You are not alone. I have had mucho problem with them too. Drainage and moisture are much bigger issues to these fancy bred types. I grew some from seed this year. I'm hoping they will be happier since they were born 'n raised in our climate!

GGG

The subject of these new varieties of Echinacea is probably getting a little stale, there has been so much said about them already, some good but a lot of negatives.
I have just potted on 8 of these new guys, the root balls left something to be desired on 5 of them. 2 were extremely pot bound with a lot of brown roots, only a few healthy white feeder roots showing. 2 were not root bound but had obviously been over watered, the roots showed no healthy white feeder roots. The 3 I got through mail order were the best, the roots which were in very good condition and had not quite filled the pots they were in. The last one had healthy white feeder roots but there weren't many of them.
All these plants had healthy looking top growth, they were either flowering or had flower buds on them.
I bit the bullet , cut off all the flowers and buds, gave them a tiny bit of time released fertilizer, a good drink and put them in semi-shade.
I'm hoping by teasing the roots apart and giving them space to grow I'll end up with plants with good root systems, maybe this will help them get through the winter. Time will tell.

Annette

The Sundown coneflower that I bought at the greenhouse in Connecticut (I don't remember the name but my daughter will) was really healthy and in very good shape. It was in a commercial gallon (3 quart) pot and the roots weren't bound but the pot was close to full. I bought it at the beginning of June so that was probably a factor. It was only $9.95 which I thought was very reasonable and I am kicking myself for not buying three. It had good growth but no buds. It took hold where I planted it really fast and you have seen the blooms. Those are starting to dry up but there are many more side buds coming. I think this was my best purchase of the year. I am very pleased with it.
Bonny

I'll verify that Sundown is a good one. I tried Sunrise & Sunset, both croaked quickly.

I lost a few, too, but I forget which. The names are too similar for me to keep them all straight. Harvest Moon was a very nice one I thought...a different name and a different color. LOL!

I think the best thing you can do for them is to do as Annette said and get them either into a bigger pot or into the ground right away and clip off the flowers.

There is something very unnatural about the way they force those plants on the market that doesn't bode well for the future growth in a home garden situation (where they aren't fertilized with blue water every other day) and I think the assessment of the root system is a sound one.

The ones I lost are the ones that were brand new on the market, and sold in small pots, so all I am doing is waiting a season, or a half a season, to buy mine. This will give the middle grower a chance to really get them going, (or have the not-so-good ones die on him, not me).

They are tissue cultured, right? From Labs who then sell to big greenhouse places who grow the little plugs on to a saleable size? I think that's right. There is a new one called 'Tiki Torch' that was supposed to come out in June 2007, but the tissue culture place is having trouble with them and they've had to push delivery back. I would predict this one to be trouble for my home garden and not buy it until it had been on the market for a year -- and I'd also like to buy it in at least a gallon size. (None of this little Park's 2" pot by mailorder.)

Lime