfussy nature in the garden.

A much loved traditional & modern medicinal plant 

Echinacea purpurea was always an important ingredient in the medicine chest for native American First Nation people. They used it to treat wounds and infections, and especially to treat snakebite (though I would prefer an anti-venom injection myself!!!).

But Echinacea purpurea has once again become a popular as a modern herbal supplement today. With many believers in its efficacy for strengthening the immune system.
So it is now grown as a commercial crop for herbal medicine companies.

Echinacea purpurea ‘Ruby Star’ has been recently bred for outstanding, long production of large blooms. It is an excellent commercially farmed flower for floristry.

Plus a pet Hedgehog

The botanical name for Echinacea comes from the Greek for prickly Hedgehog.
Of course this refers to the decorative cones. But don’t worry – the cones are not prickly and just irresistible to pat.

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