Very pretty, and a nice collection. I will be interested in seeing how these all do in the next couple of years, and how they inter-seed. You have the makings of a great study.

I have to say, I envy you a little bit. Not for the plants, though. For your soil. Clearly, your soil has excellent drainage, and that's exactly what echinaceas need to do well. Out here, we have...clay :-(. One of these days, though, I'm going to get a piece of property that has good soil.

FTR (for the record), I was kidding about the envy. But, seriously, this is an excellent collection of echinacea. You should consider getting some of the newer varieties from Circle H. Growers. Also, speaking of new varieties...echinaceamaniac, a while ago you mentioned a co-op echinacea buy going on at davesgarden. I was wondering if you could explain how someone (winks) could get in on this??

At our old house we had heavy red clay that we amended with peat and I never had any issues with my coneflowers. Our new house has sandy loam that we amended with peat and organic compost. I am having a very difficult time with my coneflowers here. I thought I was over watering because the leaves on the bottom were turning black and dying so I held off for a few days only to go out yesterday to find them drooping and drying up. I stuck my finger in the ground and it was dry as a bone so I watered and they perked up but I don't know if they are going to make it or not. I have never had any problem growing coneflowers so I'm at my wits end here. Last year I killed just about everything I planted...LOL... reamended the soil this year and things are going better but I've still lost a few plants. I'm originally from Oklahoma and I never had to do anything to our soil but now I'm in west central Texas and I'm having all kinds of issues trying to figure out how to grow things here. Sorry, I needed to vent! I'm so frustrated. But I did want to tell you that I have successfully grown coneflowers in clay soil, full Texas sun and they thrived.

Also, evermore, I am loving your collection. Very beautiful!

Kelly

That is the first nice Tiki Torch that i have seen on this forum. What state are you in? Nice collection, i am jealous.

Nice collection!

Thanks!

My soil is pretty cruddy actually. The house was build 9 some years ago and the entire yard (minus the sod) is pure fill dirt... Hard as cement clay.

For my flower beds, I just flip the lawn over and add a few inches of compost/manure from HD. When I add a plant, I mix in more of the same in the hole. It definite is on the dryer side though.. since it is a bit raised from the undisturbed clay below.

Wow! These are beautiful, thanks for posting.

We're growing Echinacea for the first time this year, and weren't sure about mixing different colors/varieties in the same bed. These different varieties look so great together that I think we'll try mixing some varieties next year.

So far we just have the regular Echinacea purpurea and the "White Swan". Both seem to be doing fine in our red clay soil, I think because the clay soil in our Echinacea area is crumbly and drains well, as opposed to some of our muckier thick clay garden beds. I swear, you could make pottery out of some of our soil, the clay is so heavy.

I heard somewhere that Echinacea flop more if you give them too much water and/or too much compost... has anyone else heard this? I had heard this before I planted our Echinacea so I added about half as much compost as normal when we planted them, and they seem to be happy and blooming away, healthy green leaves, no wilting or flopping. Didn't add any peat the the soil.

Kraze kelly, I discovered the other day when researching plants for alkaline soil that the west and central Texas area has a lot of alkaline soil. Almost all the U.S. native plants that tolerate alkaline conditions that I was able to look up were native to Texas. I wonder if this is what is affecting your Echinacea. Have you had your soil PH tested or tested it yourself?

Anyway, thanks again Nevermore for the Echinacea inspiration!

nevermore, could you spare some seeds this fall? I will pay for them.

Fantastic collection and colorful show for your garden! I'm coveting Coconut Lime the most!

Cameron

Very nice! My Sunset ech is about to get thrown out, and all of it's seedlings. Only one flower has petals, the rest zero, though the cones are changing color. Bleh. But yours are very pretty, I likie!

Karen

Topie...
No, I haven't had a soil test done. I wanted to this spring but my husband didn't think we needed it.... so much for listening to him, huh? I will definitely pick up one my self and do it asap. I'm curious what it will turn up.

I am learning so much by reading everyone's posts. Thanks!!

Kelly

THANKS for sharing!!

I have decided to replace ungrateful roses (that croak) with coneflowers.

I am in searh of varieties that aren't "purple".

Your collection has given me ideas!! Now I wish my local shops carried some of your plants!!

Beautiful:))

Beautiful! I love echinacea, they are fast becoming my favorite perennial. I have about 24 plants, half of them being from the big sky series and the other half misc like Kim's knee high, green jewel, tiki torch, elton knight, tomato soup, etc. I absolutely LOVE tomato soup. It is a beautiful bloomer and what you don't see on the tag or in most of the pics is that the cone actually comes out and stays for a good while a lime green color which really sets off the red!

I lost several of the Big Sky this year, wasn't happy about that. They just wouldn't come up, they peeked out but never grew enough to get strong and then just disappeared. Probably happened to about six of them which brings me down to about a dozen Big Sky. The ones that came up, though are doing quite well. Also, Kim's knee high have come up great this year, but funny enough I have them on two sides of my bed and and the left side knee highs are as tall as my Big Sky's but the right sides are still short. Wierd.

Question on the Tiki Torch. I actually just ordered and received that one. I am wondering if they shipped the wrong plant. It is very yellow and the petals are long and thin with space in between instead of wide like the pic that you have here. Do they come out that way and then color change? Or did they ship the wrong plant, I'm wondering? Also just received the Elton Knight and am disappointed in that one, seeing that the pic showed it as a wonderful medium lavender color and it is very pink! Ugghhh.

One other thing, do any of you guys have trouble with Japanese beetles on your echinacea and if so, what do you use to treat them? They just started eating mine this week and they were so beautiful! I am sure my neighbors think I have lost it b/c I go out to my flower bed every day and have a little mini fit with my frustration over those things eating my echinacea!

Last year all of my big sky had some of the petal less flowers and clustered cones... which i think are the mites going to town. I picked those buds all off when i see them and trash them. I also read that the mites will overwinter in the leaf litter or mulch below the plant over winter.

So at the start of winter i removed the browned portions of the plants and moved the mulch over to my garden to till in.

Those same plants are good this year... though it looks like i have some mite damage on my standard purpurea.

I regards to the tiki torch, this is a second year gallon plant. The flowers i have seen on smaller plants seem to match the description of what you are talking about form wise. The yellow petals are a different story... can you post a pic?

Very nice collection! I love coneflowers!

I have double deckers and the first year I had so many petals on the first flowers that it looked more like a carnation! It tamed down a lot now which is good, but I never got any flowers that had a perfect band of petals up at the top like the pictures shown at the nurseries! I get a few extra down lower on the cone. I do like them a lot though, especially the lighter pink color they have over the normal purple coneflower.

mayhem... just remind me in the fall and i will collect them for you..

Thanks nevermore i'll hit you up on that offer. On another note, today i was at a nursery looking at ech. There were a few called Champagne Bubbles. It looked like a White Swan with a very high seed pod. Anyway a few of the bloom were spent so i deadheaded them and took the pods with me. Is there seed in them now, what do i do? Right now i have them outside in a plastic container.

Nevermore, could you tell us where you are located? I mean the state..I'm not inviting myself over! I've never seen 3/4 of the plants you showed (to buy, I mean). They are fabulous! I do have most of the big sky series, though...

Very lovely. All nice plants. I especially enjoyed Tiki Torch and Coconut Lime but they were all really pretty. Thank you for sharing that with us.

Kate

Hi nevermore44,

Those are really beautiful collections. I planted some coneflowers last fall. Should I deadhead them or just let them do what they want?

Thanks!

Yes, I can post a pic. I sent one to the grower and asked if I got the right plant and he said No, I had somehow gotten a Harvest Moon. It doesn't really look like a Harvest Moon to me, either as I have several of those. Either way, they said they would send me a Tiki Torch next week, so they really handled it well. Here it is:

{{gwi:245099}}

funnthsun, are you sure you have Japanese beetles? I have a horrible time with oriental beetles. They are devastating, although they seem to hit my daisies a touch moreso than my coneflowers. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with them.

Thanks for sharing, Nevermore. Nice pics. LOVE the Raspbery Tart!

:)
Dee

diggerdee,

yes, definately japanese beetles. I fought them with roses for years until I finally decided to move on to a plant that bloomed longer and therefore was worth the fight!

I have been picking them off everyday for about 4 days and dropping them into a bucket of suds and water and I have not seen any on my echinacea or dahlias (they were eating those, too) for about 2 or 3 days, so maybe that is working. I hope so. Time will tell.

Last year I planted a Tikki Torch coneflower and it bloomed big and bountiful. It's planted in the front of the house with orange mums, east sun. This year I couldn't wait for it to bloom and guess what -- this year the blooms are PINK! What happened?

That is a very nice collection. I won't get blooms on mine for months and I only have two.