In the same bed, terrene, are two regular looking pink ones. They are nice and tall but look like the regular E. purpurea. I'm going to ask neighbors if they would like to have them. They are growing right up next to my Sundown and I need to move them. I think you might be right about crossing the Big Sky plants with E. Paradoxa. You might get something really special and different. I have a friend who has offered to grow out some of the seeds from my tangerine orange seedling just to see what we get. I'm definitely taking her up on it. Since Paradoxa has been blooming about the same time as this seedling, maybe more crossing has taken place by the bees. You just never know. It's really awful that the voles ate your tall cross. It sounds like a really nice plant and I love the idea of the tall flowers. Linda

well - I have three, of three of them I bought them off a clearance table at Lowes in 2007 - they all came back and while they do not do as well in full sun as partial sun ( the color did fade) in 2008 they just weren't the clumps I thought they should be. So I saved the seeds - I will let you all know what I actually get from them.

I like it with some of the ornamental grasses, Shenandoah Switch Grass has a red cast that would play nice off the coneflower, and the textures work well. I also like it with some of the blue meadow sages, like 'May Night' or 'Caradonna', it would also be nice with Sedum 'Matrona' or really deep burgundy Asiatic lilies. I agree it is a bit touchy to place; total yuck with pink, kinda blah with white, clashy with orange, yellow could work but it is not the best. I would walk around the nursery with one and just set it next to everything I think might work...Good luck, Helen.

I went with the Big Sky Firelight. I was also very worried about the green/yellow. The box we opened did not match the sample at all. The installer, contractor, and store all had various excuses. The main one was the sample probably changed colors over time which made me want to know if my floors would change over time. They were also adamant about an expensive restocking fee so I just went for it. We did notice one lot matched the sample much better than the other so we ordered one more box of the good lot to have more options to mix them together. It all came out pretty good. Upstairs is a little more “green” looking but there’s a lot less natural light.