I love echs. I don't see the fancy ones like poodles and double decker although they might be later season. I'm sure there are others besides me who are curious about the return rate in your garden if you've tried them. Many gardeners had miserable luck with the Saul Series:

Sundown, Sunset, ? Sunrise. Pink Poodle and double decker didn't make it through a single winter. I spent a fortune on these babies and its still Magnus, Fragrant Angel, Powwow White, and Kims knee high.out there

Marie

the ray echinaceas are my favorites and yours are mahhhvelous!!!

Love the airiness of these!

Thanks all. I have a slight ech issue... So yes I have a ton more to come later on. I have overwintered most of the fancy types for many years. I gave away most of the big sky itsaul varities years back just from them not having good bloom form... Distorted and quilled petals. The pure pallida or paradoxa types are great and you can get them from seed.

Nevermore44, do you grow Pow Wow Wild Berry? I have 5 or 6 of these--one that over-wintered.

I have one of the wild berry around somewhere in there... it didn't preform too well compared to the straight purp.... though it was a bit shorter. I have seen it in other gardens though doing very well. If you are getting over wintering issues on any variety, I posted the below info in an earlier posting.

Assuming that they were taken care of throughout summer and bloomed for you last year ...it could be a few issues.....

If you bought quart sized plants that didn't have much basal growth by the time winter rolled in... They didnt have much of a chance. This would mean that there was just a single strong stem that had decent blooms.. But there weren't that many leaves growing from the crown itself. The nurseries are instructed to cut the blooms from young plants to bulk them up, but they many times don't in order to make the sale. So if you buy quart plants, get the ones that have tons of basal leaves and not just a bunch of flowers forming. If you had ordered the plants.....then you should cut back the flower stalks in order for it to bulk up.

The other issue would be staying too wet in the winter. You don't mention the other variety of ech that you have that is coming up, but when dealing with the new varieties... Wet feet seems to more important in comparison to any of the straight species.

Last issue is planting time. Try and not buy plants late in the year. There rate of winter kill is higher when they don't have time to settle in and get decent growth in. This is especially true on quart plants.

If you stick to selecting the right plants earlier in the season and dont plant them in winter wet areas... You can get them to come back year after year. I have had a lot of success with they new varieties.....once I started following the "rules".

Your garden looks lovely, nevermore! I only have 'Magnus' and 'Pow Wow White' but hope to add more. I wintersowed seeds from both plants and am curious what I'll end up with. Supposedly both seeds will grow true to the parent plant.

Based on your very helpful instruction above, should I pinch off any flower buds this year? I read that 'Pow Wow White' will actually bloom the first year from seed.

Fascinating variety! Thanks so much for the advice; I'll leave the seedlings alone.

I am one of the lucky ones. I've had several of the Saul series for 8 years and they are still here -Sunrise, Sunset,Harvest Moon and Summer Sky. I enjoy them every summer. Pink Double Delight has been here through 2 winters, Milk Shake 3 winters, and Green Envy returned from last year. I may have lost a 3 year old Pow Wow Wildberry, though. There are leaves coming up in the area but I didn't see the tiny shoots that precede the leaves on an established plant, so they could be seedlings. Paradoxa was moved from our last home 9 years ago, Tiki Torch has to be 5 years old this year and White Swan I believe was moved here 9 years ago.

I have given away tons of seeds through the years and have some feedback that the growers did get some interesting colored flowers from them. I always ask for feedback just to see how the seeds did for the people growing them out.

If I did lose Pow Wow, I will replace it. Lovely color and nice small size, this plant fits anywhere from the front of the bed to the middle. We had one of the worst winters this past year, the worst in years, and if these plants made it through that, they should make it through anything!

Beautiful flowers,nevermore. I never got around to starting the Pallida seeds I have from a trade, but from the looks of yours, I really should have!

Linda

Love those pics, thank you! We have wet Winters and Springs here--hoping for the best. I'm glad I'm getting the other 4 PowWows established now!

Lovely echs! I have had mixed results with them in my gardens, not a problem for you!

Sherry

updates with more blooms after being out of town last week

Some lovely Echinacea and displays of Echinacea, Nevermore.

Re your post of July 18, 2013: Are you seeing any evidence of coneflower rosette mite, when going to purchase plants now? You mentioned a possible relationship to the overproduction of Echinacea at that time.

From your pictures, there doesn't seem to be a problem now.

Some plants have a few infected blooms. Most are on plants that I have only had for a year or two.... but if you keep on top of removing the mite infested heads and do the early fall clean up... you can reduce/remove them. As an example on an ech 'hot lava'... it's in it's 3 year now... full of blooms.. each year it has had less issues until this year and it doesn't have any.

Thanks Nevermore,

Seeing your work above, think I'm going to start using Echinacea again!

Love them all! Thanks for sharing!!!!

Stunning! Thanks for sharing!!

Almost done!

great variety of those beauties!!!

If you ever have extra seeds, I would love some.

Those flowers are fantastic!! and..........the plants look so healthy.

carol

This is the finest display of echinaceas that I've ever seen. Beautiful!

I agree with sandyslopes, this is the best echinacea planting I've seen. What a variety!

Also I wouldn't mind seeing more of your garden as well as more coneflowers! The bog garden looks cool and I now know what to do with all those old arundo stalks. Thanks!

What a wonderful display....just reinforces my wish to have a wide variety of coneflowers in my garden. I wintersowed a few different varieties, and bought some this spring, in addition to the others that I had when I started my backyard garden project (digging up lawn, making alot of new beds!)

JUST BEAUTIFUL!

Thanks all. Katob... nice detective work on the bog and arundo stalks. I will post more photos of the garden..

I have three bogs for carnivorous plants... which during this time of year smells quite bad on a windless day. All the pitcher plants are filled with all sorts of bugs.

For the arundo... every year I cut them down... after getting halfway through just chopping them up for the compost... I think... " I should have done something with those!" ... so this year I made the arch. They become quite brittle though. One strike with the weeder and they shatter. The moon flower vines don't seem to be doing much so far... just sitting there as small sprouts at the base... so my plan to have them over the arch probably won't happen.