The plants in my north-facing front yard really took a hit over the winter. Perennials are expensive, so to replace them I looked for native plants like butterfly weed, false indigo and purple coneflowers that are tougher and can better handle the blasts of arctic air we’ve endured over the last couple of winters.
When shopping for coneflowers, I was once again lured in by the less-hardy hybrids. I never learn my lesson. This time I was intrigued by two new medium-sized cultivars. This is ‘Julia’:
The plant is named after the orange European Julia Butterfly. ‘Julia’ grows in a mound that reaches 16 to 18 inches tall. The flowers are big and showy—they’re dark-tangerine and 4 inches across.
‘Julia’ is hardy in Zones 5-8 but many sellers list the plant’s hardiness at Zones 4-8 and include an asterisk or question mark. I’m not sure if they “hope” the plant is hardy in Zone 4, or if there’s some solid evidence to back that up, but if you garden in Zone 4 you’ve been warned.
I didn’t want ‘Julia’ to be lonely, so I also purchased its sibling from the same Butterfly series. ‘Cleopatra’ shares its name with a Mediterranean butterfly:
‘Cleopatra’ grows 15 to 18 inches tall. The flowers are bright yellow and just a tad smaller than Julia’s at 3.5 inches.
The plants are bushy and drought-resistant once established. ‘Cleopatra’ is hardy in Zones 4-9 (only one seller I checked had the Zone 4 asterisk).
Both ‘Julia’ and ‘Cleopatra’ are blooming earlier than any of the native or hybrid coneflowers I grow.
I’ll report on their progress again in mid-summer after they’ve had to time to settle in. So far I’m cautiously optimistic.