That's pretty much what they look like when they're finished blooming. On the bright side, the finches love to eat the seeds when the cones turn black and dry... but on the bad side, it ends the flowering cycle. Keeping them deadheaded staves off this unsightliness for a while.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:273861}}

Hmmm, I wish I had known this before I bought these plants! I do enjoy watching the finches, though (some of the plant clusters had 6 or 7 goldfinches on them at one time).

Thanks for the info. :)

Foodfiend - if you deadhead it, you might get more fresh blooms. I deadhead my Echinacea to prevent self-seeding, & I always get more flowers. If you look at the stem, you'll see a point where there is a new bud. Cut the old stem back to that point, & the new growth will be stimulated. You could leave 1 or 2 seedheads for the birds.

Thank you! I trimmed a few of the black stems today and always cut back to that leaf joint (for lack of a more professional term...). Now I'm assuming that because it's late September there will be no more blooms this year (in southwestern PA) but this is something I could do next year? And this has been the first year that these plants have been a problem with self-seeding so I'm glad to know that I found a way to rein that in as well.

:)

Yes, it is definitely something that you can do next year to keep them in bloom for a longer time!

Thanks so much. I really like the way that my flower beds (after over 20 years of trial-and-error) all seemed to come together this year and the only major flaw was the quick flowering and subsequent black stems of the coneflowers. Now it'll look better next year. :)

Foodfiend, if you wait for the seedheads to dry out enough before deadheading, you can cut them and put them someplace else for the finches to eat - someplace you can watch them. One gardener said she used to weave the stems through the lattice near her deck. The finches came and ate the seed and she could watch them from her kitchen window.

Last year I cut some seedheads and tied them to the branches of a tree near the bird feeders. The finches picked at the seeds all through the winter.

This picture was taken in April! They were still picking at the seeds...

{{gwi:259827}}

I think those finches were pretty hopeful if they were still picking in April! Mine finish off the seed heads by the end of fall. Sometimes there are 2-3 finches fluttering around each plant. I LOVE to watch them eat those seed heads, they are right outside my kitchen and they are all over the echinacea, heliopsis and black eyed susans this time of year. I just have to pull some seedlings in the spring but you can tell they prefer the flower heads to all my bird feeders. What a bummer to have a garden with no birds. I grow dahlias for flowers to look at and cut, and the seed-heavy plants are there for the birds.