Coneflower

Growth habit

Herbaceous

Perennation

Long-lived polycarpic perennial

Location

Peterson Oak Grove, Young Flower Garden

Source of plant

Plant Delights, Cayuga Landscape Company

Description

Single, deep red-orange colored inflorescences, medium green-colored foliage, and moderately vigorous, compact-upright growth habit. (DS 745) SALSA RED is a single-type, orange-red coneflower in the SOMBRERO series of Echinacea cultivars introduced by Darwin Perennials. It is the result of a cross-pollination of one proprietary Echinacea hybrid selection (female) with a bulk pollen mix of seven Echinacea hybrid selections (male) which occurred in a controlled breeding program conducted in Elburn, Illinois in 2007. U. S. Plant Patent PP23,105 was issued on October 9, 2012 under the cultivar name of 'Balsomsed'. This is an compact, upright coneflower that typically grows in a clump to 22-24” tall and to 16-20" wide on sturdy stems that do not need staking. Each mildly-aromatic flower (to 3" diameter) features drooping, showy, deep orange-red rays in a single whorl (about 25 rays per whorl) surrounding a sombrero-shaped, orange-brown center cone containing numerous (to around 300), tiny, spirally-arranged disk florets. Flowers bloom from late spring to late summer, sometimes with additional sporadic bloom until frost. Strigose, widely-serrate, medium green leaves (to 7” long) are narrow-ovate to lanceolate. Good fresh cut or dried flower. The dead flower stems will remain erect well into the winter, and if flower heads are not removed, the blackened cones are often visited by goldfinches that feed on the seeds. (DS 654)

USDA Hardiness Zone

4