It started snowing earlier so I took a few shots of these Echinacea (or Purple Cone Flower) seeds heads before the snow got heavy.

I like to leave the seed heads on a lot of my flowers and herbs out in the garden. Birds and other creatures eat the seeds during the winter and then in the spring I always find lots of these little starts under my pine trees. 

Why?

The birds nest in the pines! After the birds have eaten the Echinacea seeds, they get “gift wrapped” in bird poop and deposited beneath the trees.  It’s a sort of messy little fertilizer package!

Since Echinacea won’t thrive on the heavy shade of the pine trees I end up yanking most of the volunteer starts, but occasionally I’ll replant some of them into a new herb bed.

When the Echinacea plants are at least three years old I dig up the roots for tincture making. After I plant some of their seeds, most of these lucky plants will be dug up next fall when they are three!