Grower Tips to Overwinter Echinacea Successfully

Though echinacea is easy to grow once it's in the landscape, it can be a bit of a challenge for growers especially when it comes to overwintering.  Here are some tips to overwintering echinacea successfully.

Most of the echinaceas we ship in the spring have been overwintered here in minimally heated houses. If you are receiving your echinaceas in the fall, here are a few tips from our growers about overwintering them successfully yourself.

Salts

Be sure to keep soluble salts low.

Moisture

Hold plants on the dry side but not too dry because it can be difficult to rehydrate them if they've dried out too much.

Temperature

Hold them at a constant temperature of 38-40 degrees F in gallon containers or at a constant temperature of 45 degrees F in our 50mm Elle Plugs. Echinaceas tend to overwinter better in larger containers.

Disease Management

If you plan to pot the plants up into 1-gal containers, grow them on for a bit, and then let them go dormant, we recommend doing one preventative fungicide drench immediately after transplanting and then another drench about 14 days later. This can help protect the plants as they head off into dormancy. Be sure to watch for botrytis as they start to go dormant and keep the dying foliage off the plants. Botrytis can be minimized to a great extent by monitoring when and how much the plants are watered.