Sombrero® Salsa Red Coneflower

Add a spicy burst of clear red to your summer border or containers. A member of the Sombrero® series, Sombrero® Salsa Red Coneflowers PP #23,105 (Echinacea x 'Balsomsed') makes a happy splash of festive color throughout your landscape.

It stays small and compact, and features plenty of branching, filling out in coarse, scratchy green leaves with pointed tips. The foliage is the perfect backdrop for those fiery red blooms with dark spikey raised center domes with red tips! It may be difficult to see them, however, because they will be smothered in bees, and butterflies for their nectar, and the pollen attracts beneficial insects and solitary bees galore!

Imagine a fiery show of free-flowering blooms from mid-summer through frost. These Plants that Work® perennials thrive throughout USDA planting zones 4 to 9 and are vivid attention seekers that grow around 2 feet tall and nearly as wide.

Planting and Application:

These dynamic blooms will work in ultra-modern yards, handling urban conditions and pollution, formal and informal styles, and just about any style in between. They would really sparkle against a stone-clad house, especially gray or any shade of tan. The hot-colored blooms will punch up the front of your border or as groupings in the mid-borders!

Add this in mass for an incredible addition to your Pollinator Garden. Every butterfly in your neighborhood will want to come to check out the party going on at Sombrero® Salsa Red Coneflower. Take a walk around your landscape, and look for sunny spots that need months of red-hot color!

Rely on this plant to pump up the visual interest in your planting beds. Try cutting the blooms, along with their long, sturdy stems to take indoors for high-impact cut flower arrangements. Grow them in Containers and mixed Planters on sunny porches and patios, a must-have for the cutting garden, Cottage borders, or in mixed perennial borders!

Renters, don't feel left out. You can grow Salsa Red in large outdoor containers to decorate your sun-soaked balcony, patio, porch or entryway. Keep them watered for the best results!

Xeric gardens and Rock gardens are perfect for these tough native cultivars, and the deep roots thrive in drought but also make them have increased survivability for fire! Include these plants in your fire-wise landscaping plan with other hot and jewel-toned flowers!

Maximize their impact and leverage this toughness with three or more of these perennial plants massed together in a loose triangle. (Let's face it...when a color is this amazing, you'll want to use more of it!) Another great way to boost your curb appeal is to run them all along your front walkway in a narrow planting bed. Space them 12 inches apart in a zigzagging planting pattern. Measure from the center of one to the center of the next.

This same technique can be used to create a larger mass planting to cover a wide, open space. Just add more plants in additional rows, then mulch between plants. Be sure to keep new beds weeded until they grow together.

Mix Coneflower with other tough Xeric like Russian Sage, Shasta Daisy, and Sedum for contrast, and include some Ornamental Grass seed heads for airy foliage. It would be an incredible foil for Red or Great Blue Lobelia, or any color Rose you can think of! Add some Rudbeckia and Milkweed to support more birds and Monarch butterflies too!

• Huge, Orange-Red Flowers & Dark Domed Centers
• Birds and Butterflies Love These Tall, Showy Flowers
• Great in Cut Flower Arrangements
• Well-Branched Compact Green Foliage
• Long-Blooming Nectar Source for Butterflies & Beneficial Pollinators
• Leave Spent Flowers Standing for Winter Interest & Songbirds
• Sun Gardens, Beds & Borders, Xeric & Fire-Wise Landscaping

#ProPlantTips for Care:

Plant in full sun where it will receive at least six hours of direct sunlight a day. They'll thrive in hot, sunny spots across most of the United States. Echinacea Sombrero® is an herbaceous perennial that requires well-drained soils to thrive. It won't tolerate "wet feet" or long-lasting soil moisture. Plant in raised beds or containers if your ground retains water for a long time after rain.

You'll love the long-lasting blooms and easy-care nature. It simply laughs at drought, clay soils, cold, and heat! Use Nature Hills Root Booster when planting to give your plants the micronutrients and beneficial soil amendments they need. Follow the directions on the package. Mulch and regular fertilizer give them a boost.

During the first season, please pay close attention to watering. Once their long, Prairie-style roots are well-established in your soil, Sombrero® Salsa Red Coneflowers become waterwise. You'll get more blooms over the growing season with a regular schedule of supplemental water. Do give it supplemental water in extended periods of extreme heat, or if you are growing this hot little number in large containers. You'd hate to miss a single, cheerful bloom, after all!

Deadhead the blooms after they are fully open for indoor flower arrangements. You'll encourage a new flush of blooms with this quick task, and decorate your home at the same time. Leave the last blooms of the season standing to give you some much-needed winter interest. They'll develop their beautiful seed heads that help feed local songbirds. In early spring, remove the spent flowers to within an inch of the ground.

• Easy to Grow & Vigorous Full Sun Perennial
• Well-Drained Conditions & Tolerates Poor Soil
• Widely Adaptable - Moderate to Low Moisture Needs
• Drought Tolerant, But Performs Best With Regular Water
• Tolerates Humidity, Heat & Cold-Hardy

Bold, fiery, and easy to grow, this perennial plant is hot, hot, hot and we'll sell out of Sombrero® Salsa Red Coneflower quickly. Why be shy? Please place your order now at NatureHills.com … you won't want to miss this special variety!