I was so happy to find gallon-size pots of Echinacea "Meringue" at Lowes today for about 12 dollars! They have a warranty that can't be beat. If it doesn't come back next spring, they refund your money.
Echinacea "Meringue" at Lowes!
Nice find! I love their guarantees, but I can never seem to keep up with the receipt! One of these days, I'll be completely organized...yep, any day now, lol!
I almost got one last week...but just was not sure how well I like that color.
I'm using mine as a filler plant in my coneflower field. LOL.
ahhhh....I have one of those spots too...and that is where it would have gone!! lol
Congratulations! I love buying at Lowe's because of their guarantee--and I've used it. Was it tagged meringue? Did they have a lot? The ones I got at Lowes were just tagged coneflower. I got one that I'm sure is coconut lime, but I just figured that out by comparing it to pictures I've seen. I also got a double delight and both are doing great! My garden is rapidly turning into a coneflower field, too!
twbmom,
The tag is Meringue. They also had a few with blooms that were open. It is definitely the right plant!
My coneflower field is expanding by the day!
Maniac, check your local Walmart too. They had huge pots of some nice ones last year - double decker and ruby star. I saw yesterday that our Walmart is starting to get some more big pot coneflowers in this year. I think they were around $5 and big plants. I got a couple of the Ruby Star last year and I liked them a lot. Huge flowers, nice color and very vigorous.
They also had humongous delphiniums for around the same price.
Here's a photo from last year. The Ruby Star are the dark pink ones.
hart - That is pretty. I love those. I've tried to grow Delphiniums but they croak here when it gets hot in summer. Is there a certain kind that grows in the south?
I think one of my 2010 New Year's resolution will be to not get echies from any coop, here or elsewhere and WAIT until they're available locally for $5. I found some at the local nursery for $10, nice 1 gal. Ours from the coop are in transit as we speak but they will be cells and had I waited for whatever is available now at WM/HD/Lowes, I would have a nice established plant. Instead, I will be babying plants in the heat of summer. Don't get me wrong, I love coops and this particular one has been straightforward and has been excellently managed. I simply mean I got excited in the dead of winter and made a dumb decision getting babies in the summer. I just never learn.....
echiemaniac, I read in your other thread that the sundown (?) series did horrible for you. what do you mean? Mine have done so great with little care. Did cold kill them? An echie field sounds like a lovely idea. I can just imagine swarms and swarms of butterflies all over the echies.
I had trouble out of Sundown and others having distorted, quilled petals. It was driving me crazy. I didn't like the way they looked. I still have one of them left, but it's only because I missed ripping it up last year. This one is looking better so I'll leave it.
I really want to try the co-op thing next year! I think it'll be a fun way to save money. I bet since you live in Texas you don't lose plants in the winter much. Some of the new Echinaceas (Tiki Torch for example) aren't as winter hardy here.
I have no luck growing delphiniums at all. Too dry and hot here for them. I just mentioned that for any of you who would like to grow some.
I have to say my Summer Sky has done really well, but has a lot of deformed flowers
My Sunset is looking great, nice and full, and very pretty blooms. It's the first year, so we'll see. I just put my double delight in the ground. I've had it in the nursery pot for several weeks till I dug another bed. It has twelve blooms on it, with six or seven more buds. I put in a white swan, too. I've had butterfly blue delphiniums here in northeast TX that I bought at a nursery before they were blooming. They've done fine, and I even still have some blooms in June. I have one other from seed, but it's still just foliage. We'll see what happens next spring. I'd be thrilled if it bloomed!
White Swan is such a nice one and I have the prettiest pale, pale, almost white pink one I grew from seeds from it. I'll try to get a photo when that one blooms.
Well my Twilight kicked the bucket...that just leaves me White Swan...a fantastic plant and my Harvest Moon that is looking a lot like Sunrise at the moment....hmmmmm
This message was edited Jun 10, 2009 10:24 PM
Going to Lowe's tomorrow--hoping for a meringue!
Well, no Meringue, but I got a gallon Magnus for $2.98 and a 2 gallon Pink DD for $4.98. They weren't on the clearance rack, just on sale. I have some old fashioned ones I grew from pass along seed that are probably purpurea, but this is my first Magnus. I've never seen them together, so I don't know the difference. They also had one called Prairie something for $2.98, but the petals looked all curved and funky, so I passed it by for what I thought was a sure thing--or two! Magnus comes true from seed doesn't it? What does DD do?
By the way, I've been seeing you guys throw around some terms that I need explanation for. Is a "sport" a plant you get when two flowers cross pollenate? Why are some plants sterile? If a plant is a hybrid, will seeds always come back as something different, or are they sometimes sterile? I've been gardening for a while--you'd think'd know these things by now.
Something tempted me to go to Lowe's yesterday evening despite of the heavy downpour. I was going to check their clearance rack. Last week I got tons of quart sized verbenas and a couple half gallon clematis just for 29 cents each.
Well yesterday there were nothing on clearance but I saw one of my favorites, echinacea Pink DD. It literally just got unloaded from the truck. They were gallon sized, mature with huge clumps and flowering profusely at $10.98 each that I ended up buying 5 of them. I didn't hesitate to pay at full price considering the size and maturity of the plant knowing what I paid for these Pink DD over the web-order sites and oftentimes they send you less than six-month old seedlings.
Three weeks ago I also got some gallon sized echinacea Magnus for $6.50 at Lowe's. BJ's wholesale club got the gallon Sundown for $4.99. I still yet have to see echinaceas in our local Walmart.
I've never seen coneflowers at Wal Mart, either. Our WM is already gearing down for the season--nothing left but what's in the greenhouse. Temps here are nearing 100 already. I'm going to plant my new stuff, including a penstemon. I've never had one before. It's beautiful.
I saw the Echinaceas at our Wal-mart. They had White Swan and Magnus in gallon pots really cheap. I didn't get any because I've got too many of those already but if they get Pink Double Delight I might have to get a few extras!
I'm running out of room, even with the new bed I made last week. I've gotta stop. Seven new ones this year and three from last year. I keep buying them even when I have no idea where they'll fit. No plan, just plant!
I wish they sold some Echies down here at the nurseries and garden centers. The only two I've ever seen available in over 2 years of looking are "Purple Coneflower" and Echinacea "Sundown". I've looked at more than a dozen places off and on for 2 years.
Went back to Lowe's yesterday afternoon. As I previously mentioned I was there the other night and it was raining so hard, the first thing I noticed were the echinacea Pink DDs freshly delivered and I was happy to buy 5 gallon size containers and went home in a hurry. Having mentioned the Meringue in this thread, I was eager to find out if our Lowe's also carry them, so I went back to check. I looked and looked and I was about to give up, and there they were - right at the bottom shelf of the rolling racks that were recently unloaded from a truck. I could not resist so I purchased 3 more gallon sized. I really outspend myself this season just on plants.
Awesome! You got some nice plants. Meringue has the most full blooms. It's much prettier than Coconut Lime in my opinion.
Pink double delight is a favorite too! It's always covered each year with many blooms.
Here are photos of my newly purchased Pink DDs from Lowe's.
Another one
One of the Meringue - just purchased yesterday, of course at Lowe's.
Another Pink DD - bottom right corner.
Nice photos. Thanks for taking the time to post them. I decided to order "Pink Double Delight" earlier in the day and after looking at your photos I'm glad I did.
Jon
I think this one of the Magnus - about to bloom. Purchased also from Lowe's for $6.50.
Thanks Jon! It's worth every dollar I paid for. I'll be adding more varieties whenever I can find them. Next weekend I'm going to visit RareFind Nursery here in NJ. They have diffenrent gallon size varieties with reasonable prices.
The one in the bottom I forgot the name but it's one of the Big Sky series. Was expensive at $20.00 from one of our neighborhood nursery but cannot find it anywhere cheaper. I bought it and split the clump to two. Now the 2 halves are growing and flowering just great.
Yeah, its great where you are this time of year You get to go plant hunting and can usually find something different every week. I hope you find some hidden treasures/brand new arrivals when you go next weekend. I'm almost positive the last Echinacea picture you posted is Echinacea "Sundown". It looks exactly like my "Sundown" which is the most consistent bloomer I have here in South Florida. It has the longest bloom season compared to any of the other ones I have.
Jon
I got a sale email from Crownsville Nursery today. Not on sale, but they have Tiki Torch, Tomato Soup, Mac and Cheese and some of the other new echies for $10.95 for quarts. I've heard they send very nice plants. They had some pretty nice other perennials on sale for $6 too.
http://www.crownsvillenursery.com/store/cart.php?target=category&category_id=101
Do Butterflies visit the double coneflowers like Meringue and Double Delight? The flowers are so pretty, but I don't want to lose the attentions of the B'flies. I've read they prefer single flowers as a general rule. ???
Thanks, All of your pics are beautiful.
Those of you with coneflower fields must not have the flower-pruners called DEER. The only way I can grow them is in an 8' fence. But I do!
Echi- I am one who complained with you last year about Sundown, but I kept one and it is blooming now and looking fine. Go figure.
Never heard that about the butterflies and doubles. They do like the singles here (picture attached) and prefer the mornings to do their flower hopping. There are no deer at all down here in South Florida and I'm happy about that for sure. They can be relentless up north. The Echie in the photo is "Pink Parasol".
