My Mac 'n Cheese is a plug size after its first winter. 'Tomato soup' is doing great - looks like a blooming size plant already. It was purchased with Mac 'n Cheese last year (both were plugs). 'Hot Lava' survived. Still tiny. 'Pink Poodle' bloomed for me first year after planting. Overwinted OK. 'Tiki Torch' is finally growing (two years in the garden, never bloomed). Same thing with 'Merinque' and 'Coral Reef'. 'Ruby Star' and 'Coconut Lime' are doing great. No surprise here: they both were gallon size plants at the planting time. 'Hot Papaya', 'Tangerine Dream' did not survive. I just ordered one more 'Hot Papaya'. Will give it one more try.

Up, up and not away!

Maybe we can repost this with a note NOT to reply that way it stays at the top? Is there a way we can sticky this?

It's been six years since I first posted about the weird growth. I moved to another house, taking my plants with me. The original plant that was so hardy is no more. ALL my echinaceas are now showing signs of this disease, and yes, most definitely it's aster yellows, phytoplasma. I bought every new plant that was introduced--all the Big Sky series, Vintage Wine, the double pink ones under various names, Fragrant Angel, all of them. They now all have the disease and I'm digging them all out. I'm noticing nurseries selling plants that are diseased, so I not only had this in my garden to start with, but I've added strains by buying plants that were carriers. Last week I was in a nursery that had an 8 x 10 photo of an echinacea with the characteristic rosetting, leaflike blooms. They thought it was beautiful and would not believe me when I said it was a disease and they should not be selling plants that looked like that. I didn't believe it six years ago. Clfo was exactly right when he said the plant does not have to act diseased to be diseased. I wish I had disposed of the original plant. I am glad I didn't collect any seeds or share them with anyone. I did a google search for a treatment, found very little, and the search brought up this old thread. Just wanted to make sure people knew it wasn't a cool new plant, but the start of disaster for a large part of my perennial garden. Cindi