Echinacea  Echinacea purpurea

Echinacea has daisy-like flowers with large pink to purple petal-like ray flowers surrounding a high brownish-orange cone that resembles the scales of a hedgehog (echinos is Greek for hedgehog). The flower heads can reach 4 to 5 inches in diameter. Stems are about 2 to 3 ft high, rough and bristly throughout. The leaves are also bristly and dark green. The roots are tapering, cylindrical, slightly spiral, and fibrous with as aromatic smell.

Seed-starting:  The seeds are light-dependent so they need to be pushed into the soil but not buried. Germination can take 2 to 3 weeks. After they emerge, they sort of just sit there for a few weeks, before vigorous growth ensues.

Site: Echinacea is a relatively easy-to-grow perennial. The plant likes poor to moderately rich, free draining soil. If you are planting in clay soil, mix in plenty of sharp sand and compost to help lighten it up. They’d also like a full day of sun. Once established these are drought tolerant plants.

Harvest: Harvest flowers, seed heads, or roots. The roots tend to be the most potent form and more stable as tincture. The bad news is they are always underwhelming. Plus it’s said to wait until your plants are 3 years old to harvest the roots. Roots are harvested in the fall when the tops have gone to seed. I prefer to harvest aerial parts in seed. Basically once the purple ray flowers start to fall off and the “hedgehog” looking seed head starts to brown. 

Medicine:  Echinacea is known primarily as an immune stimulant to be taken at the earliest stages of colds. For this take the herb in smaller, but frequent doses, say one squirt of tincture every hour or two at the first signs of sore throat, loss of energy, body ache, or however colds manifest for you. There is a lot of debate right now about Echinacea being effective. One review I read of 14 clinical trials found that Echinacea reduced the odds of getting a cold by 60% and reduced the duration of the cold by 4 days. Mostly the plant helps the body produce white blood cells to help the body get rid of invaders.