GROWING ECHINACEA WITH EARTHWORMS

ECHINACEA / Purple Coneflower / Echinacea Purpurea / Rudbeckia Purpurea / Asteraceae Compositae
Echinacea or coneflowers are sturdy, long-blooming plants with purple-pink or white daisylike flowers with bronzy brown centers. Makes excellent winter bouquets.

CLASSIFICATION OF ECHINACEA:
Perennial
Bright star-2 feet tall, 3 to 4 inches bright rose-pink blooms; magnus-3.5 feet tall, blooms have deep purple-pink horizontal spreading petal with dark center cone; white swan/white lustre-3 feet, blooms have white ray petal with orange-yellow cone.

SIZE:                                      2 to 4 feet
BLOOM TIME:                     All summer to autumn
LIGHT:                                   Full sun                 
TIME TO PLANT:               Mid-Spring
COLORS:                               White, purple-pink, rose-pink
SOIL TYPE:                           Average to low moisture soil, well drained,  can even tolerate slight drought
PLANT SPACING:               start from seed  1.5 to 2 feet apart.
HARDINESS:                        Zone 3 to 9

HOW TO PLANT AND CARE FOR ECHINACEA:
Echinacea, native to east central U.S., it is easy to plant and grow, it is extremely dependable; furthermore, it requires very low maintenance, in fact it can tolerate slight drought. Before you plant, amend the soil by mixing it with the organic mix below. Plant the Echinacea plant deep enough to cover its roots. Immediately water, then dig a small ½ inch hole beside the plant, add a dozen earthworms into the soil. You should have a good bloom in a few months. After the blooms, If flower is left in the stem, seed heads will hang on into winter if finches didn’t consume them.

HOW TO DO THE ORGANIC MIX FOR ECHINACEA AND THE USE OF EARTHWORMS:
The following is a simple mixture for container culture bedding of Echinacea.
1 part peat moss. 1 part other organic material such as earthworm castings, compost. Leaf mold or Nitrogen stabilized bark.  1 part builders’ sand.
After planting, water thoroughly. Dig a small ½ inch hole beside the plant the next day and put a dozen live earthworms into it, then cover the earthworm with soil so that birds won’t come and pick them up right away.

HOW TO FIX PEST AND PROBLEMS OF ECHINACEA:
Leaves can be disfigured by powdery mildew during high humidity or severely moisture compounded by poor air circulation due to presence of bushes or other nearby plants.

HOW TO PROPAGATE ECHINACEA:
Divide mature plants every three to five years in spring or fall by digging the Echinacea clump up and carefully dividing the clump, then immediately replanting them in a sunny area, thoroughly water, partially shade the plant from sun for a few days after replanting. Another way of to propagate Echinacea is to plant Echinacea seed and grow them from seedling.

HOW TO PREPARE SEEDS OF ECHINACEA:
Let the Echinacea flowers to dry and produce seed heads. When it turns dark and dry cut the dried flower seed head in a paper bag in a cool dry place. After a week or two in the bag, the seed head should be dry enough to loosen, pour contents of the bags into a bowl to separate the seeds from the chaffs, then store the seeds in an air-tight container or plastic bag for germination indoor, in early spring.