Coneflowers: A Few Photos Starting With Echinacea "Mac N Cheese", 1 by amorecuore

amorecuore wrote:
Howdy

Most of my Coneflowers are starting to bloom now after being quiet and looking bad most of the winter down here in Zone 10. The two that didn't make it through the winter were "Primadonna White" and "Pink Parasol". I get the feeling there might be some growing problems across the board with Echinacea "Mac N Cheese". I haven't read anything about this but I've noticed there are now very few online retailers offering this variety for purchase or they have pushed back the release for sale date. Echinacea "Tomato Soup" is a good growing plant, but hasnt produced any blooms for me quite yet.
Growing Rudbeckia from seed has been a real challenge for me down here. I have about 5 or 6 varieties growing and most of them look healthy but havent had any blooms to date. The only exception has been Rudbeckia "Tiger Eye Gold" which has been a great grower from seed and all 4 plants I have are blooming or had buds on them. Four of the six Rudbeckia "Cherry Brandy" plants I grew looked great and then went into sudden death for some reason. The other two still look good, but no blooms yet. I ordered and received 3 new "Cherry Brandy" plants from http://www.bluestoneperennials.com last week. They are nice sized starter plants and appear to be very healthy. They are the only online company I could find selling Rudbeckia "Cherry Brandy" as starter sized plants. I recommend them if anyone wants to go that route with "Cherry Brandy".
Even though this has nothing to do with Coneflowers if you're looking for something different/beautiful and easy to grow from seed I highly recommend Aster "Spider Chrysanthemum Mix" from Thompson & Morgan. These are easy growing 3-4 inch blooms on plants that branched well with just one pinching. Here is a photo from yesterday on a white colored one that turns pink around the edges after a couple of days.