I just did a web search

that Missouri botanical garden does very good articles,

they mention that other groups are less susceptible to the disease

article aster yellow

copied from the aricle:

. Plant less susceptible plant species.

Controlling aster yellows is difficult. As long as infected leafhoppers are around, they can infect plants. A practical way to avoid having problems with this disease is to grow plants that are not as susceptible to aster yellows. Verbena, salvia, nicotiana, geranium, cockscomb, and impatiens are among the least susceptible plants.

I planted a coneflower that had it about 4 years ago. i removed it, the year after I planted another one in the same spot. it also got infected. so I decided to plant them in a different garden bed, and I haven't seen signs of it since.

I noticed it once in my garden about 5 years ago (up until that I had never heard of it, but I researched when I saw the deranged flower heads). I immediately removed and destroyed the echinacea, but I had many others around and certainly new ones I added in later which were not affected.

I was hoping that would be my case. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the other ones but after having it again I'm not sure I will be so lucky. I'm anxious to see what the test results are on the ones I sent it. .Any idea of replacement plants to take there place. Tall and medium height

Everyone….Post some pictures of your plants.

Mites cause all sorts of messed up cones along with stunted or no petals. They do not cause any growth issues with your plants. Mites are much more common of an issue the asters yellows.

Asters yellow (AY) can also cause funky cone issues but the absoulute tell tale sign that ONLY AY can do is cause the green petals on the cone or mini blooms arising from the cones. AY also causes the plant to have some distorted growth in general.

if you arent seeing green petals or the mini blooms…. most likely you only have mites which means iou dont meed to destroy your plants… you just need to remove the mite infested heads and clean up early in the fall to remove eggs Here are some pics of AY

Most of the ones last year had the green petals, there may have been one or two that didn't but had the mite damage you are talking about. I didn't know about the mites last year so even ones without green flowers got put in the trash if they looked abnormal at all. Now this year so far one of the ones I replaced from last year had the green flowers and one has what I'm pretty sure is mite damage so I let it stay for now.

This is not a picture of my plant but the one I think just has mite damage looks just like this. I will try to post the one of mine that looks like this one. Also my two merlot has very distorted foilage, and no blooms yet they got pulled up and potted and are being kept in quarantine lol until the I find out the results from my state extension. I could not bring myself to trash them until I know for sure it not weed b gone damage.

I had and still have a lot of echinacea. By sticking with the rule that if you dont see green petals …. im not talked about disfigured, or small, or missing… im talking the color green when they should be purple or orange or red……..or if you dont see the mini blooms…. its just mites. This has worked out well and not failed me once.

Also note that asters yellows is a virus that requires a live host to live in and a vector (like a leaf hopper) to transmit it. It can not live in soil. So if you pull up a plant and stick a new one in the next day…. its fine… unless you have another AY carrier in the yard to reinfect it