Thanks,
kentstar

Million seedlings is right - my patches have gotten so thick and reseeded so much - I am weeding them out! So now I cut back most of the seedheads, leaving a few for the Goldfinches. But I also collect some and put them in a brown paper bag in the garage. Periodically through the winter, I grab a bunch and tape it to the bird feeders. The Goldfinches and Pine Siskins love them! (Then, I get seedlings sprouting under the bird feeders.)

I'm not cutting off the leaves on mine, since they are still green & not only that, but I doubt this offers any real 'protection' from winter, anyway.

Actually, come to think of it, I might recall from this past spring, quite a few posts from people complaining about a terrible lack of hardiness, on some of the newer Echinacea cultivars. Some of of the very same ones, which you happen to name.
I would imagine they used mulch, probably being in a slightly colder zone than I, expecting protection, but to no avail. I have my doubts, that it was loss due to 'inexperience' with gardening, but rather the cultivars being not so hardy.

Now that I think about it... I'd sure hate to find out mine isn't very winter hardy either & would regret having to get a replacement (another small one at that & starting all over again) in a matter of only just a few months. So I may just end up putting it in the garage in a larger pot for some period of time, during the winter. Especially if it there is a sudden cold spell predicted.
I'm not going to trust its survival (were it planted in the ground & mulched, or not) to a sudden severe cold snap, even if a catalog does state most Echinacea are winter hardy to zone five temperatures.

Not after what I've read here this past spring, with people wondering when their new Echinacea cultivars were ever going to appear again...