Saturday, August 23, 2008

Kim's Mophead White Coneflower


White Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea 'Kim's Mophead'
(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

This White Coneflower was introduced in 2001 but I just ended up trying it. The several I planted last summer returned and bloomed well. This is the white flowered form of ‘Kim’s Knee High’, which stays about 18 inches tall. That is one of its best attributes. Perfect for smaller areas or in the front of borders. They have an odd but attractive greenish cone. I never knew that Echinacea was a good cut flower until this year. They were so prolific this year that I was cutting a lot of them. In some ways it seems the world has gone Coneflower crazy. That is okay with me.

I have a busy Saturday planned here is my ‘to buy’ list:

1 Six station Irrigation Controller
1 Gallon Bio-Plex Transplanting Aid
12 Five foot ‘U’ Fence Posts
3 Bags 1” Mexican Black Beach Pebbles

On my ‘to do’ list:

Spray Rabbit and Deer Repellent at three different gardens
Check availability for 65 Mums
Apply the Bio-Plex to a 16 foot Magnolia that we have to transplant next week
Dead head the Rose Garden

The good thing is I am going to take my camera with me.

This is a pic of a Skipper on ‘White Swan’ Coneflower.

4 comments:

Les said...

One of my favorite things about Echinacea is the textured cone and not so much the petals.

joey said...

I love this white echinacea so beautifully captured, Chris, and once owned it but, alas, like my camera, it disappeared (purchased a new camera after much head scratching and now back in business). Thanks for your concern.

Digital Flower Pictures said...

Hi les, nice thing about the 'cone' is they look good even into winter here.

joey, glad to hear you got a new camera. My Coneflowers are really hardy and lucky they keep coming back. Some of the new varieties aren't as hardy as the species.

WiseAcre said...

Glad to see more coneflower photos :) (you promised) The skipper photo must look amazing in full size, even reduced it's great. (I'm starting to get fascinated by bug eyes)

I don't know what it was about this year but coneflowers have had a great season. I don't recall so many volunteers and blooms are prolific everywhere.

what I can't believe is that I haven't bought any of the mopheads to use. The white blooms on such a short plant gives me 'ideas' that will now have to wait until next year. (I've quit planting for this year - back to rock)

I've circled the mopheads in my catalog just to make sure I don't forget.