Yeah, mine are pretty much toast in the winter, and then they come back in the spring. I don't remember, but you'll probably see some new little leaves in April, maybe sooner if spring starts out warm. It's possible the late planted ones may not have made it, and I've also heard that the new fancy varieties are not as hardy as people have hoped. I'm sure someone who's more of an Echinacea expert will chime in on that. Good luck!

yep, my experience is the same as stevations. even in sub freezing central va, most of my perennials have some visible leaves, but not echinaceas. here, echinacea leaves will first appear in late march, and the plants will take off by mid april, i would guess that in colorado, you'll be 2-3 weeks behind me.
don't worry, your echinaceas are fine!

harry v, too lazy to capitalize today

Thanks guys, I feel better now! I had heard the same thing about the hybrids too, and since I have never grown any before, was afraid that I had lost them all. At least I have hope now that some of them will come back.

I'm just jealous that you can be a zone 4 and have 50 degree temps and plants showing signs of growth. Here in zone 4 MN I've got a solid 2 months of winter left.

Now don't get the wrong idea hostaholic! We had 2 or 3 weeks of lows at or below zero, and highs in the teens and 20's. We will definitely get more snow before spring, and some more cold temps. This is just a warm spell to tease us. About 4 years ago, when I lived on the other side of the state, we had 3 feet of snow in March!!! What surprised me was that there were so many things in the garden that did not die back entirely, especially since most of the mulch I put down blew away.

If you planted some of the old purple coneflowers a great bonus is you'll get more echinaceas since you left the plants intact going into winter. The seeds will disperese from the cones and make more volunteers so be careful this spring when weeding in the area. This is my first year for planting one of the hybrid varieties, so I'm not sure they'll reseed or even survive winter. Have to wait and see what happens there.

Nancy, most of mine were done blooming when I planted them so not much chance of new seedlings, and I'm not certain, but I believe that the seeds from the hybrids would actually produce the regular purple echinacea. Someone more knowledgeable than myself will have to clarify that though.

I don't see signs of Echinacea life until April here. The Gaillardia usually dies back for me completely.
I do see the common species Monarda fistulosa and M. didyma 'Garden Scarlet' with nice basal leaves as do all of the Snapdragons. The Dianthus barbatus is evergreen, but my low growing Dianthus (NOID) finally pooped out first part of Jan. This will actually be the 3rd year for the D. barbatus since I didn't allow them to set seed!
I expected the Verbena bonariensis to die (hardy to zone 7) but they are looking like the Monarda's!

I planted 3 varieties of echinachea last summer in northern Idaho, I am not seeing any sign of life in any of the perennials I planted including Shasta daisy. Last year none of my perennials came back. The deer did eat all the green off in late fall. Do you think they are unable to come back do to late feeding deer?

I imagine they would, as long as they were not ripped out from the root. I am now in central Idaho and deer and elk are huge problems; I use organic, non-toxic granular Deer Scram as well as a foliar spray like Deer Stopper in the fall. HUGE difference!!

The great majority of my Echinaceas (close to 50 plants) were grown from seed (including "Cheyenne Spirit" and "Prairie Splendor" and almost all of them have reappeared this spring (late March/beginning of April is when the first leaves emerge here). By contrast, the few potted named varieties I've bought (on sale, thankfully) either have lasted a season or two or never came back up the year after I planted them (I do have 3 healthy "Pow Wow Wild Berry" that I bought for $5 or less each last September and which sprouted healthy clumps this spring).

My take thus far is that there are hardiness issues with at least some of the pricey named varieties.

In northern Idaho, you may still have a bit of time before they make an appearance.