Echinacea companion plants are the final touch to a wildflower garden, sometimes they are called purple coneflower.
They are the perfect match for the wild coneflower, and they present a beautiful sight together, as is a plant that grows the healthiest under the full sun but can also thrive in partial shade and moist, well-drained soil.
With echinacea in the garden and a little bit of companion planting, you can easily fill your garden with vivid colors and a lush vibrance, making for a wondrous sight!
Keep reading the list of Echinacea purpurea companions, all of which also prefer the same conditions if they are to survive together.
Contents
List of Echinacea Companion Plants
1. Stachys
Stachys is also known as the Hummelo betony, scientifically, and it is a beautiful perennial flowering plant.
– Characteristics
It has dark green leaves and rosy-lavender flower buds that grow on the stems. These plants are easy to grow and maintain, and the beauty they bring with them is a good bonus. Stachys are related to the mint family and can grow up to two feet.
– Aesthetic Features
The plant has upright flowering stems that can rise to about 12 inches above the foliage. These stems grow in late spring to early summer, and each limb has reddish-purple tubular flowers. The clumps of foliage spread over time to form a ground cover.
However, some varieties of stachys have gray fleshy leaves, but they are primarily grown for vivid flowers. These flowers provide a spectacular display, especially when there is a large cluster of them together.
– Pairing Benefits
Like echinacea, Stachys can also easily thrive under the full sun or in partial shade and grow excellently in hardiness zones 4 to 8, as compared to 3 to 9 for perennials. As such, you can grow them almost anywhere you can grow purple coneflowers, as they are the perfect companion.
– Attracting Pollinators
These plants are a great source of attraction for many insects and birds. Stachys attract hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies. This interaction with many animals results in an increased pollination rate. Overall, being a companion of echinacea, they help increase the pollination rate for the coneflowers.
In addition to all these benefits, these flowers are very deer resistant. Plant coneflowers with them, and they will protect them from any unwanted ravagers.
2. Catmint
Catmint (Nepeta mussinii) is another gorgeous plant that can be a fantastic companion to echinacea. It is a perennial with lush green leaves and long stems.
– Aesthetic Features
Catmints bloom with incredible blue-lavender flowers along the stems. The vibrant beauty of the flowers accompanies the striking colors of echinacea perfectly, making it an excellent choice for a companion. It can grow up to 10 inches tall, with a usual spread of about 12 inches, though you can find taller or dwarf cultivars, due to their varieties.
– Pairing Benefits
The most significant benefit of catmint as a companion plant is its natural bug-repelling ability. It is particularly effective against aphids, mosquitoes, and squash bugs. Catmint gets this ability from its secreted chemicals in the air, which triggers the chemical receptors that bring forth a sensation of pain or itch.
– Characteristics
Additionally, catmint is easy to grow and maintain and is drought-resistant. Like the coneflower seeds, catmint seeds also prefer the sun and moist, well-drained soil. Furthermore, catmint provides a few health benefits. The herbal tea from its roots helps treat numerous digestive and respiratory problems.
– Safety Precaution
Cat mint can cause cats to experience hallucinations. Be careful if you have one as a pet, because if they ingest it accidentally, it can cause harm as they are toxic to pets.
3. Black-Eyed Susan
The Black-eyed Susan is scientifically known as the Rudbeckia fulgida. This plant is a tall flowering plant that can grow up to three feet tall, and they combine very well with echinacea as its companion plant.
– Aesthetic Features
The Black-eyed Susan produces yellow-orange daisy-like flowers. It is called “black-eyed” because of the dark brown center of its flower head. The yellow blooms contrast sharply with the purple coneflowers, enhancing the scene’s overall beauty. In addition, the different colors make the scenery more vibrant.
– Pairing Benefits
This plant thrives under the full sun. It can also live under the partial sun, but its bloom would not be to its full potential. In addition to partial shade, this plant can also tolerate harsh conditions such as bad soil and water. But naturally, the flowers will not be able to bloom with their full brilliance, because they don’t receive proper nutrients.
The rigid stems provide structural support for the echinacea. In addition, the flowers attract insects, birds, and other pollinators. Like with Stachys, accelerated pollination helps grow the number of echinacea.
4. Coral Bells
Coral Bells have many other common names, such as Alumroot, American Sanicle, and Rock Geranium. Coral Bells pair excellently with echinacea, because they have similar requirements and help each other grow in different ways.
– Aesthetic Features
Unlike the last few flowers on this list that came with their distinctive colors, coral bells offer a wide range of colors in their flowers and foliage: cream, lavender, green, orange, and tan. All these colors, mixed and matched with the purple hue of echinacea, make for a fantastic scene in your garden of echinacea.
The colorful foliage is the most striking feature of the coral bells. They have large leaves that can be heart-shaped or rounded. Many of these leaves are variegated, which adds even more variety to their looks.
– Characteristics
Many coral bells are evergreen plants, bringing year-long interest to every garden they settle in. They also attract pollinators, who help spread the flowers to all corners of the vegetable garden.
– Pairing Benefits
In addition to providing visual beauty, coral bells protect against herbivores like deer and rabbits. Coral bells give off an aroma that the deer avoid at all costs. Note that this layer of protection keeps coral bells and their companion echinacea safe from these foragers.
5. Bee Balm
Bee Balm is a member of the mint family, and it is commonly a perennial plant.
– Aesthetic Features
Bee balms have tubular pink flowers with purple-green leaves and stems. This color scheme makes the flowers look more vibrant and livelier. Pair them with the purple flowers of the echinacea, and you have the perfect mix of colors.
– Pairing Benefits
Bee Balm is one of the easiest-to-grow plants out there. It thrives in full sun and partial shade, just like the echinacea, making it an ideal companion plant.
There is also no complex seeding technique involved with these flowers. In fact, as far as the plant is concerned, you can throw the seeds anywhere and it would still grow.
– Characteristics
To the visual upgrades to your wildflower garden, bee balms protect your garden dwellers, just like several other entries on this list. They are deer resistant, keeping those grazers away from your garden. The bright nectar-filled flowers attract many pollinators that spread the seeds to all the corners.
– Specific Needs
Be aware that bee balms are especially susceptible to developing mildew on their leaves without proper air circulation and excess moisture. Mildew is a fungal disease that affects plants due to excess humidity. You must make sure your area does not have these conditions before planting them!
6. Blue Phlox
Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata) are perennial wildflowers that are excellent companions for echinacea plants.
– Aesthetic Features
Blue Phlox are natural dwellers of forest floors, making them an exceptional addition to your wildflower garden. They bloom with refreshing colors such as rose, violet, and lavender. These colors blend perfectly with the colors of echinacea, in your garden. Overall, they will fit right in with the scenery and play a large part in enhancing it.
– Pairing Benefits
Blue Phlox is a great gathering hub for pollinators such as hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees.
Like all other entries on this list, blue phlox flowers thrive the best in rich, fertile, moist, and well-drained soil. This soil provides the necessary water without the chance of overwatering, which could result in root rot.
In addition, keeping these flowers in their optimal environment is essential, as too much humidity and moisture can cause mildew infections.
Even though it is preferable to keep the blue phlox and echinacea at their ideal conditions for maximum benefit, they can still tolerate harsh conditions such as dry or clay soil. It is drought-tolerant as well.
7. Butterfly Milkweed
Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) is a widespread flowering plant found everywhere, including roadsides, fields, rocky woods, and botanical gardens.
– Aesthetic Features
The perennial grows up to three feet tall. Like the other plants featured here, the bright yellow and orange color scheme of the butterfly milkweed provides a beautiful contrast when paired with their companion echinacea. Note that you can also pair it with ornamental grass and other coneflowers.
– Growth Requirements
As is evident from its ubiquitous nature, it is a very hardy perennial that grows up to three feet tall. It prefers to stay under full sun, and with its roots deep into the soil, it is a very sturdy plant.
In fact, unless you live in the driest regions, the plant does not require watering, though you should be careful in the growth phase, because you do not wish to over water and cause them to weaken the roots.
In addition to ornamental beauty and benefits, butterfly milkweed has a medicinal history, providing an effective cure for pleurisy and other ailments of a respiratory nature.
8. Salvia
Salvia (Salvia farinacea) is also called Blue Sage and Mealy Cup Sage. It is a captivating member of the mint family.
– Characteristics
Salvia species have long, upright stems with fleshy leaves near the lower middle portion and colorful, densely packed tubular blossoms near the upper middle and top. These plants grow anywhere between 18 inches to five feet tall, depending on which variety you choose.
– Aesthetic Features
You can also keep most of them in plant containers. In addition, the flowers have deep blue hues, although you can find cultivars with other colors. All of them make for an exciting combination with the purple echinacea flowers.
– Pairing Benefits
Akin to the other companion plants discussed on this list, salvia is an excellent attraction for pollinators in the form of butterflies, birds, and insects. It also works as a bodyguard for the echinacea with its ability to fend off deer and rabbits, as it is a repellent from the wild rabbits.
These plants are drought resistant, hardy, and require the same growing conditions as their companion plant, coneflowers. Note that following are some beautiful plants that would go very well with coneflowers. They complement each other’s beauty and grow side by side without harming one another.
9. Stonecrop
Stonecrop (Hylotelephium) is another perennial plant that shares the characteristics of echinacea and offers most of the same benefits as the other plants so far. However, it packages all of this in a rather bushy facade, particularly the flowers, which makes it distinct from the rest.
– Aesthetic Features
Stonecrops allow you a choice between several colors of unique shades to look perfect together. These colors include pink, white, purple, yellow, red, etc. You can pick the one that best complements your garden’s look, as they all pair well with echinacea.
– Pairing Benefits
Stonecrops attract pollinators like butterflies and songbirds, making them an excellent choice as an echinacea companion plant.
Like echinacea, they prefer rich and well-drained with exposure to either full or partial sun. Additionally, they are resistant to heat and drought, requiring just enough watering to keep the soil moist.
Conclusion
Echinacea companion plants are in abundance. They include all sorts of vibrant, colorful, and beautiful flowering plants that bring serenity, elegance, and other utility to your garden.
When you are choosing a companion plant for your echinacea, keep in mind the following:
- Echinacea flowering plants are abundant, and you can choose according to your favorite colors and aesthetic preference.
- Most of these flowers are okay with full sunlight or partial shade.
- They attract natural pollinators, repel herbivores, and support the echinacea plants.
- They require very little maintenance and are easy to grow.
Now that you know all about the perfect companions, from this list of colorful blooms, which ones if your favorite?
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