When to Plant an Echinacea Cotton Candy Plant

History

• Netherlands plant breeder Arie Blom introduced the Cotton Candy in 2008 as part of the Cone-fections Echinacea series. This breeder specializes in producing double-flowered Echinaceas. Patent-pending Cotton Candy is an Echinacea purpurea hybrid.

Appearance

• Cotton Candy stands up to 34 inches high, with strong, upright heavily branched stems. It has mid-summer to early fall, pompom flowers. Long ray petals surround the rosy-pink blooms' densely packed cone of center petals. Each flower is up to 4 inches across. The zinnialike cone has a pale green heart.

When to Plant

• Plant your Cotton Candy Echinacea in late summer autumn, no later than six weeks before your area's typical first hard frost date. It needs that much time to establish roots before going dormant in the winter. A good root system will help the plant stay strong when hot weather arrives the following summer.

Where to Plant

• Cotton Candy tolerates winter lows in United States Department of Agriculture Plant hardiness Zones 3 to 9, with winter lows raging from minus 40 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. It needs a sunny to partly sunny location. Well-drained soil is essential, but Cotton Candy isn't fussy about soil type. Amend poor soil with compost before planting for better performing plants, advises Troy Avent and Dennis Carey of Plant Delights Nursery.

Care

• Water newly planted Cotton Candy deeply to eliminate air pockets from the planting hole. Let the soil surface dry before watering again. Water in the morning, avoiding the leaves. In prolonged hot, dry periods, the plants benefit from 1 to 2 inches of supplemental weekly water. Conserve soil moisture with a 1- to-2-inch layer of organic mulch. A heavier layer may encourage crown rot, because Echinacea hates continually wet roots. Cotton Candy's double blooms weigh enough that plants in windy locations may require staking.

Propagation

• Cotton Candy, like other hybrid echinaceas, doesn't come true from seed. Commercial growers propagate it from stem cuttings grown in tissue cultures and sterile environments. Increase your number of Cotton Candy plants by dividing the clumps every three to four years.