Butterfly was having fun in the garden today.
coneflower
My cone flowers are just now starting to bloom and I spotted a bee on mine before the rain came pouring down.
Every year, I appreciate coneflowers more. They require minimum care.
I understand the "new" ones that are variant colors from the standard purples lose their colors eventually.
Has anyone had this experience?
I bought an orange one this spring.
I bought Cheyenne Sprit coneflower from a Catolog company, this is is second year and it seems to have buds on it now. Will post the picture as soon as it blooms.
It is my understanding that all of the coneflowers that are hybrids will eventually revert back to the original purple coneflower when grown from seed. I do not know how long that would take. I expect that you might get some interesting "new" varieties by planting different varieties close together or by manually cross pollinating them if you are into that. It has been my experience that most of the brightly colored hybrid coneflowers aren't as long lived as the old standard Purple Echinacea.
By thev way,I have LOTS of purple coneflower plants and seeds if anyone wants any. Dmail me.
Birder/Nanny,
Very interesting. I didnt realize that. I have bought a bunch of different types/colors coneflowers this year as I just love the different colors. I have a sombrero coneflower from last year that is about to bloom. It was lovely when I bought it but it seemed by fall, the blooms were more pinky/purple than the yellow/oranges
In the catalog it looks orange so I hope to see when it blooms.
valal I would be interested to know how each different variety performs. 'Pow Wow Wild Berry' is on it's second season and still maintains the same color blooms.
Annette,
I sent you a Dmail
Our local Walmart has "Sombrero" and it is an Orange bloom. I bought 'Cheyenne Spirit' and 'Aloha' which are both different shades of yellow. But some of the 'Cheyenne Spirit' have red-Orange blooms.
I got my Sombrero last year at walmart. I am curious to see what varieties they offer this year for sale.
Be happy to post photos over time :)
I bought Raspberry Truffle, Hot Papaya, Butterfly Orange Skipper, Ruby Star, Butterflies Cleopatra, Summer Sky (last fall, came back, but very small..struggling). Lost Mac and Cheese over the winter. Ordered all from Santa Rosa Gardens.
Wintersowed Cheyenne Spirit, White Dove and a few others. Will be interesting to see what happens.
Here are some of my coneflowers this year. The first 2 pics are the Purple Coneflower, #3 is Aloha,#4 is Pow Wow Wild Berry, #5 is Pow Wow White
This message was edited Jul 3, 2015 8:32 PM
They are beautiful ,Aloha is an unusual one. I have a White one that comes up every year but I thought it was called White Swan.I have had it for 8 years now.It usually comes up among these in picture #3
Sorry those white are Shasta daisies
Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference in those little thumbnail pics. lol There is a "White Swan" echie, as well as "PowWow White" I have both, but the "white Swan" isn't blooming at the moment. I had Secret Romance it came back a 2nd year,and Secret Passion and Cranberry Cupcake did not. But in all fairness to the plants, we had a horrible cold winter and a really wet late winter followed by a really hard freeze. A lot of plants didn't make it. We had the coldest temps on record for years.
LOVELY Photos, Ladies!
Annette, I love the Aloha--and the Pow Wow Wild Berry is so bright pink!
Cynthia, What a lovely planting of Coneflowers against the fence...Is that a heliopsis to the right?
You got me curious, so i went back in photos. I remember the Sombrero started blooming pink, and I couldn't remember at what point, or if it was when the blooms were fading/getting older.
It didnt hold its color for me long at all, it appears. it will be VERY interesting to see how it blooms this year, as it's getting ready to soon.
Below photos:
1- 7/20/14 Bought The Sombrero Coneflower. I remember it had a red, orange and yellowish bloom at the time.
2- 8/17/14
3- 10/14/14
4- Raspberry Truffle Coneflower first bloom (bought this year)
5- I remembered I had pale yellow and a pale pink in my front garden, from plantings of the previous owner...I moved them to the back where they could get more sun and am curious how they bloom (and what color). They were planted where there was a good deal of shade before I moved them.
Love the Raspberry Truffle! valal your plants look good, pretty blooms.
Thank you , yes that is heliopsis that really blooms every year.I have two large containers with cone flower on the south shady side of the house and they are doing fine.They really are beautiful plants . You have a nice assortment of cone flowers, #4 flower is very pretty.
The sun came out and the butterflies and bees are having a party! The 2nd pic shows the variations of colors on Cheyenne Spirit. All three plants are different colors, even though they are the same variety.
This message was edited Jul 4, 2015 3:46 PM
It amazing that gardeners think a like I have the same color Lilly next to my coneflower.I am waiting for my Cheyenne to bloom and hoping that my white one blooms as pretty as yours.
Blooming now in my front garden, this is a well established ?name coneflower...that was planted here where we bought the house. A pale yellow one was in same garden; I dug it out and moved to the back where it'll get more sun and am waiting for blooms this year.
Love the coneflowers and companions! Don't know which one that is valal, but it has an interesting form. Are the blooms fully open or just starting?
They are fully open. Funny, I dont remember them being so thin petalled last year....It's probably my memory! LOL! The bright yellow coreopsis seems to reseed itself in that garden (on a slope) and I new know where it's going to appear year to year. This year seems to be a good year..alot of it. And this is a mostly shaded garden, so i'm surprised both of them do as well as they do.
I have Coreopsis in the front of the house that gets morning sun and it's doing better than the one in full sun
Interesting....I have a new garden bed I dug in May and bought a few corrosive and planted them there.
Cynthia, are yr gomphrena blooming yet? Mine started getting tall(er) and looks like there a purple bud on a couple.
Yes Val,my gomphrena is already flowering,also the White ones too that I got seeds from another pal on Dave's
I have Echinacea 'White Swan' and have had it for many years. The purple ones (Magnus) have re-seeded all over the place. I'm not unhappy about that! :) But, they have encroached too much onto my "one" White Swan. It doesn't seem to re-seed like the Magnus.
I really like the Magnus. They have pretty, long, pinky purple petals and the centers are red orange-fantastic when the sun hits them just right.
I have one that's called Pink Double Delight. I've had it several years now, again, it doesn't re-seed either but has kept its very true pink color.
When flowers are bred to change colors, form etc. from their original characteristics, they often don't do as well. They are weaker, die out sooner, have to be coddled more, return to their original characteristics etc.
Coneflower pictures are very pretty.
Border...what!? No pictures!?? :-)
I almost WS'd Magnus but ran out of time and more (deck was full of WS containers)
isn't it funny how some varieties are so prolific in reseeding!?
I am waiting for 2 coneflower plants to "pop" with flowers any day and see what they bring!
Cynthia, I am awaiting my Gomphrena blooms semi-patiently. I don't have a light set up so I think they were "behind"
I have white swan and the original native pink coneflower and both are bee magnets.
In the fall goldfinches eat the seeds.
I was wondering if the newer colors and cultivars also attract bees and butterflies?
On an impulse I purchased an aster cultivar a few seasons back and I noticed that no bee or butterfly went near it when the surrounding asters that were straight species were buzzing with life.
Hi sempervirens,can you save some white swan seeds for me by fall time.I had one plant come up last year but I have not seen it returned this year.I had so many before that I mailed seeds to other garden buddies.lol
cytf, If I see seeds (before the birds get them) I will save and send.
At what point in season did you collect yours?
This message was edited Jul 11, 2015 12:38 PM
In answer to sempervirens question about the newer cultivars of coneflowers, mine seeem to be attracting plenty of butterflies. The bees are really liking the Liatris beside the coneflowers. But if the Coneflowers were the only flower close by , I am sure the bees would like them too.
Usually end of summer when the flower dries up and before the birds get them as you said.lol.
Annette,
I lied...but not on purpose. My coneflower petals are wider now, you were right...I guess they had not opened up fully and I thought they had. This is a week later:
They kind of remind me of a sunset/summer sky?? But these would have been planted more than 6 years ago by previous homeowner and I dont think they had those varieties then
They are more apricot/orangey as in previous picture than they appear in this photo...Have to get a better photo!
This message was edited Jul 12, 2015 11:04 AM
Hi also, very healthy looking plant and I did not know that there were apricot /orange colors,that different and beautiful
valal, quite understandable these flowers will fool you sometimes. One called Summer Sky was hybridized in 2006, and another called Summer Sun in 2010. But there are so many varieties available now in a rainbow of colors. It is hard to guess which one that is. I tis very pretty whatever it is.
Thank you ladies! I'm rather partial to it myself! :-)
This morning I saw a bee having fun on my pink coneflower.
Hi have a coneflower this year that is Really strange. The blooms are green and then, green little flowers come out of the blooms. So weird. I will try to get a picture tomorrow.
Birder,
I would love to see a photo of the blooms. I know there are a couple coneflowers that are green..Green Envy and another (possibly others). I have never seen them in person, just came across them on the web.