Brilliantly! Everything seems to be growing fast, tall, and brilliant this year. Maybe because of the frequent thunderstorms we've had in our area. EP

I have noticed them in other people's yards and kicked myself for not planting them. They are gorgeous this year. I planted some last year, but they got attacked by some bizarre black fly larvae, and I never did replant.

Mine have popped up everywhere, just not in the grassy areas. Just lovely.

I have the species coneflower and it is doing very well. I just planted a yellow, and it is blooming even though it's still very small. The yellow is a kind of buttery yellow, and very attractive. And to think I didn't used to like yellow flowers. But then there are the myriad of different shades of yellow, too. And think of the songs you can sing while watering a yellow bloomer...mellow yellow, yellow submarine, tie a yellow ribbon, Old Yellow (oops that was yeller).....

Gone bonkers tonight....

Susan

"Old Yeller" was/is a song?

Are coneflowers self-seeding plants, or are they true perennials that I can deadhead once they've done their thing?

Depends on whether you have annual reseeding types or perennial ones. My coneflowers are all the perennial ones and I just leave the stalks up over winter for the birds to pick off of. In earlyspring, I gather up any uneaten seed heads and scatter them where I want another plant. Sometimes they reseed, sometimes they don't, but they ar also pretty easy to divide in spring.

I didn't know there WERE annual coneflowers. I thought they were all perennials that self-sow (the species anyway). Hybrids may not come true if they self-sow. I'll have to check it out on my new yellow and see if it self-sows. Hey, we might even get some new hybrids out of the deal. I wonder if I could cross the species with the cultivar and if so, how would I go about it? I know how to cross begonias, but not coneflowers.

Susan

LOL
I think the term coneflower is general and is used to cover both annual wildflowers and perennial domesticated types. Like rudebeckia, which I think of as referring only to my domesticated Black Eyed Susans, but which covers a lot of other plant territory besides.
If they are anything like cannas, all you have to do is plant two or more types in your yard and wait a year or two. They hybridize on their own!
Last year I planted King Hubert, tall dark leaved plants with red flowers, and Pretorias, short with green and yellow striped leaves and orange flowers. This year I have tall canna with dark, shadow striped leaves, and short canna with darker red in their striped leaves and red flowers. Go figure! Interesting what busy hummers, bees, and flutterbys can do with plants' genetic material!

My purple coneflowers are doing great and are taller this year, and have more flowers than they have had the last couple of years, but we're in a drought down here, so I guess the water hose gets the credit! My native yellow coneflowers are doing well despite the lack of rainfall, and the yellow coneflowers I planted from seed a couple of years ago are doing merely OK.

Out of curiosity, what's normal height for purple coneflowers? They're perennials, and are about 4 foot tall and extremely thick. Does this mean I done good?

They seem to stay forever as cut flowers. I have a couple stuck in a bottle of water that look good after two weeks.

Does someone have a pic of a coneflower? I wanna see one too.

David

{{gwi:1108425}}
Cone flower.. echinacea or purple cone flower, black eyed susans, and rose of Sharon. Last weekend 'Oklahoma Gardening' defined different kinds of cone flowers which included black eyed susans and several others. EP

Here is the link. EP

Here is a link that might be useful: Oklahoma Gardening shownotes

EnchantedPlace.................they are great! That is a beautiful picture. My heavens, the coneflowers look as tho they are thriving in an enchanted place, indeed.

David