In my yard, it showed up everywhere. I always thought it was from reseeding. But the new plants pull up pretty easily.

R. Goldstrum is such a workhorse though - requires virtually no care at all, and puts on a show every year reliably - you gotta love it.

Tiffy, you will be pulling up seedlings in places where the Goldfinches plant them for you. If you leave the seed-heads on the birds will enjoy them in the winter, and actually they can be rather attractive, especially if they're sticking out of deep snow.

The main stems will send up at least 2 new shoots each spring from the roots area. The seeds will germinate everywhere, and if you collect them to trade you will have gazillions to share.

I have flowers blooming this year behind the narrow bed I planted in front of my trailer hitch, and would you believe the plants are growing through marble stones over old black plastic which the former owners put down years ago. The root system is not very deep but it sure is hardy!!

There are plants blooming in another garden as they have been for a couple of years now, and I never planted them there, but I was sooooooo grateful to have color there while I was recovering and couldn't garden. Sometimes I want to pull them out of there, but then I come to my senses and realize they really are wonderful, colorful, strong, and food for wildlife to boot! I noticed the Praying Mantids seem to prefer them as a site for their egg cases, too.

Mary

Thanks! I got five good plants out of one area today and spread them out.

I think I'll keep getting new plants from the existing ones and deadhead the spent flowers. They look too much like Echinacea when young to let them go and this year I started a lot of the new Echinaceas from seed. I have a lot of regular Echs which I do leave for the Finches and Chickadees in the winter and they do a fine job of sowing those. Love it!! They are wonderful contributors to my plant sale every year. :O)

Hi Tiffy,

I tried to send you a private email and for some reason it wont go through.

I saw somewhere that you want to try trollius this year. I have seeds from my trollius "earliest of all" and wondered if you might be interested in a trade for some of your inula goliath seeds. I have wanted them since I saw the first pic you posted of them and finally have something to offer in exchange for them.

Let me know!
Lisa

Lisa,

Not a problem. I'll try e-mailing you and see if it goes through.

BTW, I got a kick out of the intro message on your page!! LOL!! My DH does the same exact thing and I have to watch out for messages I may not want to send when I return to the computer. :O)

Goldstrum is a wonderful, colorful, tough plant. Mone was kind enough to send me some divisions last spring.

I'm so glad to hear that you cannot tell the difference between these and echs, tiffy. I can't either, not at all. My Goldstrum is planted right next to some echs, too. They look identical to me. I gave my friend a couple this year and told her they're either one or the other. Turned out they were echs.

Karen