Has anyone seen coneflowers do this before? I guess I'm not worried about it because otherwise the plants are healthy. Makes me wonder if there's something in the water!
What is going on with these??
And here's a similar thing going on, affecting two blooms. This is on the same plant, I think.
I'm sorry to say it looks like Asters yellow to me. There are a few threads on the second page if you want to confirm.
Arlene
I pulled most of mine. I have a few left that I need to pull up. I was just sick about this, but from what I was reading, aster yellows can affect a multitude of plants and the leaf hoppers that spread this disease will live in weeds. The house that is directly behind me is empty and the backyard is nothing but weeds.
It seems to me that this disease is spreading through out the country. I know Paul from Al stated previously that he thought the current bought of aster yellows was as bad or almost as bad as it was 2 years ago. I had never even heard of this disease 2 years ago.
Unfortunately my garden space is at a premium. I will probably be replacing my main bed of coneflowers with monarda. I do have one plant though that looks fine, which I am leaving in the ground. I'll be interested in seeing next year if this particular plant escapes the dreaded disease.
Carolyn
Ugh!! This sucks! I think you guys are totally right after researching Asters Yellow. I've never heard of it. I've only seen it on one or two plants in my garden. Surrounding plants include Rudbeckia, Shata Daisies, Joe Pye weed, and some shrubs. I'm planning on doing some renovating this fall, but wasn't planning on tearing out the whole garden! Should I just dig out the coneflowers that look infected? I haven't seen any disease on anything else. How drastic should I get? Thanks. I had no idea!
I just had to get rid of my Summer Sky because of it!
edited for my bad typo's!!
This message was edited Aug 18, 2008 9:29 PM
Nanny,
I pulled everything except for my Rudbeckia Herbstonne. It didn't look like it had been affected yet, even though I had other Rudbeckia that looked bad. I also pulled my daisies. Something was definitely wrong with them and from what I read, aster yellows will affect them as well. I am keeping my fingers crossed for my Rudbeckia Herbstonne. I don't know what I would do to fill that space - they are so tall and really have a presence in my garden.
I did stop at Lowes tonight on my way home and picked up some purple monarda and some blue vervain. Its going to take a while to fill the empty spots, but it may be fun too.