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Hi, I 'm Daphne Richards. Our plant this week is Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea. This strikingly pretty perennial
such as easy-care plant and goes so well with most any landscape style
that it really does deserve a special place in every garden. It loves full sun but can
take bright shade
is extremely drought tolerant. The entire stem grows underground so be sure to plant in
well-drained soil
not heavy clay unless you can amend it to be super loose.
If you need to do that use decomposed granite or other small
aggregate substrate,pea gravel would be too large and sand too small for most very
heavy clay situations.
Since it can create an even worse situation our specialist at AgriLife
Extension had done some research that shows that expanded shale
is very good for loosening clay soil. You'll see on the tag
that echinacea gets up to three feet tall but that includes a flower stalk
which shoots up far above the leaves. The actual plant itself
is usually around a foot tall and wide. Since they spread quite nicely
they look a great planted in groupings of three to five in pockets of garden beds with other
native plants.
The native species echinacea has light purple ray flowers
which droop slightly and resemble petals and tiny disc flowers
which create the cone shaped center from which this plant gets its common name.
That central cone creates the very small seeds that are a great food source
for songbirds
making echinacea a must have plant in any wildlife garden.
If you're adventurous there are also other echinacea cultivars with more striking flower colors
from white to lime green. Although these plants are usually not as hardy
and sometimes peter out after an especially hard summer.
You can plant echinacea from seed
but its easier to get forage containers or dormant rhizomes
and plant in early spring. Our question this week is about frozen plants
what to do and how soon. This is of course a great question to explore at this
time of year
especially for us Central Texans and other southern gardeners
with their climate's habit of being bipolar during the winter.
One day it's 70 degrees and sunny and then just 24
hours later freezing with the chance for sleet. When we get that gorgeous 70 or
maybe even 80-degree day in January we're all tempted to prune back
our mushy and twiggy perennials but don't be fooled.
Some plants will do just fine if we get our normal second-round of frosty temperatures
but some may not. Pruning especially combined with warmer temperatures and bright light
encourages growth and exposes those tender new stems and leaves
making them more vulnerable. But some plants, especially our native salvias,
are impatient shooting out of the ground boldly long before winter's truly over.
So if you've noticed that your plants emerge very early in do just fine,
despite a late-season freeze, go ahead and indulge your spring fever and prune
away all the dead stems.
Most shrubs and roses can also take an early pruning
and actually should be taken care of prior to mid February
or as soon as you start to see buds starting to swell just under this
surface of the stem.
But if you have succulent plants that are mushy, like purple heart,
it would be best to wait until at least mid March since succulent leaves are full of water.
Once they freeze the cell walls burst when they thaw,
meaning that lovely new growth will be fried in the almost inevitable
late winter blast of polar cold. And then there are those lovely,
tender perennial plants like Dianella they just don't return it all
but hopefully that situation's more wear your garden
or you've planted those in a protected spot to alleviate the harsh cold.
So my best advice is to watch your plants for at least a year
and get to know their ability to handle our truly unpredictable winter weather.
To do in your garden this week, take a look around and see what needs to be pruned
and challenge yourself to wait and see if you're not sure.
We'd love to hear from you so please visit us at KLRU.org/CTG
and to send us your questions and plants from your garden.