Pow Wow White Echinacea

Ah, so you love white flowers too? You really can’t beat them for brightening your garden, and don’t forget that ‘all-white’ beds never go out of garden fashion. More likely, though, you are considering the Pow Wow® White Coneflower to add light and brightness to your beds, and it certainly will do that. The long-lasting white flowers hold their petals horizontally, not drooping like the wild coneflowers do, and that central cone is glowing gold, making a great splash with its classic ‘daisy’ look. Grow it in your beds to extend the flowering season – it blooms from mid-summer into the fall, and grow it anywhere, it’s tough enough to take drought, heat and winter cold, and keep on going. It looks spectacular mixed with its sister, the Pow Wow Wild Berry Coneflower – the pink-purple and white combination is a real winner. Or, grow it alone along a sunny walk for an elegant and cool summer look that can’t be beaten. Go ahead, you’re going to love it.

Growing the Pow Wow® White Echinacea

Size and Appearance

The Pow Wow White Coneflower is a perennial plant, not a woody shrub, so it dies down to the roots each winter, and comes back – bigger and stronger – the next spring. At that time it produces a clump of long, dark-green leaves that feel rough to the touch because of the bristly hairs that cover them. By mid-summer it will have sent up flower stems to around 2 feet – a little shorter in the first year. These are produced in abundance, and each one carries several large blooms, 3 to 4 inches in diameter. These have a rough central cone that is dark gold, surrounded by broad, pure-white petals with a small notch at the end. These begin held upward, and descend to horizontal, with the flowers carried horizontally too. Only when the flowers are old do the petals begin to droop a little. New stems keep rising up, and with the individual flowers lasting weeks you get blooms all through summer and into the fall. Eventually the petals fall, leaving the big, dark cones. Many people leave these up – they stand for months, and seed-eating birds, especially goldfinches, love to perch on them and peck out the seeds. Bees and butterflies visit the flowers in summer, so this plant supports your local wildlife.

Using the Pow Wow® White Coneflower in Your Garden

The Pow Wow White Coneflower looks great anywhere in your garden, and in any kind of garden. It is one of those flowers that looks perfect in formal settings and in mixed, cottage-style gardens too. It is drought resistant, so it’s good for xeric gardens and since it is a native plant it fits well into natural and native-plant gardens as well. Use it freely and everywhere for late-season color and interest, after all your early flowers have gone over for the year. Plant it on slopes and combine it with other sun-lovers, like Butterfly Weed and different colors of Agastache for a drought-proof flower garden. If you have a rough area of grass, turn it into a prairie garden with a selection of coneflowers, and those other sun-lovers – they are all native plants. It is also popular for flower arranging, so cut a few for vases inside your home.

Hardiness

Like it’s parent wildflower, the Pow Wow White Coneflower is hardy all the way from the edges of zone 3 though zone 9 – everyone can grow it in their garden.

Sun Exposure and Soil Conditions

Full sun is best for the Pow Wow White Coneflower, but it will take a little afternoon shade too, especially in hot zones. Plant it in any well-drained soil and it’s happy. It can be relatively rich garden soil in your prize beds, urban soils, or rough, dry ground on slopes and undeveloped areas – it’s all the same to this reliable plant. Water regularly to get it started, but then it will handle drought just fine.

Maintenance and Pruning

You won’t believe how easy it is to grow this plant, and how little work it takes. Once you have it established, just cut down the stems in late fall or early spring, and you are done for another year. It’s that easy. Removing some early flower spikes when they are done will keep new ones coming, extending the season a little. Pests, diseases and deer almost always leave it alone – they know better.

History and Origin of the Pow Wow® White Coneflower

Named ‘the spiny one’ because that central cone looks like a sea urchin, coneflowers are called Echinacea, and there are only 10 species, growing all through eastern and northern North America. They are mostly similar-looking, and the most widely grown, in gardens here and around the world, is Echinacea purpurea, the purple coneflower. It grows in prairies and grassy woods all the way from southern Canada to Georgia and Louisiana. Many varieties have been developed by breeders, and like many other perennials some are grown from seed, rather than division or grafting. This is true of the Pow Wow White Coneflower, developed by PanAmerican Seed Europe, a division of Balls Horticulture, and Florensis, a Dutch cut-flower producer. It’s official name is ‘Pas709018’, and it was registered in the European Union for Plant Breeder’s Rights in 2011. It is the color White in the trademarked Pow Wow® series, with its brother Wild Berry.

Buying the Pow Wow® White Coneflower at the Tree Center

Although grown from seed, the seed-producers use strict controls to keep the quality high, and these plants are as good as the original selection. If you want coneflowers you are in the right place, but order now, because our stock is limited, and you know how popular these plants are, yes?