It seems like the newer ones fizzle in a year or two. I'm done trying. Pink Double Delight is the only one I grow now.

The only yellow I tried was a Cheyenne Spirit in a pot. It did not overwinter in the pot. The ones I have that are hardy in the ground are Pow Wow white, Salsa Red and Raspberry Double Scoop. The Orange Flameco struggled this year and I just trashed it.

I was thinking about trying another yellow echinacea. But when I got to the garden center I bought a miniture sunflower instead.

Debra

Cheyenne Spirit has grown well for me, this is the 3rd year I have had it. Guess you can't really call it a yellow, since it is supposed to have 3 colors. Last year though, it did not have any yellow flowers til late fall, and only a few of those. So far no yellows this year either, and those of course are the ones I wanted most. I have Raspberry Double Scoop that has survived, but Pow Wows white and red finally seem to have died out. I have one of those earlier ones, Big Sky something, starts our orange and changes to purple that has done well. It has reserved a lot, the first seedlings were the same as the parent, but the later ones seem to be reverting to purple. They are only that deep orange for a very few days though. I dug one out a couple of days ago, faster yellows, severe. It was an isolated seedling, I don't see it on larger clumps yet, but keeping an eye out.

The Cheyenne Spirits come in a variety of colors. I bought a pot two falls ago that had the three-color one, yellows and a red. Those are the ones that died here the first winter. I also had one of the three-colors planted in the ground that died. I know Julia's are thriving, so maybe I just got some weak plants.

Debra

Maryl. Aster Yellows took mine out years ago when I grew quite a few varieties. Thie year I had planted Salsa Red which did great, and Cheyenne spirits in Orange which died in the ground this winter.

kay

Kay - There must be something about our freeze and thaw weather that Cheyenne Spirits don't like.

Debra

Two years ago I bought Cheyenne Spirit as seedlings (not blooming) from Graceful Gardens which is a local grower in our area (they also ship). I also got as seedling something called Pow Wow Wild Berry which has also comeback and reseeded. The Cheyenne Spirit is a mix of reds, orange, light yellow, white and what I call a cream color. You don't know what mix you will have till they start blooming. Mine have come back from those seedlings I planted.

I did purchase a Cheyenne Spirit mix that was blooming from garden center who sells Monrovia and it did not do as well as I see I've only gotten a single orange to return. I got a Salsa one about a month or so ago and it is in the ground in the backyard. We will see if it returns.

Aster yellow affects not only coneflowers but other perennials and annuals. Look out for Leafhoppers as they are the culprit which infects the plants.

As with many plants I would grow this in a pot if I can find one I like. What brought me to this idea is a bonus plant I got from a vendor that was supposed to be a yellow Echinacea. Since I haven't grown them in years, and after seeing Debra's, it made me go hmmmm - now there's an idea for an accent plant. Anyway as you can see the color of my bonus plant is not yellow AND it fades to a boogly color pretty quickly (and we all know how I feel about faders). But I was still interested to know if a yellow one might not fade as poorly. If it turns into an annual, with aster yellows skulking around, that might not be a bad thing if it bloomed well the first year:

My bonus plant as it started out. First day it's kind of a hot tomato red then it starts going downhill.

Not my cup of tea.

Maryl

Maryl - It looks like one of those color changing Cheyenne Spirits.

Well that's interesting. They meant it to look like that intentionally? I'll avoid that one/series of changeables. Different strokes for different folks as they say. For all I know a yellow echinacea that is colorfast may be as challenging to find as a daylily that is colorfast. Here we go again-lol.........Maryl

I don't think it is Cheyenne Spirit as mine do not change color even when we had several days of 90 + and no rain. The only time the bloom fades is when it is dying back.

I had two different Cheyenne Spirits that were color changers, and one of them changed color in exactly the same way a Maryl's. The other was an orange with a magenta ring around the cone, and that one got lighter and lighter until the whole thing became magenta/pink.

Debra