The purple coneflowers that my wife and I planted reappear, usually in greater abundance, each year; some years, however, their seeds end up in the grass instead in the flowerbed. We are believers in planting as many flowers native to our area as possible. The purple coneflower, we discovered, is ignored by the deer who don't find the flower as tasty as, say, lilies. Most years, these flowers, in their adaptability to our climate, can resist periods of little or no rain.
Our flowers were prettiest before the most recent spell of eleven one-hundred degree days in a row. Even our watering regularly didn't prevent them from drying out. They are closer in appearance now to how they normally look in late August.
The pictures below capture our purple coneflowers when they were at their prettiest. If you should decide that you want to see these pictures blown up a little, click on one and then zoom in by clicking on 150% or 200%.
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