plants: Coneflower Seed Bombs

I'm a big fan of purple coneflower, Echinacea purpurea. In my opinion, it's really difficult to have too many of them. They are beautiful when in bloom with deep purple-pink petals and bright orange centers, and they're a native of our prairies that has spread around the globe in the horticultural market. They also don't seem to require much babying, and are happy to spread around; two characteristics that I'm a big fan of.

But there is a time of year (NOW), when they start looking a bedraggled. The flowers are done and the seeds have matured, leaving these ugly black seedheads behind.

They make the garden look dead and kind of wintery. (Winter it is not.) Now, the finches love these seedheads, so if you have a mind to attract wildlife to the garden, they are perfect. In the fall, the little birds will perch on these black pompoms and pick out the seeds. I often leave them for the finches and call the mess beautiful a la Piet Ouldof, but this year, I have other plans...I'm using them as echinacea seed bombs.

Guerilla gardeners are fans of making seed bombs by mixing seeds and clay together, then lobbing them onto vacant property to spread the gospel of flowers. I love that.

Well, I think echnicacea has made this job quite easy, by creating perfect little seed bombs naturally. So this weekend I clipped off all of the seedheads and threw them into this plastic bag. Voila! Seeds ready to bomb.

The plan is to spread these around my yard even more, but I also can't wait to spread them around the greenbelt near my house. It is really wanting some purple coneflowers. And the finches will love it!