h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Echinacea is used to make medicine against head colds and the like, are they not?

Is it your experience that some plants survive winters better than others from the exact same species?

Yes. That is my experience.

I have grown fond of Echinacea plants over the years. It started when I was part of a small committee that was trying to beautify our park on a shoestring budget. That first year, I grew five or six types of flowers from seed in pots on my windowsill: Coneflowers (Echinacea),
Blackeyed Susans (Rudbeckia), asters, Coreopsis, marigolds, and zinnias. Some of those plants are still alive and thriving. In some other cases, the descendants of the original plants are still going strong.

I got used to identifying seedlings as they came up out of the soil. After a few years, I could spot tiny Echinacea seedlings growing near their parents. Last Summer was a banner year for such seedlings. I harvested them, put them in pots, watered them all Summer, and resumed watering them in the Spring as they came back up from the roots.

This afternoon I put another plant into a permanent place in the ground. I sprayed it with rabbit repellent, just to be safe. When I took it out of the pot, I could tell that its root mass was huge compared with its size when I first took it out of the ground. It will now grow even more roots.