Just a side story...
I dug up my "test hybrid" echinacea bed to move out the crosses that came out looking like standard purps..... rearranged the rest... and moved some other varieties i have. I removed a ton of my cruddy fill dirt that my entire yard is made up and brought in compost/humus/etc to make the whole bed nice.
Anyway, when i moved my "hula dancer" variety (like a white flowered pallida)... i was amazed at the total different root structure they have vs a purp. Instead of being a normal looking root mass like most perennials and standard purps.. it has long thick tubers... almost like carrots.. that grow straight downward. The tubers only have fine/short roots that radiate from the center. I had to dig a foot down to get the bulk of them up.. and i still snapped the very bottoms off.
Pallida's root system
That's really interesting. Maybe thats why some of the new hybrids are so hard to grow.
it would be interesting to see what the roots of a cross look like. The flame throwers i moved came up in good clumps, so i wasn't able to check them out.
Maybe that's why they are so drought resistant. I have a dry space in back and I hear Finches love the seeds!!
I might dig up my Flame Throwers and divide them. Now is a perfect time to do digging and moving. Please let us know how they survive their move.