Yours look better than a lot of them, but I see a few of those quilled petals! Look closer. There is not one plant of these without the problems. Look in your bottom 2 photos. Your plants have quilled petals on quite a few blooms.

Look at the bottom photo. See that petal at the bottom that's really short and turning upwards? You have a winner!

Juliet,

Take a closer look at the areas I have circled. You will see that your plant has the same problem that our plants have. Your blooms are fresh and the color hasn't faded yet though. This quilled petal problem is very common with this Sunrise echinacea. I have never seen one plant without this problem. These plants aren't supposed to have petals like that.

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If you look at the caption I wrote on the second photo it says "some of the flowers do have some quilled petals" - I did notice! I would rather that the plant didn't have any quilling, but other than that, it seems healthy. Some plants are bred specifically for quilled petals (for example coreopsis "Jethro Tull") so I guess some people must like quilling. I agree that they should have done better quality control on this group of echinaceas!

Juliet

Sorry Juliet.

Yours do look good compared to the ones I've been seeing. I have seen so many quilled petals on them that it stands out to me. They get so ugly when they fade. I'd like to see one that has 0 quilled petals on it. I think what makes it bad in these plants is that it's so random. I don't think I've ever seen one of these that had all normal blooms on it!

The quilled petals actually look good to me, sort of like the "seashell" hybrid of cosmos. Echinaceamaniac, I remember your picture of a quilled one although it was purple if I remember correctly, and that one looked so cool to me!

I wonder if it is in the gene or if it is just sick for this year. Will they come back as quilled next year? Will their offsprings be quilled too?

dave,

This is caused by tissue culture in this plant. It's ok if all the blooms are quilled, but it looks bad when they are randomly quilled. These will be like this next year too. It's genetic. This plant isn't supposed to have quills at all. That's why it's a problem for many people who bought them.

Echinaceamaniac, I see what you mean. It does look a little weird in a mixture. If I can separate them into a separate area where all are quilled, I don't mind them that way.

A week or two ago I visited a Home Depot or Lowes and saw a purple quilled one. I liked it, but being inexperienced with echinacea, I didn't know whether that was only temporary and that the flowers would eventually opened up or not, so I didn't buy it.