Plant Patent #16,235.It's the dawn of a new day for Echinacea -- 'Sunrise' is not only a color breakthrough, but a huge improvement over older varieties in fragrance and flower size! If it weren't so easy to grow, tolerant of every stress from poor soil to drought, and hardy across the country, we'd have to wonder if it were really a Coneflower!
These blooms are staggering -- fully 4½ to 5 inches wide, emerging a deep, rich yellow with a sweet fragrance. Cut all you like -- the stems are as thick as pencils, for a few extra days of glory in garden or vase! As the blooms mature, they turn a lighter, more buttery shade of yellow, so by the middle of summer, your planting will have every shade of yellow from "school bus" to pale lemon blooming at once! What a cheery prospect for the sun-soaked garden!
'Sunrise' reaches 30 to 36 inches tall and wide, well branched and sturdy. This plant was selected and extensively trialed by master plantsman Richard Saul of Georgia, so you know it's got "good bones"!
As exciting as the color and size of these flowers is the fragrance -- sweet, not overpowering but definitely distinctive, and even richer and stronger on a hot summer day! The butterflies and bees will have a field day with the huge central cones -- as will the songbirds in fall, when the petals drop from the blooms and the cones dry out into tasty seeds. (Be sure to leave your final round of flowers on the plants to enjoy the spectacle of birds delicately perched on the stems, picking out the seeds!)
Plant 'Sunrise' in any moist, well-drained garden soil exposed to full sun, and keep it very well watered and fed the first season or two. Once established, it is wonderfully tolerant of heat, humidity, poor soil, cold, and even drought! Zones 4-9.
