Agreed.... but i think the bigger issue is that plants are being sold that are obviously infected and expressing the distorted green petaled flowers on shelf from the growers and end vendors. I have seen it at big box stores and independent nurseries. The big box stores won't really do anything about it.. unless they take the time to tell the supply nursery... who then takes them off the shelf... which seems quite unlikely to happen. I have pointed the infected plants out to some nurseries and they pull them plants right in front of me and toss them.. which is good... but others won't do anything either since they have the chance of loosing $$$. I suppose it might be difficult to go back to the plant plug supplier a year or more later and say "hey.. those plugs you sold me are infected" without them just saying that they were infected at the nursery site. One nurseryman told me that all of the plants they had that were infected were very recent arrivals from the plug supplier.... so the infection is starting early in the plant cycle. So the lesson of the day is to never buy an echinacea that doesn't have some flowers that are fully opened and developed. This will at least give you a better chance of buying an uninfected plant (even though an infected plant doesn't always show it's infection right away). If you do see a single plant of the group though that is infected... i would avoid the whole lot of them.

That link shows fairly good shots of the basic differences. Green Petals = Aster Yellows Pine coning on the bloom's cone typically means mites (without green petals)

I recently started a thread in the Vegetable Forum regarding my and many other Minnesota growers' garlic crops being destroyed by Aster yellows this year. I am posting the link to that thread below. I am cross-posting in the pertinent GW forums in the hopes of receiving more input and/or suggestions regarding the subject matter by folks who may be able to help but do not follow the Vegetable Forum. We need all the info/advice we can get in order to get a handle on this disease regarding how to prepare for it, control it, fight it, or to at least minimize its damaging effects, if it occurs again here. I am passing all helpful information on to any Minnesota garlic grower who requests it and is not a member of GW. Please reply to this topic on the main thread in the Vegetable Forum, not here. Thanks for your time and any input. -Tom Here is a link that might be useful: Main Subject Thread in Vegetable Forum

I went into the garden tonight and my hot papypa coneflower one beautiful bloom and one bloom half green and pink on the flower. Other buds not sure if they will be deformed. With aster yellow I know the leaves are streaked with yellow which none of my leaves are. I am not sure if there is a problem with the parentage and hybridizing. A few years ago I got rid of all my coneflowers and waited a few years to start again because of suspicious blooms. Last year all my plants were healthy. The one with the deformed blooms tonight was a baby lastyear and not old enough to bloom. So I am still researching the issue?