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Perennials garden

Possible Coneflower Issue?

3 years ago

Hi-

My coneflowers just started blooming, which is great, however I’ve noticed several of the blooms don‘t look quite right. The foliage and overall plants look healthy, but some of the blooms look like they are missing petals or are just the cone portion without petals. I’ve noticed some Japanese Beetle activity, but I’m not sure if what I’m seeing in the blooms are related to the beetles. It could also be that I’m worried about this because I’m home more and am looking at my plants more often.

I‘be attached a couple pictures of what I’m seeing. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Comments (6)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
3 years ago
Keep an eye on them. It could be just some seedling variation or it could be early signs of aster yellows.

I'm not sure what J. beetle damage looks like on these but I doubt they would focus only on the flowers.
Lindsay Vollmar
3 years ago
Hopefully it's just coneflower mites. It happens to my echinacea every year.
I usually just cut off the affected flowers and throw them away. If you start seeing more strange growth, like green petals, then it might be aster yellows. In that case, you would have to dig out the whole plant and toss it.
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Seth Dunn
Original Author
3 years ago
Thanks, I‘ll be watching these closely. I’ve seen no green petals, so I’m hopeful 🤞🏻
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
3 years ago
Green petals are not always present. Online images will present various examples that just have narrow, distorted or fully missing petals. So watching them closely is an excellent idea!
Nevermore44 - 6a
3 years ago
I would say they are mites. Aster yellows

any time I’ve come across it stunts and messes with the leaves and stems to an extent.... mites dont. Also it will have the green petals or mini bloom stems coming from the cones.
sah67 (zone 5b - NY)
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
GG:

The Japanese beetle damage on my Echinaceas (which is currently ongoing) is almost entirely restricted to the flower petals.

It’s one of the few plants in my garden where their damage isn’t focused on the foliage.

Another I’ve noticed only this year is Swamp Milkweed (which makes sense because of the toxic sap in the foliage). In doing some research on the phenomenon, I found a very interesting recent paper examining how Japanese beetle feeding on milkweed blossoms (and preventing seed formation) could be significant enough to affect Monarch populations:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-30731-z

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