Look up Asters Yellow Coneflower. Not good news :-(

Rodger that one. It's asters yellow. No fix. Dig it up and throw it away.

Aster YellowS. The aster (singular) gets the yellows. ;-)

I hope that Ralph sees this and takes heed.

Sure it was just a typo made by Neversmores, or should I say Nevers'mores.

It's always good to know the correct terms. Thanks, rhizo!

what?! it's only July and no more s'mores?

Good point, Marie. Perhaps I misread Nevermore.

Once the plant diseased with aster yellows is removed/disposed,
how soon can a new Echinacea plant be planted in the same spot? Does disease
stay in the soil? If yes – for how long?

It's not a soil borne disease. AY is a phytoplasm (virus/bacterium-like) that is spread solely by an insect, the Aster leafhopper.

This disease also infects non Asteraceae plants, so it would be smart to do some research on ALL susceptible plants.

The only ways to control the disease are to remove affected plants+control the leafhoppers+use resistant plants.

Thanks all - I'm really glad I checked back! This is happening in more than one spot (very separate patches). I was just cutting off the tops so these odd things did not go to seed, but that's not the worry it seems.
I have an overabundance of self-seeding plants, but no other plants seem to be affected... yet. So I'm quite happy to get rid of these! I do have coreopsis and dianthus, they have not shown any signs of problems.
Thanks again!!! (Here is another more extreme photo)

^^ Oh man, now that is a mutant!

Although aster yellows does not persist in the soil, it can overwinter in infected perennial and biennial ornamentals andweeds, as well as in bulbs, tubers and corms. Some common overwintering hosts are plantain, dandelion, wild carrot, and purslane. There are many others. Missouri Botanical Garden has a good piece on A.Y., as does U. of Illinois Extension at

http://ipm.illinois.edu/diseases/rpds/903.pdf

The above has a very long list of affected plants, crops and weeds.

Ralph, that's a remarkable mutation! Crazy!

you win!

Thanks all, I found the Missouri Botanical Garden site searching for A.Y. - made me fill a bit ill!

I rooted out about 75 echinacea and an unknown number of black eyed susan tonight after work... but this is only the back gardens. Behind the carnage you can see part of the front garden that will take about this much work again (not to mention all the other potential targets)

Ouch! They all were getting the same green petals with the baby flowers coming from the cones?

There was quite a bit of variety. I stopped taking photos when it got out of control...

That last one is great... In a viral way. So did any other species get it

Wow! Look at all those bags! What a shame you had to weed out so many plants. ....That last pic is kind of cool. Too bad it's a sick plant.

I only killed the echinacea and black eyed susan. I have lots of coreopsis, some helenium, gallardia, dianthus nearby - non showing signs yet. Some sunflowers (my perennial annuals) are looking kinda sorry, not sure what is up.
By the way, I only purchased one plant this year - some bletilla striata roots. Everything else is from seed, getting this many echinacea took 5 years. So per above, I'd guess, unless it was the bletilla (which is fine) the vector came from some neighbor's Home Depot/Lowe's purchase

Found some pics of the susies on my phone

Ralph, I'd like to thank you for your images of what this disease can look like. It's fascinating. I'm also sorry for your many losses. Sadly, Aster Yellows vectors are ubiquitous. And some of these crazy mutations may very well be the result of eriophyid mites. What a pest they are!

Anyway, thank you so much.

great shots... how long have you seen these in your collection for?

And in regards to mites... just remember that mites cause the funky dense cone and may cause petals to not form... but they don't cause the green petals or mini blooms to form from each individual disk floret like are shown in the photos above.

How about this one on the shelf at lowes right now? Infected?

yes... infected. You can also see the green petals on the bloom below it.

Never more if I remember you're the coneflower master right? well would you trust any plants at all from a store with it on the shelf?

Not counting a Big Box stores... but just talking about local nurseries.... I have seen AY infected echinacea plants and pointed them out to the nurseryman on staff that day. He was removing the plants before I left... So I trust them.

It sounds like they are getting infected plugs which they then plant up into pots. So the issues with AY and even mites are coming from the original breeders/cloning nurseries. If the nursery was to do nothing after knowing it's a viral disease... I might avoid them. As long as you stress the fact that it will spread to their other plants... (ie cost them $$$) they are more apt to do something.

Here are some of the large patches left to kill (half dead already anyway...)

The last picture is a detail crop of the 2nd to last, showing the growth on the B.E.S. (Taken w phone rather than good camera, so they don't give such a vivid impression of the virulence)

Wow, I, too, am thankful to Ralph for posting the photos that so vividly show the problems/how Aster yellows affects plants!