Coneflowers are native to North America

 

 

Coneflowers originated in North America. Then the English discovered these wild-growing New World flowers and took them back to England where the coneflower fared very nicely in English gardens. After a little over a century on the island, Lewis and Clark sent specimens back to the United States to the attention of President Jefferson.

But it was the Germans during the flower power era of the 1960s who finally gave the coneflower the attention it deserves. The German plant breeders cross bred various coneflower species to create an improved range of colours, forms and growing habits. By the 1980s American plant breeders had picked up the work. Today there are possibly 100 hybrids and cultivated varieties of coneflower available.