As gardens fade and the days darken, it’s tempting to forget about what’s going on outdoors until early spring when everything jolts back into life. But this is a missed opportunity. Careful plant choices can reap major benefits in the winter.
It’s well known that certain trees and shrubs can play a leading role in the coldest season, but the right perennials and grasses also can look mesmerizing. By focusing on a plant’s structure and its ability to retain its shape, you can create schemes that look incredible in the fourth season. Read on to discover which plants will maximize this effect and learn to embrace the beauty of winter decay:
Spiky plants and thistles including teasel, echinops, and eryngiums tend to hold their structure brilliantly in the winter.
Echinops
Above: Globe echinops. Photograph by Tobias Myrstrand Leander via Flickr.
In winter, the stiff purple-blue heads of echinops turn brown and maintain their posture.
Grasses
Above: Grasses and perennials in December at Torrey Pines Nature Reserve in La Jolla, California. Photograph by Anne Reeves via Flickr.
Play off these strong forms with billowing clumps of airy grasses such as Deschampsia cespitosa or Molinia caerulea which will fade to blond and buff colors over late autumn and early winter.
Nature abhors a monoculture, but not necessarily a monochrome culture. Against a leafy green backdrop, a single color stands out dramatically—particularly when that hue is white. Here are 15 of our favorite white-on-white plant palettes for a garden bed: For more monochromatic(ish) gardens, see: 11 Ideas to Steal for a Moonlight Garden Now Trending: 9 […]
Echinacea is an easy-to-grow plant that will add a pretty pop of colour to any space. Not only is this plant pollinator-friendly, but it makes for a beautiful cut flower too! Here’s how to plant, prune, and care for coneflowers.
Echinacea has a very special place in my heart and my garden. There’s so much to love about these gorgeous spiky flowers. They are drought-tolerant and won’t complain about poor soil.
They are extremely low maintenance once established and produce a ton of eye candy that brings an added pop of colour to the garden.
Echinacea also makes wonderful cut flowers, attractive pollinator plants, is an important food source for birds in the winter, and they have medicinal properties to help us build our immunity.
With all these wonderful benefits, Echinacea surely deserves a permanent spot in your garden!
Jump ahead to…
Echinacea comes in a wide range of colours.
Coneflower Varieties
There are so many hybrid varieties of Echinacea now available. This ornamental seems to be a favourite of breeders as new coneflowers are popping up every year.
New varieties are being introduced every year that have new or brighter colours, taller or smaller plants, different growing habits, more prolific blooming, and double blooms.
Coneflower can refer to multiple varieties of echinacea.
Here are a few new varieties to look out for in garden centres. I was able to see these in person this year through tours and garden trials, and I really love how they have performed.
Evolution ™ Fiesta Coneflower – spicy coral petals that fade to a more romantic muted tone as they age. From Monrovia.
Echinacea Sombrero® Sangrita has vibrant red-orange petals and a burgundy flower stem from Darwin Perennials. Note: in my garden, the colour came out much more orange than red.
Echinacea Sombrero® Granada Gold has a bright yellow colour that doesn’t fade and a yellow cone that holds some of its hues when dried, making it really nice for dried flower arrangements. From Darwin Perennials.
Growing Echinacea
Coneflowers are very low-maintenance once they are established. Here are a few things you can do to get them started off right.
Starting Coneflower Seedlings
I love coneflowers not just for their beauty but for how easy they are to grow. They’re hardy all the way to zone 3, making them a bright and manageable perennial.
You can begin sowing Echinacea seeds indoors for 8-10 weeks before transferring them outside. After 10-21 days, they should germinate.
You can also direct sow them in early spring or early fall. Seeds should be sown shallowly at approximately 3m (1/8”) deep.
Space them out 12-15”. They look stunning when planted in mass!
Light
Pick a location with the brightest light that you have. Echinacea loves bright light and thrives in full sun. However, the plants will tolerate partial sun as well and still produce plenty of flowers.
I have a lot of shade in my garden, and I try to pop in as many coneflowers as I can anyway. They still bloom in the shade but are less floriferous and can tend to flop over.
Watering
Echinacea is also very easygoing when it comes to watering. Water them well to establish new plants in the garden and encourage deep roots. Once established, they won’t need any supplemental watering unless you are in periods of extreme drought.
Coneflowers are known for being drought-tolerant.
Coneflower Care
Fertilization
Coneflowers don’t need any special fertilizers throughout the year. Plant them with some well-rotted compost, and then add compost again in the spring.
Follow your normal soil-building strategies, and you won’t have to add any supplemental nutrition for the plants.
Propagation
Echinacea grows a long taproot, which helps it suck up water from deep down in the soil and gives it that hardiness. This taproot also means that they aren’t a good perennial to divide.
Allow the plants to clump, and if you want to plant more, start them from seed, cuttings, or grab a new transplant.
Pruning
These low-maintenance plants don’t need pruning throughout the year, but you can prune them to increase blooms and extend bloom time.
Echinacea is already quite a long-blooming plant, starting in midsummer and going all the way into mid-fall in my Zone 7 garden. If you’re lucky enough to have a large space with a collection of plants, you can really extend the bloom time by cutting back some of the plants in midsummer.
Cutting back the plants delays blooming, so you can either cut back all your plants for a late summer and fall display or only cut back some of the plants and stagger the bloom times for an even longer season. Fiskars makes some wonderful pruners that come in handy and cut through the thick stems with very little effort.
Should I Deadhead Coneflowers?
If you want to increase the size of newer forming blooms, you can deadhead Echinacea. If you follow the stem down to the first set of leaves, you might see flower buds forming.
Echinacea bud blooming. Cut just above it to deadhead the plant.
This is a perfect time to go in and remove the flower above. Cut the stem right above the new flower growth, and you can add the bloom to a flower arrangement.
Deadheading is simply cutting off the older flowers, which encourages the plant to put energy into producing the newer flowers rather than producing seeds on the old flowers. Learn more about deadheading flowers here.
Use sharp pruners when deadheading your echinacea.
When the second wave of flowers blooms, I keep them in place for fall and winter as the birds LOVE to snack on the seeds. The seed heads dry with a spiky cone above a tall stem. I dry the cut flowers for their seed heads to use in crafts and leave the rest in the garden for winter interest.
Leave the flower heads to grow on the plant in the fall.
Echinacea Uses
Echinacea has been used medicinally throughout the ages. The following information is from Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health.
Echinacea pallida and E. angustifolia are primarily wild Echinacea that can be found on the edges of wooded areas. The most common and easy-to-grow Echinacea for gardens is E. purpurea.
These three varieties are most commonly used as medicinal plants. The roots, leaves, and flowers all have healing properties. Echinacea is a powerful immune-system booster that has no side effects and is safe for children, the elderly, and everyone in between.
Echinacea is known as a medicinal plant.
To use Echinacea as a medicinal plant from your garden, ensure that you are growing an organic plant that has not been sprayed or treated with pesticides or herbicides.
The entire plant can be used to make a tincture that’s handy to have around in cold-and-flu season. Take it frequently in small doses at the first sign of a virus, but stop taking it once you get better, as its effectiveness wanes if it’s used too frequently.
Pink coneflower.
How to Make Echinacea Tea
For the tea, you can use the flowers, leaves, roots, or stems of the plant. I like to use the flower petals and leaves. Harvest your coneflowers when the flower heads are fully mature.
You can choose to use either fresh or driedEchinacea. If using fresh, you’ll need 2 tbsp of the flower. For dry, you’ll need 1 tbsp. Let your Echinacea steep in boiling water for 15 minutes. Then, strain the flowers, roots, or leaves from the pot and drink away.
Coneflowers spread by self-seeding. In the fall, if you leave the seed heads, some will drop. Tons of wildlife enjoy these seeds, so most will get eaten up. Whatever doesn’t may germinate the next spring. If you wish to stop the seeds from spreading, simply deadhead the spent blooms in the fall.
Are coneflowers perennials?
Echinacea is an extremely hardy plant that acts as a perennial in most zones. It flourishes in zones 5-8, but can also be grown as low as zone 3. Higher zones will benefit from the drought tolerance of the plant, but may stillneed some supplemental watering.
When do coneflowers bloom?
Coneflowers will bring plenty of joy to your summer and early fall garden. They bloom from July through September.
Do deer eat coneflowers?
Echinacea are considered deer-resistant plants. While deer may occasionally munch on them, they would prefer other plants in the area before eating Echinacea.
European wool carder bee on Echinacea
More Flowers to Grow
A city girl who learned to garden and it changed everything. Author, artist, Master Gardener. Better living through plants.
The common cold doesn’t stand a chance against echinacea. This powerful plant has been used for centuries to combat viruses and bacteria, and remains one of the most influential herbal plants today. Learn all about echinacea benefits and uses, and how you can use echinacea to boost your immunity, straight from the source.
Echinacea would win an herbal popularity contest in a landslide. It’s quickly made its way into the mainstream, becoming a pill or tincture you can buy at the same time you grab your milk and bread from the grocery store.
But I wonder how many people know that echinacea is actually a powerful plant with a deep history. Or one that seed-eating birds and pollinating insects love to snack on and visit. Echinacea will grow on poor land, survive droughts, and still produce long-blooming flowers.
As you can tell, I’m a big echinacea fan.
Today, I’m going to dive into why we know echinacea as an immune system powerhouse, and how you can utilize it to its fullest strength this cold and flu season.
This guide will focus on the medicinal species, but there are nine different echinacea species.
Meet the Echinacea Flower
Also known as the coneflower, echinacea is part of the Asteraceae family (the daisy family). It’s Native to North America, including Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana, where it grows in prairies and amongst woodlands.
Echinacea are distinct from other daisy-like flowers thanks to their large, cone-like center. They have a bristly center and hairy leaves, giving them a notable texture. They grow as perennials with a long tap root.
There are nine echinacea species, but only three are used medicinally. The Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower) and Echinaceaangustifolia (narrow-leaved coneflower) are the most popular medicinal species, while the Echinacea pallida (pale purple coneflower) is used by some.
While there are some beautiful hybrid varieties, like ‘Sunset’ or ‘Sunrise’, I wouldn’t consider them to be medicinal. They might have different constituents in them and have been bred for different qualities.
To learn more about how to grow and care for these wonderful plants, both medicinally and as ornamentals, be sure to check out my echinacea growing guide.
Echinacea flowers typically bloom for several weeks.
History of Echinacea
The word echinacea comes from the Greek word for echinos, which can translate to sea urchin or hedgehog…two very different creatures! In this case, it refers to the prickly and spikey cone head.
Echinacea has been traditionally used by the North American Plains People for over 400 years, and we have them to thank for the incredible popularity of this herb. They called the plant elk root after they observed sick and injured elk eating it.
The indigenous people used echinacea for many reasons, but most notably used it to treat cold symptoms (unlike today, where we more often use it to prevent cold symptoms). Other notable uses include helping to dispel mucus, relieve insect and snake bites, alleviate burns, and assist with dental cavities.
By the late 1800s, echinacea was the most common herb used in the US. It was slowly introduced to Europe and European-American physicians, where it continues to be used today.
Native to North America, echinacea is an important herb for indigenous people.
Echinacea Benefits
Echinacea is marketed as THE cold and flu herb, and for good reason. It’s known first and foremost as a detoxicant for the circulatory, lymphatic and respiratory systems. AKA it’s an immunity superhero.
Echinacea is antimicrobial, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory, working best as an anti-viral. When echinacea makes direct contact with a virus, it helps to strengthen the mucus and prevent the virus from going deeper into the issue. It has a notable tingling sensation.
Echinacea works best at addressing a virus ahead of time. People can use it when they first feel the slightest symptoms or have been around someone who was sick to prevent a virus from getting worse. However, it’s less helpful at treating colds once established.
Many more studies need to be done on echinacea and its use. Some studies show how well it works, while others are inconclusive. But there are so many factors to consider, including what species they use, what part of the plant, what dosage, etc. I trust in the knowledge passed down from generations and the firsthand experience of its effectiveness!
Antioxidant, Anti-Inflammatory, and Inhibitor
Echinacea is known as an anti-inflammatory, being used to reduce swelling and help with chronic pain. It’s also high in antioxidants, most notably in the flowers and leaves. It’s also been suggested that these antioxidants can help to improve blood sugar.
One lesser-known use can be dated back to the indigenous people and their use of echinacea to treat snake bites. Echinacea can inhibit hyaluronidase enzymes, which are known to break down hyaluronic acid in our connective tissues and skin. Echinacea can prevent this from happening, helping to hold onto that hyaluronic acid in our tissues and prevent the spread of the enzymes.
How to Use Echinacea
Echinacea is known first and foremost as an immune booster and is readily available in Western medicine. You can get it in drops, tinctures, syrups, and pills, all available at your local grocery store or herbal store.
I went to this amazing talk on the medicinal properties of plants, and during the discussion, they noted that these commercial products aren’t as effective as utilizing the actual plant.
Why? There is so much that we still don’t know about how these plants work together. It may not be just the medicinal property that we need, but a constituent in the plant that helps to activate the medicinal effect on people. And they haven’t figured out that puzzle piece yet.
So while you can take echinacea as an herbal supplement and suck on the lozenges when you have a cold, it won’t have the same effect as growing the medicinal plant and making a tincture yourself.
There are many opinions on which type of echinacea is better to use, and whether the roots or the fresh juice of the flowers and leaves is better. Most people use either the juice of the aerial parts of E. purpurea or the root of E. angustifolia.
I prefer to use the root of E. purpurea. For me, it is the strongest and grows best in my garden, but determine what is best for yourself and what’s the most readily available in your area.
If you’re buying echinacea commercially, be sure to purchase from reputable brands. Multiple studies (like this one or this one) have shown that some brands contain very little or even no echinacea. It should make a tingling sensation on the tongue. If it doesn’t, it’s not potent enough to be of use.
Some people prefer to use the aerial parts of the plant, while others prefer the root.
Harvesting Echinacea Sustainably
Since echinacea prefers prairies and open grassland, it is considered at-risk due to habitat loss from agricultural use. It’s best to grow your own rather than forage for it.
If harvesting roots, they’re best harvested in the fall after the first frost. You can then dry the root for use.
To make juice from the leaves and flowers, they’re best harvested during the summer when they are in full bloom. If using the flowers and leaves, they’re best used fresh as they lose potency when dried.
Only harvest organically grown echinacea if you plan to use it for medicinal purposes.
Medicinal Uses
The roots are commonly used to make a tincture, just in time for cold and flu season. I explain exactly how to make your own tincture in this post.
Use tinctures to help boost your immunity. Make direct contact with the back of your throat, making sure you feel that tingling sensation to know that it’s working.
You can also use the plant topically by grinding the herb and mixing it with water before placing it on the affected area.
Of course, echinacea is also a very popular herbal tea. I explain how to make it in a tea in this post.
Note that echinacea has shown signs of potential efficacy when overused. Take echinacea for 10-14 days and then take a short break.
Echinacea should cause a tingling sensation when ingested orally.
Other Non-Medicinal Uses
I also wanted to shout out some of the other ways that I use echinacea besides its medicinal properties and as an ornamental garden plant. I love to dry the flower petals and use them in soap. They retain their purple colour beautifully and are always easy to dry.
I also use the flower heads in dried arrangements. The petals will curl and look nice on their own, but you can also pull them off and embrace the spike cone in the center.
Dried echinacea petals are used to decorate the top of this swirl soap.
I’ve covered a lot here on echinacea, so I’ll leave it at that! Be sure to check out my growing guide or tincture guide for more information. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
More Helpful Tips for Echinacea
A city girl who learned to garden and it changed everything. Author, artist, Master Gardener. Better living through plants.
Truthfully, I drink no less than five cups of tea a day. I rotate between different blends, depending on the season and my health needs. So when I learned that my favorite organic tea company, Traditional Medicinals, was just a short 20-minute drive from my house, I knew I needed to visit their demonstration garden to learn how to grow herbs for making my own teas. I have no intention to stop buying tea; I simply want to be more experimental and self-sufficient—and have a little farm-to-cup experience of my own.
I asked Abbey Ramirez, head gardener at Traditional Medicinals (which, by the way, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year), about the best herbs to grow in the home garden. Her response:”I picked eight herbs with feasibility, seasonality, safety, and frequency of use in mind. These herbs are all beginner-friendly to grow, generally safe to use, can be cultivated in containers or in the ground, and are relatively easy to dry and store for later use.” Sounds perfect to me. Please keep reading to learn more.
NOTE: Although these herbs are generally known to be safe, always doublecheck the safety of consuming any plants if you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, or have any medical conditions.
“Calendula is tougher than it looks!” says Abbey. “It grows in a variety of soils but will fare best in soil with good drainage and does better with a weekly deep watering rather than frequent light water.” It prefers full sun but tolerates part sun, requiring at least five hours a day. And even though this plant grows in zones 3-11, it is considered an annual in zones 3-8 and behaves as a semi-evergreen perennial in zones 9-11. If you’re lucky, your calendula could bloom year-round. Bonus: Bees adore it.
Good for: digestive issues such as heartburn and peptic ulcers Plant part used: flowers Tea: fresh or dry How: 1-2 tbsp or 2-4 flowers in 1 cup of hot water for 10-15 minutes Food: fresh (petals only) or dry How: Use in salads, soups, cooked greens, baked goods, or as a garnish (best uncooked for nutritional value).
“Marshmallow has a soothing and lofty presence in the garden,” says Abbey. It needs moisture-retaining soil but also good drainage to avoid root rot. “If planted in full sun, this plant needs more water, but if it is in partial shade, one could get away with less water (this depends on your soil’s drainage and water retention).” Marshmallow grows as a deciduous woody perennial in zones 3-9, and Abbey recommends pruning back two-thirds every winter after it reaches maturity.
Good for: throat, respiratory, and digestive troubles Plant part used: roots, leaves, and flowers Tea: fresh or dry (roots only) How: 1-2 tbsp ground or chopped in 1 cup of hot water for 10-15 minutes (or same ratio in room temperature water overnight) Food: fresh or dry How: Use flowers in salads, baked goods, or garnish; use leaves in soups or sautéed with other greens.
Above: Photograph by Kier Holmes, taken at Traditional Medicinals.
Says Abbey: “Chamomile is a joyful and bee-friendly addition to a medicinal garden.” Though it craves full sun, this plant needs well-draining soil with decent water retention and consistent light drinks of water. Chamomile grows in zones 4-11 and can continuously bloom from April to August. Abbey adds, “This plant is strictly an annual, but I have found it is a prolific re-seeder and will likely propagate itself year to year if left alone to drop its seeds and complete its full lifecycle.”
Good for: sleep, relaxation, and digestion Plant part used: flowers Tea: fresh (stronger, more bitter) or dry (traditional, lighter, and more floral) How: 1-2 tbsp or 6-12 flowers in 1 cup of hot water for 10-15 minutes Food: Fresh or dry How: Use fresh as garnish only, as the flowers are quite bitter; ground dry flowers into powder for baked goods.
Ugh, it’s cold and flu season again. Which means I’m busy making all sorts of herbal home remedies to keep me and my family as healthy as possible. Whether you are already sick or are simply trying to keep your immunity strong, this Echinacea tincture is your best friend right now.
Whether you have been growing Echinacea in your garden or have seen that unmistakable purple coneflower on the bottle of every cold and flu remedy on the shelf, you may have been wondering how exactly to take Echinacea as an herb. I know I wondered that myself.
I have been to multiple herbal medicine talks that have Echinacea at the top of the list for helping folks cope with cold and flu season, whether it is to help with the symptoms when you are sick or to keep viruses from setting up camp in your body in the first place. Echinacea is said to be a powerful immune-system herb without known side effects and is considered safe for children. No wonder it’s so darn popular!
It can be hard to know exactly how to prepare and take Echinacea for health, but this Echinacea Root and Flower Tincture is simple to prepare and use.
Healing Herbal Infusions
I grow a ton of Echinacea varieties in my garden as it is one of my absolute favourite garden perennials. I recently wrote an All About Echinacea growing and care guide and showed off a ton of coneflower eye candy. This year I harvested and dried a bunch of flowers to stock up for the coming winter and get ready to learn some more on how to use it.
Healing Herbal Infusions is full of easy-to-follow instructions and beautiful photography for natural plant-based remedies. Making infusions can feel a bit daunting when you are first beginning, but this book shows you how easy it is to do at home. The recipes have a wide variety of techniques and herbal ingredients, so after you have tried them you will be off and running with your own creations in no time. Colleen has joined us today to share her Echinacea Root and Flower Tincture recipe!
Echinacea Root and Flower Tincture
by Colleen Codekas
Almost everyone these days has heard of Echinacea, as it has become a rather popular herbal remedy. Echinacea is excellent for boosting the immune system, and it has been proven to shorten the duration of colds and flus.
It’s also a gorgeous flower to grow in your garden that serves double duty: beauty in your yard and wellness in your home. This tincture is simple to make, and it uses both the root and the flower, making it even more beneficial!
½ cup (20 g) dried whole Echinacea flowers and/or leaves
1½ cups (360 ml) neutral spirits, such as vodka
Make It!
Combine the Echinacea root, flowers, and spirits in a pint-size (473 ml) jar. Cover the jar with a lid and shake to mix well. Put the jar in a cool and dark place to infuse for 4 to 6 weeks. When ready to use, strain out the herbs using a fine-mesh sieve. Store the tincture in small bottles with droppers for easy use.
Take 1 teaspoon (5 ml) 2 to 3 times per day at the first sign of a cold or flu for the most benefit. It can be taken straight or mixed into water or tea if you prefer.
For children and those wishing to avoid alcohol, use Elderberry & Echinacea Glycerite for Colds & Flus (find this on page 186 of Healing Herbal Infusions), or you can make this same tincture with vegetable glycerine instead of the neutral spirits.
Tip: it’s okay if you don’t have the Echinacea flowers or leaves to add to this recipe. The root is very medicinal on its own and is easy to locate in most places that carry dried herbs.
FAQ About Echinacea Tinctures
Would you use the whole flower or just the petals?
You can use all parts of the echinacea plant, including the flower heads, petals, leaves, and roots. In fact, the root is very medicinal on its own.
How should I store the tincture?
Keep them in a sealed bottle and in a cool, dark place out of direct sunlight. They should last for several years.
Can I use fresh or dried herbs to make a tincture?
You can use either for a tincture, as the alcohol will pull out the active ingredients in the plant and help preserve them.
Healing Herbal Infusions contains 74 more homemade treatments, so this is just the beginning. It will be my go-to resource to support my entire family’s wellness the all-natural way.
About the Author
Colleen Codekas lives with her husband, Joel, and their son, Sawyer, in the beautiful Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon, where they have created a mini permaculture paradise. Due to her desire to live in the most natural way possible, she began studying herbs and herbal medicine nearly 20 years ago. Living and working in Yosemite National Park for 10 years, many of those spent in the high-elevation paradise of Tuolumne Meadows, solidified a yearning to be surrounded by nature on a daily basis. Learning to correctly identify wild plants, particularly those that were edible and medicinal, became a new hobby while living in the wilderness and has carried over into her more “traditional” life now. In recent years, Colleen has completed several herbalism courses through the Herbal Academy and continues to teach people what she knows through her blog Grow Forage Cook Ferment. When she isn’t busy writing for her blog or making things for her Etsy shop, Coco’s Herbals, she likes to go foraging for wild edible and medicinal plants and mushrooms. She also enjoys hiking, cooking delicious food, drinking wine, making mead, growing a ridiculous amount of herbs and flowers, and making all kinds of herbal goodness in jars.
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Echinacea Root and Flower Tincture
This echinacea tincture is perfect for cold and flu season, helping to boost your immunity.
Cook Time30 minutesmins
Infusing time28 daysd
Total Time28 daysd30 minutesmins
Keyword: echinacea tincture
Author: Colleen Codekas
½cupdried echinacea root
½cupdried whole echinacea flowers and/or leaves
1 ½cupsneutral spirits, such as vodka
Combine your echinacea root, flowers, and leaves with the spirits in a pint-sized jar. Seal the jar and shake it to mix.
Place the jar in a cool, dark place and let it infuse for 4-6 weeks.
Once ready, strain the herbs out using a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth.
Store tincture in a small bottle with a dropper for easy use. Take 1 tsp 2-3 times a day at the first sign of cold or flu.
While I try to live in the moment as much as possible, it’s harder to be mindful when it c0mes to garden design. After all, planning ahead for the next season is often the key to a beautiful four-season garden. As summer chugs along, I’m already thinking about what flowers will be blooming in the months ahead and what will be supportive to our pollinator friends.
Here are some favorite late bloomers I’m considering for my and my clients’ gardens this fall:
I know what you’re thinking: those supermarket flowers? But take a closer look at the more unique varieties that have hit the market. I totally swoon over the spider, quilled, and pom pom ones, and you might, too. These long-lasting cut flowers boasts autumnal colors and are superbly sturdy, making them a great addition to a cut flower garden. Also, because they contain pyrethrum, a natural insect repellent, consider planting some on the edges of a vegetable bed to ward off nibbly invaders. Hardy in USDA Zones 3-9. Best planted in full sun and soil that drains well. (See Gardening 101: Chrysanthemums.)
Come late summer, when many flowers start fading, asters are here for the bees, butterflies, and other pollinator pals. Depending on the variety, some asters grow to around a foot tall, while others tower to 6-plus feet; they can range in color from purple to blue and white. Plant in a partly sunny to full sun spot with soil that drains well. Potentially deer-resistant as well. I’m fond of Aster chilensis as it is a vigorous California native perennial with pale lilac flowers and is a great butterfly nectar plant. Hardy in USDA Zones 3-8.
A fall favorite, Rudbeckia hirta is also beloved by pollinators and looks fantastic when planted with ornamental grasses for a meadow effect. Growing from 1 to 3 feet, they make great cut flowers and thrive in a sunny spot. Make sure to deadhead the flowers to promote blooming, and then at the end of the season leave the seed heads for the birds to snack on. Favorite hybrids include ‘Prairie Sun’, ‘Sonora’ and ‘Autumn Colors’. Hardy in USDA Zones 3-9. See also Gardening 101: Black-Eyed Susans.)
Anise Hyssop
Above: Photograph by Britt Willoughby Dyer for Jinny Blom’s What Makes a Garden. (See our review of the book here.)
Contrary to what might be assumed, anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) plant is not anise but is instead in the mint family and the leaves exude a spicy scent similar to licorice. Adored by pollinators and detested by deer, this perennial produces long lasting purplish blooms that can be used in flower arrangements. The vertical habit pairs well with cascading ornamental grasses and other fall-blooming favorites. A sunny spot is best. USDA Zones 4-8.(See also Gardening 101: Hyssop.)
There are two main reasons that you might consider planting a pollinator garden in pots instead of in the ground: Either you don’t have a garden bed—or you’ve run out of space to plant anything more in your garden. In either scenario, a container garden can support pollinators just as well as an in-ground garden. Even if you aren’t dealing with space constraints, you might consider adding some pollinator pots, says Alicia Whitaker, a master gardener and a co-leader for the Suffolk Alliance for Pollinators’s South Fork chapter. “If they’re near an outdoor seating area, the gardener can see and enjoy the wildlife that will be attracted.” Plus, she notes: Containers are also a great option if the gardener has a mobility issue or other handicap that makes gardening in the ground difficult.
Above: A bumble bee nectaring on goldenrod. Photograph by Kim Eierman.
Here, nine tips on how to garden for pollinators in pots:
1. Be prepared to water often.
The most common mistake with any container garden is underwatering. “The soil in pots dries out faster, especially in a very sunny and hot environment, such as a windy deck or brick patio surface,” says Whitaker, who notes that people often underestimate the water needs of container plants because they are accustomed to worrying about overwatering indoor houseplants.
2. Go big.
Above: Susan Nock, a Boston-based garden designer with a specialty in container gardens, filled a large pot with tall grass, agastache, foxglove, daisies, scabiosa, verbena, angelonia, and sweet potato vine for a dynamic, pollinator-friendly design. Photograph by Susan Nock.
Garden pros recommend choosing the largest container possible. “A higher volume of soil will dry out less quickly,” explains Whitaker. But there’s another reason to go big: The more plants you cram into a pot, the better the chances the pollinators will find them. “When we use large pots or gang pots together in groups, we create some floral targets for pollinators,” says ecological horticulturist Kim Eierman, the author of The Pollinator Victory Garden and founder of EcoBeneficia. “That’s really important. Having a larger target makes it much easier for the pollinator to find the resource.” If you’re worried about weight, you can use a false bottom planter.
3. Amend the soil.
Both Whitaker and Eierman suggest mixing compost into the container’s soil, to nourish the plants and encourage root growth. “I apply a limited amount of compost a couple times a year to beef up the soil biology because there’s no interchange with any other soil,” adds Eierman. “I just put it on top and let rain do its thing.” Whitaker adds, “We often hear that native perennials prefer leaner soil and don’t require fertilizer, but the artificial environment of a container calls for better soil and the regular use of organic fertilizer.”
4. Consistency + variety is key.
Just like humans, pollinators need a diverse diet, but that doesn’t mean you need to run out and buy dozens of different plants. Eierman says to aim for a balance between diversity and sufficiency of given plants. So, rather than having many tiny plants of a wide variety of species, focus on a few types. “It’s better to have a more substantial amount of that one species,” says Eierman. Whitaker adds, “Think drifts, not polka dots.” When pollinators forage they’re looking for that one plant species, so a repetition of bloom from container to container can attract them without having one massive target, Eierman notes.
5. Give the bugs color cues.
Above: This composition of ‘Giga Blue’ pincushion flower, ‘VIBE Ignition’ purple salvia, and S’unSparkler Firecracker’ sedum by Monrovia demonstrates how you can do a monochromatic pollinator design using one color but different plants. Photograph via Monrovia.
“We know that pollinators have their color preferences,” says Whitaker. Hummingbirds are attracted to red flowers, while many bees love purples and yellows. Butterflies are drawn to a wide range of colors, but moths are attracted to white blossoms. “it’s good to have a variety of colors, and a variety of shapes,” says Whitaker, noting, “There are almost no wrong choices.”
When my friend and colleague Margot Guralnick and I set out to write The Low-Impact Home, we had many discussions with Remodelista founder Julie Carlson about whether our project would be a beautiful coffee table book or a nuts-and-bolts manual for eco-minded homeowners. What we realized was, we needn’t sacrifice one for the other. Our book would be equal parts inspiration and information.
When I opened up Beyond the Meadows: Portrait of a Natural and Biodiverse Garden by Krautkopf, in bookstores now, I immediately recognized in it the same desire to both inspire and edify. That the book is brimming with gorgeous images isn’t all that surprising given its authors, German homesteaders Susann Probst and Yannic Schon, are professional photographers. What is unexpected, and delightful, is how much they’ve chosen to share about their experience as new homesteaders. The two really get into the weeds, if you will, of how they designed their landscape, cared for their plants, welcomed biodiversity, naturally enriched the soil, and, ultimately, became self-sufficient. Diagrams, before and after shots, and plant lists help tell their gardening journey. And they’re blessedly not shy about revealing their mistakes, either.
Above: Susann and Yannic’s homesteading journey started in 2018, when they moved from Berlin to a small cottage with lots of land in a village in northeastern Germany. It was built as a “settler’s house,” one of many that cropped up post-WWII to encourage people to become more self-sufficient. Their new book, now available in English, documents their experience working the land as new gardeners.
“To be honest, we held back from writing a gardening book for a long time,” Susann tells us. “We felt we were only at the very beginning of the learning process and therefore didn’t feel ready. However, at one point we realized that this gardening journey would never end and that we would constantly be learning new things that would be worth writing about. So there would never be the ‘right’ time to start.” The results are less guidebook and more garden memoir. “We wanted a book full of beauty and inspiration, which would nevertheless contain our knowledge and experiences from the past five years,” she says.
Susann and Yannic’s garden appeared in The Low-Impact Home—Margot and I were enchanted by their property and their commitment to ecology-based gardening—so I read their book with great interest. But even if you don’t know a thing about them and don’t harbor any fantasies about growing your own food, Beyond the Meadows is a must-read. It’s for anyone curious about how to be a better gardener or adopt more planet-friendly approaches—and also for those who simply yearn to slow down and smell the earth.
