I'm having the same trouble with my plants this year. My two are clear on the other side of my garden from each other. I'll be tagging the pink ones so I can remove them from the patch of white and find them a different location on the property. See what they end up being. I really do favor my white babies though. The Shasta daisies don't last long enough, and get super leggy in this area. That's why my white Echinacea are my most beloved. I'm sure that they got mixed in by the birds. Not sure if you are aware, but much of random reseeding in gardens is from bird droppings. The birds are Mother Nature's best gardeners. I have Alchemilla that is only in the front of my property , and find baby seedlings in the main perennial garden out back. Helps when I want to add to the front, but don't want to divide yet. Lol.... Feels like Christmas every Spring!

That is a real beauty, being new to coneflowers I am finding them fascinating. Because of the range in colors I can see them added here and there throughout my garden for badly needed splashes of color in my very green garden. Here in Canada we don't seem to get the variety you do in the states but some of the newer ones are starting to trickle through. Not knowing to much about Echinacea, I'm hoping they have a fairly long bloom period if deadheaded. I've always ended up a collector of some types of plants that have really impressed me, it looks like Echinacea is going to be added to my list. Not only are they beautiful they have a lovely sweet scent. Are there any good books on Echinacea, their growing likes and dislikes, propagation etc. Annette

Okay. First of all, an existing plant is not going to turn into another color (You can divide these plants, you know, and get those same ones over and over.). So, the fact that your Purpureas and your White Swans are planted nearby will not affect the existing plants. However, it is entirely possible that bees could cross pollinate between them, seeds form, drop, and germinate to yield new and somewhat different plants.The current issue of Horticulture Magazine has an article on all the new echinacea cultivars. They said in the article that homeowners who plant more than one variety might very well see new colors, heights, or other characteristics due to cross pollination and the coming up of those seeds resulting from the crosses. You need to know too, that seeds from mother plants that were hybrids (crosses) will often revert to the parents of the plants from which they formed. In other words, a pink one gets cross pollinated with a white one and forms seeds. Some of the seeds might be pink like mom, some white like dad, and some pink and white striped, a combination of mom and dad (this is ALL hypothetical and very simplistic:) The only way to know what the cross yields is to let ALL the seeds come up and flower. The breeders then cull out the undesirable and common ones, and begin to clone (division is one way) the ones they want to keep. Gloriosa Daisy is a Rudbeckia, so it would not cross with Echinacea. However, Gloriosas make bajillions of seeds, so it's entirely possible that's where your new yellow is from: some Rudbeckia seeds fell in and among your echinacea plants. There can be a fair amount of variation from one Gloriosa to another, so it's not impossible that a Gloriosa might make a non-fuzzy leaf. The only way you'd get a yellow echinacea from your purpureas and white swans is if one of those two types had a yellow ancestor. I could be wrong, but although there are yellow echinaceas, I doubt they are parents of those two. I bet this is WAY more than you ever wanted to know! :) As far as planting out your new winter-sown plants. I'd space them about eighteen inches apart.

Thanks so much, Terrene. You've saved me money as well as time & energy. I'm sticking with the old fashion purple coneflowers & not buying any modern hybrids no matter how pretty & how colorful they are. Here's hoping that you got rid of all the obnoxious neighbors & that yours bloom true. I've been googling & found a post saying just what you have said. Strong eagle wrote on 12/13/09: "Echinacea ... various colors cross readily ... several years ago, my purple crossed with the white ... and I now have light pink flowers on several large plants." idiginmygarden.com Gardenweed, doesn't it often depend how close the plants are as to whether or not they crosspollinate? Your pics show a big yard. Could you put a good bit of space between different kinds of echies? I am very grateful, thanks! Congrats to you, aklinda & kvenkat!! How about a cat off the internet to dance with you? Credit for dancing cat