July is all about Echinacea
International Pollinator Month is officially celebrated in June, but July is unrivaled when it comes to the abundance of blooming pollinator plants here in the nursery. Any day now, we’ll find ourselves trying to capture that perfect photo of a swallowtail butterfly on an Allium flower. Blooming Calamintha will be transformed into buzzing, pulsing masses of pollinating bees, and the season’s first sighting of a Monarch butterfly perched on an Asclepias flower will be equally as captivating as it was last year and the year before. And then there are coneflowers: the stunning reds, yellows, oranges, whites, and purple flowers of these tough natives will no doubt dominate my camera roll in July. Our industry is a union of beauty and science, but nothing better epitomizes the relationship between modern-day plant breeding and ancient evolutionary plant processes like pollination quite as well as blooming Echinacea.
This genus of only nine species, all native to North America, has seen an explosion in breeding and hybridization efforts since the 1990’s when Dr. Jim Ault of the Chicago Botanic Garden began his work with interspecific crosses. Prior to the 2000’s, most coneflowers available on the market were tall and purple-flowering, with the exception of some rare yellow and white selections released by specialty growers. The release of the first double-flowering Echinacea in 2003 (‘Razzmatazz’) was arguably the first of many breakthroughs in the field of Echinacea breeding that have led to the hundreds of cultivars in production today, not to mention the hundreds more that have gone out of favor in the past two decades.
The modern cultivars of Echinacea in today’s market are a lot different from varieties that were trending twenty years ago; they tend to be more compact and longer lived, with sturdier, more uniform growth habits, more flowers, and improved winter hardiness. It seems that all these years of Echinacea breeding have paid off: while older varieties tended to be unreliable and would go out of fashion often within the span of a single year, today’s cultivars have more staying power. Over the past decade, breeders have shifted their strategies to include improving the longevity and vigor of the entire plant instead of focusing on the flower alone.
When it comes to the topic of pollinator plants, and, specifically, what makes a good one, we tend to encounter strongly held opinions on both ends of the spectrum. Can a plant be beneficial to pollinators only if it’s native, or can non-natives offer any value? And what about cultivars? Are pollinators more attracted to straight species than cultivars, and is it possible for cultivars to be harmful to pollinators?
The only way to answer these questions is to look at the evidence. Mt. Cuba Center, a non-profit botanical garden located in Hockessin, Delaware, is known for its trial gardens and evaluations of natives and related cultivars to assess horticultural as well as ecological value. Past studies have included findings on Hydrangea, Aster, Phlox, and Monarda trials, to name a few. From 2018 to 2020, the research team there evaluated 75 different taxa of Echinacea, including five species, to assess their landscape value in terms of vigor, flower quality, habit, and disease resistance. But the most noteworthy findings of the trial were arguably those of the pollinator watch team. Over the three year trial period, the trial subjects were monitored for visits by bees, wasps, and butterflies, and subsequently ranked based on pollinator value.
Interestingly, the results of the trial showed a strong overlap between the Echinacea that performed well from a horticultural standpoint and those that attracted the most pollinators. In fact, six varieties ranked in the top 15 of both categories: E. purpurea ‘Fragrant Angel’, E. Sombrero® Baja Burgundy, E. Kismet® Raspberry, E. ‘Glowing Dream, E. purpurea ‘Pica Bella’, and E. ‘POST301’ (Postman). Other interesting results of the trial included findings that the majority of the varieties that received the most pollinator visits had pink and purple flowers. (Although the top-ranking variety in terms of pollinator visits was Echinacea ‘Fragrant Angel’, a white-flowering variety which outranked even the straight species Echinacea purpurea.)
Not surprisingly, given our understanding of the drawbacks that double-flowering varieties pose to pollinators, all 15 of the top-performing Echinacea were single-flowering varieties, with double-flowering varieties ranking at the bottom of the list terms of pollinator visits. In addition to Echinacea Kismet® Raspberry, a few other Mariani favorites ranked in the top 20 of the pollinator list: Echinacea Sombrero® Adobe Orange and Salsa Red, E. Kismet® Intense Orange, and E. Santa Fe (now known as Summersong™ Firefinch™).
We may not all agree when it comes to nativars and cultivars and their value to pollinators, and there are still skeptics among us when it comes to the reliability of new Echinacea introductions. But we can hopefully all find some level of encouragement when it comes to trials like this because they show, at least in my opinion, that our industry is heading in the right direction. If we can continue to select for plants that both perform well in the landscape and appeal to pollinators, our customers will be more successful when it comes to gardening and less intimidated about trying new plants. Whether or not every plant is equally beneficial to the ecosystem, more engaged customers means more plants and less lawns, and that’s a good thing.
Click here to learn more about the Echinacea study at Mt. Cuba Center: “Echinacea for the Mid-Atlantic Region.”
