They should be more intense in color than the average Echinacea. I grow these, and they are one of the best coneflowers ever. Did you buy the seeds or did someone give them to you? I know saving seeds from them gives lighter pink flowers. If you want the best color, I'd go some place that has for sale blooming and pick out the deepest color.

My absolute favorite! Love the color.

I'm having the same issue. However, I bought mine from a very reputable and well-rated online source.

Are your plants in full sun? Mine are and they are amazing!

Certainly always the possibility that the seeds were mislabeled. It happens at times in the seed industry. I've gotten "beet" seeds off the Martha Stewart rack that turned out to be radish seeds, seeds for white marigolds that bloomed as a yellow/orange mix. The only time that really bothered me was when I paid close to $50 for two types of rare seeds from a seed company in France, and BOTH were something other than what I was looking for. One was the right species, but the unimproved wild, weedy form of the plant. The other was completely wrong, was supposed to be Lathyrus tuberosus, instead it was common purple vetch.

How many buds have opened as of now? I have two plants. Both purchased from nurseries. I had my FFO on one earlier in the year and blown away by the deep, saturated color. It's gorgeous! The second plant came from a trade, but I know it was purchased by how it was packaged with it's tag. It just bloomed this past week and was much lighter than my other one. Because it has only opened one flower, I'm waiting to see what others will look like.

The first plant I mentioned is a year old. It did not bloom last year and has cycled through an entire year. I don't know if that makes a difference in the color or not. The trade plant is young and much smaller than my established one.

Linda

Now that Linda mentioned it, I don't think my small plant was as vibrant last year as a small seedling. This year the color is amazing.

Mine are deep magenta. 2nd year.

Cameron

As far as I'm concerned these are a breakthrough variety of Echinacea. The leaves are such a dark green color and the blooms are such an intense magenta color. I've had mine for three years now. It's by far the best seed variety available. They are completely covered with blooms and have many stems. The compact height is another plus.

Here is my 3rd year plant. Agastache 'Golden Jubilee' looks good behind it to me.

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Thank you for your input, everyone. I was hoping for colors similar to what echinaceamaniac posted above, but all of the blooms remain an unappealing (to me) pale lavendery pink.

All of my plants came from Bluestone. I cannot guarantee who their seed source was or even if they used their own saved seed. Sigh.

I have two tiny seedlings I started myself from seeds from Swallowtail Garden Seeds, but they are far too small to bloom this year.

If they do not bloom magenta by next season, they will be shovel pruned.

Hmmm, I have 3 or 4 seedlings of Pow wow berry that are getting ready to bloom. They were started from seed last Spring, and a couple made buds last fall, but they didn't have time to open. Now I am dying of curiosity to see what color they'll be.

The seeds were purchased from Swallowtail. Also got Echinacea 'Primadonna White', which has started blooming and is pretty so far, and Bravado, which hasn't bloomed yet either.

I've purchased a lot of commercial seed, both species and cultivars, and by no means are the seedlings always vigorous growers nor do they always live up to the pictures and descriptions in the catalog!

Great plant. Mine were planted last year and same color as Emaniacs although my camera does not do it justice. Having said that I just saw some at Lowes that had a washed out pink color? Anyhow, very floriferous and mch more branching than other echinaceas
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By miclino at 2012-07-02