Any color you want.. show um!
Looks like new I will be trying Doppleganger this season for starters...just got the seed in for it! Whoohoo!
This one here is palladia! Its a slow grower, but well worth the wait!
ECHINECEA for 2010 - Whose in
I wintersowed Doppelganger about 3 years ago and I'm still not sure I like them. Half the time, as they try to grow their "hat", they just look weird, and resemble aster yellows. Mine have never had a clearly defined "hat", but rather just an oddball extra petal here and there on the cone.
I'm thinking I should stick to the tried and true regular old purple coneflowers.
Karen
I bought a Pink Double Delight this year, really like that one. It was planted in the only spot I could find at the time, then transplanted in fall. I hope it survives it's first winter.
I can't find a good shot of it, but you can kind of see it here, left of center.
Karen
I see it, I see it back in there hiding. I like Pink Double Delight also.....and Coconut Lime. Coconut Lime is looking baddd for me unless it went real dormant. I think you're right. If you want "flower power" purple coneflower is the way to go. The others are nice, but they'll never bloom like purple coneflower.
Purple cone flowers are a staple for me.. cant get enough of them for naturalizing.
I like them with rudbeckia goldsturm. Nice combo
I am getting all of them that I can! LOL. The one I look forward to the most is "Strawberry Shortcake." You can see it here...
http://www.ab-cultivars.com/en/products/Echinacea_Strawberry_Shortcake_-_PPAF,_PBRAF/19/24
I love how the bottom is white and the top is a rose color.
I also bought Marmalade and Hot Papaya this year and hope they grow well next year when they return.
Echies and Rudbeckias do go well together. Usually you can buy small purple coneflower plants down here, in the spring, at Lowes and Home Depot in the herb plant section. Usually they're never more than $1 each. I don't have enough of them so planted some more seeds in pots 2 months ago. Slowly growing, but look fine.
Yep, I've had Strawberry Shortcake on the wish list for a long time. It came out in Europe so it might be awhile.
I don't know about that Strawberry Shortcake... the flowers look kind of dead to me. I think I'll just wait to see everyone else's pictures of that one. I do have some White Swan seeds to wintersow this year. Don't know where I'll fit them in, though.
I like echs and ruds together, too.
Karen
And these guys were duking it out all summer.
Karen
I like echies too.
Most of mine are either new or the 20 year old patch that came with the house when we moved here 3 years ago.
I have been transplanting those to other gardens that I have been designing.
I like these regular purple cones
Oh no its another DL!
You will have to go here to explain that daylily to patty!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/927237/
Sorry about the DL on the echi thread but its the only Purple Cone pic I had.
Whats with the asparagus in the above?
This message was edited Dec 4, 2009 8:57 AM
um um!!! LOL!
Asperagus...hmmm...
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1052348/
Or
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1030465/
I thinkit is just easier to let the echies go to seed , let them get headed out to the point of brown and capture the seed than transplant.. I do that with ruds too.
The hybrid are pretty but you can't beat the old timey,non-diluted echie for flower power. Magnus is a supper bloomer and I had a OP seed sew variety come up that was almost 4 ft tall.
My DGD pictured here is about 3 1/2 ft tall. OP so don't know it's parentage.
Can't recall the variety name, but do remember stumbling across some rudbeckia that grows to 6 feet tall. The "Prairie Sun" & "Tiger Eye Gold" rudbeckias are still blooming pretty good down here. There are still some Echie blooms, here and there, but they are very scattered. Most of them have gone quiet and you can see (photo from this morning).
Jon
Wow, Jon - strong colors, very nice.
Kqrna, my "Double Decker" does almost the exact same thing as your Doppelganger is doing. I had some self-sow, come up white and were a real mess... see below.
"Pink Poodle" looked promising - did anybody grow them?
Magnus has not done well here. Most of the echs here are slow to start, but they eventually take off, but none here are 4 foot tall. Its a lack of fertility thing.
Pink Poodle has a tissue culture problem. Many of the plants are more like Double Decker and don't have the correct double bloom form. Out of 3 plants I only got 1 that looked like it should. I'm taking divisions of it next year though. I would avoid this cultivar unless you can buy them already in bloom.
Not sure about Pink Poodle. I have a couple of them and the blooms are still a little inconsistent. Just leaving them alone for now and waiting to see how they do next year. Blossom, Magnus hasn't performed that well for me either and I've tried it a couple of times. Not likely to try another Magnus. It's quite similar to many others.
Aw, bummer about Pink Poodle. Clint, I think it was yours that I saw and liked so much. Hope the starts do well for you and don't turn as well ...
How about the big sky series? Mac 'n Cheese?
I have Sunrise and wasnt impressed. It fades after three days
The Pink Double Delight really is a true double, very pretty.
Both my Magnus and Doppleganger are around 4 ft. tall and often get knocked over in our frequent strong wind storms and heavy rain. But my regular old reliable purple coneflowers are only about 2 to 21/2' and very sturdy, and never fall over, even in strong storms.
Karen
They all fade at some point!
I also have Sundown ,this is the first year for it so I will reerve judgment until next summer.
The only one I have from the Big Sky series is Twilight. The color is pretty, but it has never thrived in it's 3 years here and only puts out a couple of flowers a year. I'm seriously thinking of feeding it to the compost.
Karen
My best bloomer has always been Sundown from the "Big Sky Series". It is blooming now and seems to bloom around 10 months of the year. Many others do not like it that well.
and that's be the reason I don't like the cultivars. They don't do well where the species go nuts for me.
I hated all of the Big Sky series. They all have problems with random quilled, distorted blooms. The blooms fade very quickly to pastel colors which aren't very appealing. After Midnight, however, seems to have less problems with the bloom distortions and doesn't fade as rapidly.
Tiki Torch is better in color but the winter-hardiness isn't too great. I'm trying one more this winter and hope it returns next year.
Coconut Lime, Pink Double Delight, Milkshake and Meringue are all awesome plants.
Mac 'n Cheese is horrid. It's the worst Echinacea I've ever grown.
Hot Lava and Flame Thrower are excellent so far. Tomato Soup was ok but the blooms did fade quickly.
LOL. A million different opinions....as expected. After Midnight has been bad for me. Too early to tell on Mac N Cheese, Hot Lava, Flame Thrower, Tomato Soup. Sundown is the only Big Sky Series one that I've liked.
Jon
Jon - It's not too early for me to tell on Mac 'n Cheese. It didn't grow much at all. I don't know if something is wrong with the tissue culture of it or what, but I've seen too many people having trouble out of that one. I've only seen one or two that even looked passable. LOL.
I could appreciate Sundown more if there were some available to purchase with normal blooms. I've yet to find one without random quilled petals for sale anywhere.
I'm waiting another year to make judgment on Mac N Cheese. All three of them bloomed some, but not a lot LOL If it was dead then I'd say it was no good. I have a good, almost 3 year old, Sundown. Just the luck of the draw perhaps.
echimaniak I agree about the sky series.Faded fast and what I thought was "first year" growing and ajusting problems ,must be the plant.
Ahhhh well If they dont make it I have a list of other plants to put in their places. Like Larkspur.
I am so much in favor of the E. Paradoxia. It took 3 Yrs to get the first bloom from seed. Near 4'. Mike
So, when ya'll are saying "fades fast" - that means they turn white? Or just bleach out? Or the whole bloom goes away really fast?
Wow, sounds like all of that massive push on all of these cultivars has only yielded so-so results. That's too bad.
Hmmmm........ that meringue looks interesting. Does it start out a pale green, then turn cream color?
Karen
Hey Mike, is E. paradoxia a species plant or a cultivar?
When I say they fade fast, I mean they start out a nice orange or other color and then the bloom quickly fades to a pastel color that looks nothing like the plant tag. The nice color doesn't last long at all. If you have a particular color scheme in mind, then you can get terrible results when these fade so quickly.
Paradoxa is a species of Echinacea. It's the yellow plant they crossed with purpurea to create all the new hybrids with orange, red, etc. blooms. You can order plants for a good price at prairienursery.com...They will send dormant plants in the early spring. I had really good results with their plants. I planted seeds myself too, but I got impatient to see the blooms. You might even get a bloom the first year. If you are patient, seeds take at least 2-3 years to produce blooming plants. The blooms on these last for several weeks. They don't seem to have any blooms after the first round of blooms.Deadheading them might help, but I always leave the seedheads on them. They are my favorite yellow Echinacea and the only one I would recommend to anyone. The blooms also don't fade much which is a plus!
Meringue starts out with greenish white blooms that get more white over time. It's not a pure white. It reminds me of a white with a tint of beige in it. When they are on the plant for a few weeks they start taking on more green tones and remind me of Coconut Lime. The blooms are larger and seem fuller than Coconut Lime.
I love Echinacea paradoxa...one of my favorites and of course Razzmatazz has done excellent for me. I'm still forming my opinions on some of the newer cultivars. Pink Poodles blooms were inconsistent( I stopped selling them after they started to bloom because of the inconsistency)...only had a few that looked Pink Poodle like - the rest were more Double Decker form. We'll see how they do next year.
Warren - that is a beautiful photo! Razzmatazz is doing well for me also. It's tough and returns year after year. I don't understand why some people don't like that one!
I hope my Zebra Grass looks as good as yours next year. I just bought it this summer and it doesn't look so good. LOL.