Hula Dancer Coneflower (Echinacea Pallida) – 1 Gallon Pot

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 3a-8b  Find Your Zone

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Plant Type:  Perennial 

Flower Color:  Soft Pink to White

Flower Size: 3″

Flowering Period:  Summer

Flower Type:  Daisy like

Fragrant Flowers:  No

Foliage Color:  Olive Green

Fragrant Foliage:  No

Berries:  No

Berry Color:  No

Attracts:  Butterflies, Beneficial Pollinators, Visual Attention

Resistances:  Cold Tolerant (-40F / Zone 3a), Clay Soil (well drained), Deer, Disease, Heat, Humidity, Insect, Rabbit, Rocky Soil

A super tough but beautiful North American native perennial, the Hula Dancer Coneflower features abundant, graceful, daisy-like flowers atop 2 to 3 foot tall stems in early to mid summer. Each flower has a prominent reddish-brown cone surrounded by a hula-like skirt of 12 to 20 slender drooping soft pink to white petals sometimes blushed with a darker pink. Hula Dancer is a slightly larger growing plant than the species, and interestingly the butterflies and beneficial pollinators prefer the flowers over the parent. The flowers are excellent for cutting and use in floral arrangements, however if some spent flowers are left on the plant the black seed cones will provide interest in the garden and also seeds for goldfinches and other birds to munch on. The seeds the birds don’t get will drop to the ground and start new plants, which makes this one a perfect plant for naturalizing in a sunny to partially shaded woodland border or wildflower garden. Very easy to grow, all that’s needed is plenty of sun and a well-drained soil of average fertility to have this beautiful hula girl dancing in and livening up your garden.

Butterflies, skippers, bees and the occasional hummingbird feed on the nectar of coneflowers. Caterpillars of the Silvery Checkerspot butterfly and several moths feed on the foliage. Eastern Goldfinches consume the nutlike seed.

Growing to 3 feet tall and 18 inches wide in bloom, the Hula Dancer Coneflower is ideal for use in sunny to lightly shaded woodland borders, perennial gardens, wildlife gardens, prairie and meadow gardens, butterfly gardens, cut flower gardens, native plant gardens, cottage cottage gardens, and white or pink theme gardens.

Suggested Spacing:  15 to 18 inches for mass plantings; 36 inches or more for space between plants

Hula Dancer Coneflower is very easy to grow in most any well-drained soil of average to low fertility in full sun or light shade. Too much shade or too rich of a soil might cause the plant to flop, so give it as much sun as possible and don’t over-feed. We suggest at least 5 hours of direct sunlight for best flowering. As with many other perennial plants, constantly soggy or wet soils can be problematic. Plants are quite drought tolerant when established, growing in even rocky soils, and are also heat and humidity tolerant in Zones 3-8b. Heavy, dense clay soils should be amended with organic matter to ensure good drainage.