I prefer...to get rid of them, LOL! I have tons of e. purpurea...these things are what they call promiscuous. I have never heard of the rubinstern. Is it a species, or a cultivar? I will go google it right now! April.

Ok..I have googled. Rubinstern is a cultivar, and the petals are less drooping than in the species, e. purpurea.

Since I'm into native plants, I would prefer E. Purpurea(species) over E. Purpurea Rubinstern(cultivar). Since I'm trying to make my prairie less of a monoculture of echinacea...I'm into giving the stuff away!

It really depends on what kind of gardening you prefer, whether one or the other would work better for you. I feel they would both work for you.

all I know is that they love life, and reproduce gaily and abundantly! LOL! April

e. purperea is the poster child of native wildflowers. i like it. i dont have a problem with it being aggressive because of the soil that i have.

i am not familiar with the cultivars so i cannot comment on it -

I planted three Ruby Star (Rubinstern) last spring. I got them from Bluestone so they were small but they grew fast and each produced flowers. The color of the flowers is a deeper and richer color than the purpurea. The petals are held out more horizontally and overall I would say I prefer it to the species although purpurea has plenty going for it as well.

My Pupurea seemed to have evolved some differences all on their own...some of them have maroon stems, and darker flowers, and some of them have green stems, and lighter flowers.

They are great clay-busting plants, I must say! They will grow where nothing else will. But since I don't have clay...they run rampant, and sometimes I must trim the herd. April

I bet it's a beautiful site in mid summer, April ? :)

Thank you everyone! Appreciate your thoughts.
Sally

dbarron,

Yes, it's very pretty...but it's all one thing!

Here is a link that might be useful:

I believe E. angustifolia is native to MN

Vera

Thanks. I'll check into E. augustifolia as well. Nice pic ahughes798!!
Sally

Wow April! I woudn't mind a corner of all that purple!! I LOVE purple..cant wait to see mine :)

Vera

Want some of it? LOL! April

I loved that butterfly in the middle of all that purple.
Sheila

Me too! My idea is not to kick him out of house and home, but to expand...so that other types of butterflies and insects can live there, too! I plant parsley for tiger swallowtail caterpillars.

i believe that E. pallida is the only native Echinacea to MN.

froggy

Seems E. angustifolia is native to MN....this following page has some info. Folks living in MN,ND and SD can get free seed...more info at the site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Echinacea

I think Pallida is very beautiful. In fact, it puts all the other coneflowers to shame. The blooms are much bigger. It's more difficult to grow, but they are so distinctive.

E. pallida is more of a prairie plant...hot, dry, sun. E. purpurea is more of a prairie\woodland edge plant. Something to keep in mind when planting.