How to Propagate Coneflower Plants
Learning how to propagate coneflowers is easy. You can collect your own seeds or propagate by division from mature plants. These herbaceous perennials are tough flowers and grow well in zones 4 to 10. Also known by the genus name Echinacea, some coneflowers attain a height of two feet to as much as six feet tall. Flowers resemble daisies and make a delightful garden when planted in thick clumps.
Required Items
- Potting tray
- Potting mix
- Ziploc bag
- Paper bag
- Fertilizer
- Knife
- Trowel
Collect seeds from spent flowers in your garden or plants growing in meadows or along roadsides. Place spent flower heads into a paper bag and gently separate the seeds with your fingers from the flower head into the bag. Let the seeds dry in the paper bag.
Store seeds in Ziploc bags and keep them in your vegetable bin of the refrigerator. These will keep well for spring planting.
Use a nursery potting tray to plant the coneflower seeds in the spring. Fill each section using potting soil until it is three-quarters full. Spread seeds over the soil. Cover the seeds with a small amount of potting soil. Water well and place potting trays in a sunny spot.
Transplant seedlings when they are approximately four inches in height to garden beds.
Propagate mature coneflowers with division in the spring after they show signs of new growth. Dig up each cornflower with a shovel or trowel. Leave a perimeter of six inches or more from the stem of the plant to begin digging.
Shake off the dirt and prepare to separate the roots by cutting with a knife. Locate individual stems and roots. Cut the stems with their roots from the main plant to form divisions.
Dig garden holes for each plant about the size of the root ball. Use native soil from the area to fill the holes.
- Fertilize using a general fertilizer according to package directions. Coneflower plants should be fertilized in March or early April every year.