Deformed Big Sky Echinaceas - an answer

15 years ago

I know we have all rehashed the problems with the blooms on some Big Sky Echinaceas to death. But last month I had gone to one of the 'good' nurseries and asked them about the problem. They were not aware of it, because none of their plants have the problem. When I came home, I sent them some pictures of some of the deformed blooms. Here is the response I got:

"Cassie had passed along your e-mail from back in June and I held on to it knowing I would be talking to some of the growers and breeders at the OFA show. The recurring response I received when bringing up your experience is that the plants have a virus. The plant most likely picked it up while in propagation during micro propagation techniques that were not clean. It could be possible it picked it up after planting from an insect vector. Generally these plants do hold consistant flowering if in a clean healthy state. Because there was a big rush to get these new plants out, many micro prop labs(probably without good sanitation controls) were employed to generate the numbers or at a lower cost.

We will be trying two new Echinaceas from Terra Nova that they claim hold their color longer and with more consistancy. They also are known for their extra care and testing in keeping clean stock."

I'm sure the two new ones are Tomato Soup and Mac & Cheese that echinaceamaniac showed us pictures of. I will definitely be buying my plants from this nursery as their stock is always great. And I appreciate them going to the trouble of finding answers for me even when their plants didn't have a problem.

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