Who hasn't heard that Echinacea will help cold sufferers get over their cold more quickly, or that taking it will prevent a cold in the first place?

Sellers claim it will relieve flu symptoms and respiratory problems. Echinacea was the leading herb supplement sold in the United States in 1996 and 1997. It remains the leading herb supplement sold in Australia.

Many, both herbal practitioners and patients, believe in the efficacy of Echinacea. They believe that it will strengthen their immune systems and help the body resist infections from cold and flu. In Germany, Echinacea is sold as an over-the-counter medication. Others contradict these claims with the declaration that there is little to no evidence that Echinacea is useful in enhancing the immune system or keeping colds at bay.

While the two sides slug it out over the usefulness of Echinacea as an herbal supplement, let's take a look at some other aspects of Echinacea.

Echinacea comes from the Greek echinos, which means sea urchin or hedgehog. If you run your fingers over the cone part of the Echinacea flower, you'll discover why it may have been named after a hedgehog: it feels very rough and spiny.

Echinacea is native to the central and eastern United States. Native American tribes are reported to have used Echinacea for a wide variety of uses, from sucking on the root to ease toothaches, sore throats and coughs, to cure infections from a variety of sources.

It was used as a poultice to protect against the hydrophobia caused by rabid animal bite. The Delaware Indians used Echinacea to treat venereal disease. Records indicate early European settlers using Echinacea to treat saddle sores on horses.

Echinacea has much to recommend it for the home gardener. It grows reliably, generally from 2 to 4 feet tall in full sun to light shade. It likes well-drained soils. It's a pretty well-behaved plant, self-sowing some, but not so that you can't keep up with it. It stays in a nice clump, and generally, the flower stalks stand upright.

Seed-eating birds like it, butterflies like it and bees like it. If you leave the flower stalks throughout the winter, the seed heads can be stunning when covered with new snow.

Flowers last many weeks throughout the summer and they can be cut and taken indoors. Once Echinacea is established in your garden, it will tolerate drought and rarely requires watering. Deer don't seem to like the plants or the flowers.

When I first became interested in gardening, I found Echinacea flowers generally in two colors, a dark pinkish-purple and white. The petals drooped around a brown, cone-shaped center that was bristly to the touch. The plants were generally of the species purpurea. Now, it's quite a different story.

Plant breeders have been busy producing new cultivars of Echinacea. These cultivars have a variety of characteristics, from changes in the flower color to petals that stand straight out from the center to a center that is not cone-shaped, but flat. A few even exude a fragrance, slight though it is to my undiscerning nose. I can get my Echinacea in bright yellow to a dusky yellow with long thin drooping or wider petals. I can try out cultivars that run the gamut from the colors of sunrise to the hues of the setting sun.

In fact, there are cultivars named for both these daily events. Sunrise has soft yellow flowers with a flattened cone center that starts out green and widens and turns brown as the flower ages. Sunset has bright orange petals that droop from a reddish-brown cone.

And the list goes on. Harvest Moon¿ features drooping soft gold-yellow petals around a gold-orange center and a sweet fragrance. Razzmatazz has large double pom-pom flowers. In 1998, the Perennial Plant Association chose Magnus as Perennial of the Year. It has broad purple pink flowers that stand out straight from a dark cone center. A plant catalog I just received features on the cover Meringue with a fluffy yellow center and pale yellow petals. On an Internet search, I discovered Gone Crazy, an Echinacea with quilled petals.

When you're thinking about new cultivars, it can be helpful to talk to the nursery owner about how long the cultivar has been in production and if it can be relied upon to remain true to its advertised characteristics. The newest cultivars are also the most expensive and can represent quite an investment.

Several years ago, when the first orange-colored Echinacea were on the market, a local nursery owner told me that I would be better off waiting until the plants had been out a couple years before trying them. She told me that hybrids are frequently rushed to market and that the newly hybridized plants may not be strong enough to survive.

Susan Struthers is a Master Gardener with the Penn State Master Gardener program. She lives in Butler County.