Cone Flowers or Echinacea
Echinacea is an herbaceous flower commonly called coneflowers. That means they are edible. Daisies have been my favorite flower since I can remember. Echinacea is in the daisy family and since being edible it is not harmful to pets. For this reason, I planted three flowers in my front flower bed two years ago. The flowers were ridiculously small the year I planted them, and I was not sure they would live over winter. The next year they came back and were a little bigger but still three plants.
This year they exploded all over my entire flower bed. I got so many compliments and my neighbor asked if she could get some of the seed heads for her flower gardens next summer. We trade flower starts a lot and she has given me several, so of course I gave her some. I also got a request for seeds from my sister-in-law and will be mailing them too her as soon as I am finished drying them enough to shake all of the seeds of them.
In doing some research this spring I also discovered that it is not only not harmful to pets, but some people make a tea out of it and give to their cats to boost their immune system and help with stress. I am careful with my cats, so I googled it and read many articles and they all said it was safe for cats if they nibble on it.
My sons’ cat, KitKat lives with me while he is in the Navy. She is the one that always wants to nibble at my house plants or if I bring in cut flowers. I research every house plant to make sure it safe because I know she will get into it. So, I cut one flower and put it in a vase where she could get to it jus to se her reaction. She started nibbling on the petals as soon as she set eyes on it, so all summer I have kept at least one fresh flower in that vase.
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Christine