Mellow Yellows Coneflower

Mellow Yellows is a seed strain rather than a single clone, so a planting gives you creamy white through lemon to deep gold across different plants. This native selection, Echinacea purpurea 'Mellow Yellows', grows 24 to 30 inches tall and 12 to 24 inches wide in full sun to part sun, hardy from Zone 4 through Zone 8. Bloom runs from early summer into fall on sturdy branching stems. Because the shades come from seed, you cannot choose which you get, and planting three or more gives you the range. The flowers carry a light fragrance, which is uncommon in a coneflower. Leave the last seedheads standing at the end of the season for goldfinches. Purple coneflower takes drought, heat, humidity, poor soil, and clay once established, and full sun gives the sturdiest stems. Deer generally leave it alone.