WOW love them
Echinacea Pink Poodle really
like that one
Hopefully they will do well
here
Thanks echinaceamaniac

Blueangel

WOW! Gorgeous colors! Love the Tomato Soup and Pink Poodle. Not a fan of yellow but it is a nice yellow so I'm sure I can be persuaded :)

By the way I just bought 10 of the echinacea, Big Sky Series. After reading your post about them, I'm kinda nervous about their performance. Though I do have to say at present they are blooming their heads off and the colors are quite vibrant. The real test will be next spring to see if they survived the winter and do well. I have Twilight, Summer Sky, Sundown and Sunrise.

Also new to me this year is Mars and Prairie Splendor. I'm still hoping to find the After Midnight, Tiki Torch and and Merlot.

Oh wow! I love all of those! They are gorgeous!

Lemon Poppy, I added a Mars coneflower last year. It has been a beautiful workhorse for me. I hope it does well for you. Do keep looking for Tiki Torch. I put in four this year. If they show that they are dependable in returning, I think Tiki Torch will be my favorite coneflower of all. Just beautiful...and holds its vibrant, intense color well.

Wow! I don't do pink, but man those first two are right up my alley. I'm sure I'll be opening my wallet when they hit the market, LOL.

Good reds are hard to find, and even if the color fades a bit, it can't be any worse than the Achillea 'Walter Funke' I've got right now.

Bonnie

They look wonderful!

I just hope that they perform as expected, unlike the questionable Big Sky series and disasterous Meadowbrite series.

Those new plants are gorgeous! What a vibrant red. And the names are amusing - reminiscent of Andy Warhol's Campbell soup painting. I am not a fan of double blooms, though, because I grow plants for the pollinators, and all those petals get in the way.

I'm also a bit skeptical of all this crazy breeding they are doing - "Embryo rescue"?? I wonder if this high-tech hoticulture can result in deformities and weak plants. No doubt they spend tons of money developing these, and are then compelled to market them aggressively and charge high prices.

Despite their beauty, I won't be rushing out to buy any of these.

They're gorgeous, but I'm done with new coneflowers. I'm sticking with White Swan & purpurea until the new varieties perform better. I'm sick & tired of wasting my money.

tracey nj6, you can't go wrong with Double Delight and Coconut Lime. Those are the only two new plants I could safely recommend to anyone right now.

I had purchased a Coconut Lime locally last year. It never returned. That was the straw that broke the camels back I believe. Prior to that, I purchased a Big Sky variety, it too, never returned. Prior to that, I tried Double Decker, twice, from Bluestone. The first time I emailed them and told them it never returned, so they sent replacements. Well, the replacements never returned, so I gave up. Before that, it was Mango Meadowbrite. My boss & I both fell in love with it at a local nursery. Hers didn't return a second year, mine did return a second year, but not a third. I think I still have a Sundown, one of the skunked ones of course. I figure I'll let it die on it's own, although I believe it is in its third year. I also have a Harvest Moon, but am unaware of it's current status, LOL...
I have loads of the purpurea and they never seem to let me down, ole faithful IMO...

My skunked plant is the dreaded Sunset (discontinued I believe), not Sundown. Grrrrrrr...

They are all stunning! I love coneflowers and hope to have several some year.

I agree, the colors on the first two are just stunning, but I have mixed feelings about the Pink Poodle. Yes, the color is nice, but it no longer looks like a coneflower. Maybe a zinnia or a mum, but not a coneflower. If I want something that looks like either of these, I'll plant the real thing. Then again, I've always been bugged by this quest with breeders to develop "double everything". Sometimes it results in something pleasing, but more often than not, it just destroys the innate perfection of the original.

Kevin

Hi Kevin! I just have Magnus and White Swan, both doing very well this year. WS was a slow starter for me. I had to replace one of the three I started with last year, and one of the two remaining was very small. It may have been in too much shade, it seems happy now. Anyone over-winter Tiki Torch yet? Love that color! Think it would look great with Purple Dome aster.

Bonnie~You should try Paprika yarrow. I tried Terracotta this year, what a disappointment. Yarrow does go together with coneflowers like PB&J! =)

I have to agree with Kevin on the Pink Poodle. When I see a flower of one species that has been bred to look like another species, my first thought is- "What's the point?" I suppose if it was easier to grow than the real thing, that would make sense, but being a new hybrid it's more than likely not. I'd probably buy the "Tomato Soup" if it proves to be reliable. I'm not into high maintenance!

E,
I am baffled by your unqualified enthusiasm. You've used thousands of words on multiple posts complaining about your experience of the Best and the Newest were actually the Worst and Unworthiest. Now you have an opportunity to use your experience to caution others to temper their hopes until new plants are actually field tested for a few years by real gardeners in less than ideal conditions. And you jump on the breeder's bandwagon. You love echinaeceas, we all know that by now. But after your experience, don't you have a bit of skepticism about the best and newest promoted by the breeder/grower? This is about absence of a more tempered response I observed before.

idabean is correct that we should all be cautious about any new coneflowers.

You should make sure you buy a plant in flower with at least 2-3 blooms on it.

I just wanted to share these photos with you all because they are such a breakthrough in my opinion. I'm growing Tiki Torch now. If it fails to return next spring, you will definitely be hearing about it! LOL.

There is something about seeing something like this that just overpowers my resistance! Sorry I got so enthused. I just can't help myself. I'm a sucker for a pretty new coneflower. It's an addiction!

Prairiegirl, I put in one 'Paprika' last fall that I got from a swap, and it is just now starting to bloom. There is a 'Walter Funke' a few feet away in the same bed, so I'll be able to make a good comparison this summer. If I like the 'Paprika' better, I'll just divide it in the fall, and replace the 'Walter Funke's.

... on the other hand, some of those 'Tomato Soup' Echinaceas would make a fine replacement for the 'Walter Funke's ; )

This is my second year for the Achillea 'Terracotta', and I am very pleased with the bloom color, and like the golden yellow color that it fades to. My only problem with them is that I placed them in a spot that gets too much wind, so they are leaning on some other plants a bit. I may try staking them to tidy them up. Someone on this forum suggested using a peony hoop, but mine are way too big for that.

Sorry, Echinaceamaniac, for wandering off the topic.

Bonnie

I love these colors. Hope they are better than big sky or medowbrite(medowbrite did better than big sky but just barely).

Can these be grown from seed? I just aquired Tiki Torch on clearence rack at Lowes and there alot of the blooms that have gone to seed and I want to keep them if this plant grows true form seed. I have soem razzmatazz seed but was told that the seed will not produce the plant from which it came so I want to know if Tiki Torch is worth harvesting.

Thanks!
Vicki

Sorry, I didn't see this thread before I posted my new one just now. I'll bump mine down, and this one up.

I would highly recommend Merlot, Coconut Lime, Pink Double Delight and Razzmatazz.

Razzmatazz has been very reliable. I put it in a hot, dry sunny spot and it flourished even in a terrible drought. I put one in a spot with only morning sun and where water drains and it still thrived. That plant is a keeper!

I would guess that Tomato Soup will perform similar to Tikki Torch. I was impressed with the color not fading; however, the plant was not up to the performance of any of the above.

I'm wondering...with all the new ones that don't come back in people's gardens...is it a matter of wrong zonal information, or they simply have poor genetics? I'm not 'into' plant genetics, but no one seems to be mentioning whether it could be a zone issue that's causing them to fail.

I personally think the genetics and tissue culture is causing all the problems.

I'm fairly certain there's two main issues:

First, the crossing of E. purpurea and E. pallida has produced some wonderfully coloured hybrids, but the influence of the latter has reduced the hardiness (winter temps, or winter wetness) of the hybrids when compared with any of the E. purpurea types.

Second, some of the propagation/production batches are infected with the Aster Yellows disease. This may or may not be multiplied through some of the tissue culture labs.

I thought these were a hybrid of E. purpurea and E. paradoxa? Anyway, it has resulted in some very nice colors.

I agree with Ken on the "doubling" of so many flowers that are quite beautiful in a single form. I'd like to grow some plain old single Zinnias, and can't find seeds for them anywhere. The double flowers tend to be floppy too, i.e. Peonies which I am getting sick of staking. If it were only a few it would be okay, but the previous owner left me many. Too high maintenance!

Sorry, you're right terrene, the crosses are primarily E. purpurea and E. paradoxa, although some likely involve other species as well. In anycase, it's the E. paradoxa or E. pallida genetics that are introducing the hardiness (temps or winter-wetness) issues to the new hybrids for some regions.