Plant yourself a prairie

Large pink echinaceas are well worth growing, says Ruth

- Ruth Hayes

EVERYONE has a favourite flower or two and up there in my top three (with Cosmos and honeywort) is Echinacea. I love their open daisy faces, the way bees and other pollinators flock to them, and the fact that they will flower well into the autumn, looking stunning when paired with other 'prairie' plants such as long grasses, rudbeckias, and Stachys.

I realize I am lucky to be able to grow them in our open, chalky soil (they hate heavy, waterlogged conditions) and this year have added a couple of the unusual green-flowered variety 'Green Twister' to our beds.

This week's free seeds are for a more recognized variety, 'Large Flowered'. They produce pink blooms with bronze centres held on robust tall stems that can grow to 48in (120cm) tall.