Echinacea ‘ Green Twister’

It’ll get even better than this, but I’ve been looking at the amazing emergence of this beautiful Echinacea ‘Green Twister’ for too many days to not share it with you.

I have a real affinity with green flowers, this one in particular, I always have: possibly it’s because many people are drawn to bright & exuberant flowers like they are people, maybe they resonate with me in that way. I think I’m more one of life’s green flowers, do what I need to do, but tend to go under the radar, through choice though, always remember to be kind to yourself.

This is a green flower with a punch though - it has a strong beating heart, fire in its stomach - vibrant enough to challenge injustice, shout for freedom, for what it needs to survive. Green flowers are relaxing. They add a further layer onto what we already know are the physical & emotional benefits of the calming colour green & being in amongst ‘greenery’.

The Green Twister certainly does what it needs to do, today I have seen hoverflies, bees, ringlet butterflies feasting on the nectar, as it sits in the partial shade, then later afternoon sun. It is one of the first plants I look at every day: the Fibonacci style spiral unfurling of the bronze coloured cone, where the flower derives its name ‘Coneflower’.

I grew this perennial, like most others in the garden, from seed. It is upright, has strong stalks, so does not need staking to its 1m height. It has a hairy stem & ovate to lance shaped leaves. Each petal is carmine red (which sits between crimson & pure red on the colour wheel) at the base & changes to lime green at the outer.

If you do sow the seed, don’t expect it to flower the first year, but thereafter you will be treated to a beautiful flower & all the pollinators that come with it! It prefers fertile & well drained soil.

Apparently it makes a fantastic cut flower, I do dead head it to encourage more flowering but I always leave the last seed heads for the wildlife in the garden.

@just.me.in.my.garden