Rainbow Sherbet Coneflower - 72-Cell Plug Tray

Rainbow Sherbet is a fully double coneflower whose pompom blooms start out orange and fade to coral pink, so a single plant shows two tones at once. The 4½-inch flowers are big and full, with a skirt of wide petals framing a tufted center.

The plant forms a dark green mound 26 to 28 inches tall with strong branching stems that hold the heavy flowers upright. Use it in the middle of a sunny border, in large containers or as a cut flower, where its warm blend of colors reads from a distance.

What it looks like

Fully double pompom flowers about 4½ inches across: a dense, rounded central tuft of short petals surrounded by a single ring of wide, overlapping ray petals held nearly flat. Newly opened blooms are bright tangerine orange and older blooms soften to coral pink, so orange and coral flowers appear side by side. Flowers sit on sturdy, branched stems above a mounded base of dark green, lance-shaped leaves. The plant grows 26 to 28 inches tall and 18 to 24 inches wide. At peak bloom in midsummer it is topped with many large pompoms in mixed orange and coral.

Growing it with lavender

Its orange-to-coral pompoms make a warm contrast to cool purple lavender, and it wants the same sunny, well-drained ground.

Care

Give it full sun to light part shade and average to lean soil that drains well; once established it handles dry spells with little extra water. Hardy in zones 4 to 8. Snip faded flowers to keep it tidy, or leave the last round of seed heads standing for winter birds.

At a glance

• Botanical name: Echinacea
• Flower color: Tangerine orange aging to coral pink
• Foliage: Dark green
• Growth habit: Mounded with upright branched stems
• Mature size: 26–28 in tall × 18–24 in wide
• USDA hardiness zones: 4–8
• Light: full sun, part sun to part shade
• Bloom start: Early-July
• Peak bloom: Late-July
• Bloom pattern: Long Blooming
• Deer resistance: Resistant
• Pollinator value: Good

Sizes and shipping

One full 72-cell plug tray: 72 young starter plugs of this variety (cells about 1⅓ in. wide × 2½ in. deep), rooted and ready to pot up into quarts or gallons. Best for growers and nurseries. Potted plants and plug trays ship during our live-plant seasons, March 1–May 31 and October 1–November 30; June through September is local pickup only. Plugs, potted plants and trays do not ship to AZ, CA, HI, ID, NV, OR, UT or WA.