Echinacea is a terrific supplement for enhancing your immune responses. I like to use Echinacea in tea form. The warmth of the brew seems so much more conducive to believing you are being boosted than popping a supplement. The taste is rather nondescript, so to enhance and cool the tea, I add a splash of my favorite fruit juice.

There are some precautions on who should take Echinacea. The University of Maryland has a good article on the do’s and don’ts of using Echinacea.

Echinacea is also a terrific garden plant, and one of the workhorses of my gardens. Not only are they beautiful when cloaked in their summertime blossoms…

They also form attractive seedpods that help supplement the diet of local birds all through the winter. I think they are beautiful dappled with yesterday’s light snowfall.

My Echinacea grows best in 6 -8 hours of sun per day. Planted near the birdfeeder, the plant provides both a meal and a resting place for birds throughout the entire year.