Home Page
What to Plant
World of Plants
Other
Click on the picture for larger view
Echinacea ‘Twilight’PPAF is the latest of the revolutionary Big Sky™ Series coneflowers to hit the gardening scene this year. This prolific flowering, new coneflower has rich, rosy-red flowers and a delectable, intoxicating fragrance. This beautiful color could mean changing the old adage from red sky at night, sailor's delight to gardener's delight.
The iridescent petals are arranged around a bold, reddish-brown, central cone. They are wide, overlap, and as the flowers develop, bend downwards to look like large, badminton shuttlecocks. These imposing blooms make an eye-catching display. Combined with a stately presence, stunning color, and delightful fragrance, they capture attention in any garden location.
Growing to only 2-2½ feet tall, it is a perfect size for most gardens. In smaller sites, it makes a lovely single specimen and is very effective when placed among lower growing or spreading plants; the well branched stems give height and color and a sense of stately stature to plant combinations. In larger spaces, it can be massed with great effect to make a striking display in perennial beds or mixed borders. It is such a handsome and accommodating plant that it deserves to be placed in prominent locations like beds near entrance ways, close to doorways, around swimming pools, etc. Once established, it is remarkably drought and heat tolerant, making it perfect in raised beds and rockeries, sloping banks, and anywhere that is sunny and well drained. It is a hybrid developed from native species, so it is suitable for wild flower areas and natural style gardens too.
When selecting a planting site, try to find surroundings where the sweet, rose-like fragrance can be savored; sheltered corners, beds near open windows, entertaining and sitting areas, porches, and entry ways are all excellent spots where the fragrance will permeate the air and create a wonderful experience. Cozy, protected areas are particularly good because the delicate scent is so pleasant, it's a shame to have it drift away on a breeze. Settings near tall hedges, screens, walls, or taller shrubs and evergreens will help to capture the scent and cause it to linger and swirl, bringing a wonderful extra dimension to your gardening enjoyment. Butterflies will enjoy the protection from blustery winds, too; they are attracted to the nectar rich flower heads and will be much more active and pleasing to watch in the sheltered conditions.
Coneflowers are wonderful for cutting and bringing indoors. They have a good vase life, the bold flower heads have a striking appearance, and the divine fragrance will fill a home with a natural bouquet that is just fantastic. The best time to harvest them is early morning or late in the evening. They should be conditioned by placing the stems immediately in deep, cold water; given this treatment they will usually last a week to ten days.
Echinacea ‘Twilight’PPAF is adaptable, accommodating, and easy to grow. All it needs is a sunny site, well drained soil, and a little basic attention. Just follow the instructions on the tags and on the "How to Grow Coneflowers" part of our website, and you can't go wrong.
It is hardy to Zone 5, it commences flowering in early summer, and ,if the spent flower heads are removed, will keep flowering through the rest of the summer and continue well into autumn. Small birds feed on the seed heads, so the later flushes of flowers could be left to set seed and provide a valuable source of food.
Echinacea ‘Twilight’PPAF is one of the latest varieties to be introduced from the much admired Big Sky™ Series.
Richard Saul of Itsaul Plants combined his knowledge, experience, and vision to perfect this exceptional range. He started out making crosses between two native species (Echinacea purpurea and Echinacea paradoxa); the idea was to combine the hardiness and adaptability of the latter species with the robustness and garden worthiness of the former. The result is a series of hybrids that are hardy, vigorous, and free flowering. They resemble Echinacea purpurea with broad, deep-green leaves, stout, well branched flowering stems, and blooms with broad, overlapping petals. The clever part was taking the hardiness and resilience of the native, yellow coneflower (Echinacea paradoxa) and combining them to make these outstanding hybrids.
Not content with merging the best garden merits of each parent, Richard carried on, working with his hybrids, intercrossing them, and also making back crosses. Echinacea ‘Twilight’PPAF is the culmination of this work, a superlative variety that is compact and sturdy, has magnificent color, flowers for a long, unremitting period, produces masses of blossoms that stand up well to summer heat and humidity, and, best of all, brings us a wonderful fragrance and the rich, warming hues of red sky on a summer's evening.
Richard says that of all the Big Sky™ Hybrids released so far, this one, with its reflexed petals and bushy, full habit, "leans more towards Echinacea purpurea". He says that "in the heat of summer, the color takes on orange and salmon hues" just like the sky at the twilight of a hot, summer day.
Echinacea ‘Twilight’PPAF is an exciting new introduction that we are releasing this year for the first time and supplies are limited. To make sure you get your plants, please stop in and see us at your earliest convenience and see why Echinacea ‘Twilight’PPAF and the other Garden Splendor® plants are "Plants worth Remembering"™.
Until next time, remember.... Enjoy your gardening. It's good for you!
