I bought 4 echinacea "Ruby Star" at the end of the growing season on sale at a local nursery last year, and planted them in a large raised bed. 3 of the 4 look great. But one of them has leaves on it that are curling a bit, discolored (lighter around the edges) and kind of bumpy. Is this that 'asters yellow' disease? Or is it something less sinister?
Here's a pic of the plant with the funny leaves . . .
Here's close up of one of the weird leaves on this plant
I don't think so. Here's a link that might come in handy.
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex578
Thanks for the quick reply, e.m. I'm glad that you don't think it's asters yellow. I can't figure out what it is though. And I was wrong about the number of plants in my original post. It's 2 out of 5 that look like this. Here's pictures from the other one.
Here's another pic
symptoms noted seem similar to herbicide drift (like round-up).
looks like chemical burn to me. have you sprayed anything in the general vicinity or on the plants?
No, we haven't sprayed with anything at all. The only thing we've put in this bed or near it is compost.
I have this going on as well with several plants. How do yours look now? Or did you pull them?
I have the same thing again this year. I'm ready to pull them all up again as I dont see anyway they will recover from whatever this is. I have about a dozen AGAIN this year!
Update:
Well, I didn't end up doing anything to my echinaceas that I thought looked diseased, and they ended up blooming beautifully. Still don't know why the leaves looked like that, but the flowers are lovely . . .
LOVELY!!!
Wow, looks grrrreat. It might have been chemical burn that happened just before they were put up for sale. It's definitely looking irrelevant now.
I agree either chemical or fertilizer burn...probably from outside source...
Had one that did this and ended up great!
Did plant seeds from other coneflowers and now they are comming up!!
What a way to save $$$ and get many different plants...especially deadheading plants in nurseries....
Will plant more perrenial seeds this year of plants I want..!!
They look beautiful now. Always good to have a happy ending in the garden. Could have been that the leaf buds got a nip of late frost too. We had a late frost up here after some unseasonable warm weather very early and I had several curly leaves when they grew out. In any case a nice result for sure. Always pays to wait for new growth to see if a symptom is a one time event. Congrats on your lovely garden.
