Back in the early 1990s there was a problem with Coneflowers down in Georgia.    

Well, not a problem if you grew them in your garden, but a problem if you were a nursery keeping plants in pots over the winter. And that meant there was a supply problem with Coneflowers down in Georgia.    

While the cooler climates of more northern regions are perfect for Echinacea purpurea it doesn't take so well to the southern winters, so Richard Saul decided he wanted to do something about that.    

While Echinacea purpurea is desirable for most gardeners because of its sturdy stems and branching habit, its wirier yellow-flowered cousin Echinacea paradoxa is more suited to the southern climate. So Richard figured that if he could get a balanced cross between the two then he would have a plant with both southern hardiness and a desirable habit.

At that time the incredible colour mixes that would also occur was beyond his dreams!

The seedlings from the first set of crossings yielded E. 'Paranoia', a yellow variety that showed some E. pupurea traits.

Happy to have proved that the cross could achieve the desired effect, Richard kept selecting seedlings and re-crossing over and over again until the remarkable plants now released as the 'Big Sky' series started to emerge.

E. 'Twilight' was selected out of the third generation of crosses, so its genetic makeup is very mixed and the ratio of chance of its emergence too big to even contemplate!

You may have encountered this image of E. 'Twilight', showing the richness of the rosy-red colouring when the flowers aren't in bright sunlight.

E. 'Twilight' is the most branching of the 'Big Sky' coneflowers and in Richard's opinion the nicest blend of colours, with rosy-red petals fanning around a deep-red cone. Its rich hues are an excellent example of E. purpurea's pigments being put to work.