FB, your Green Twisters come true from (reseeding) seed? Or are they like columbines and you don't know what you'll get if you have other coneflowers? How long have you been growing them?

I had no blooms last year (new seedlings) and actually thought they were goners so sowed some more this year. Both groups are doing well now. Looking forward to seeing blooms, especially after seeing your pictures!

I'm so glad to see I'm not the only one who sows 50 of each plant!

:)

Dee

Diggerdee, the seedlings have yet to flower and interesting how they turn out especially as I do have other echinacea nearby. I like the long petals in the above first photo and grew plenty of seedlings of it. Today, I set out about eighty echinacea along the edge of the garden, others as well as 'Prima Donna White' and the Pink, also 'Prairie Splendor Compact White'. Have been working so long and hard that today was cursing my overboard plant addition! Always am planting and digging moving plants around to better coordinate and then stand grumbling of all the dug perennials needing my immediate attention! If I could only go back in time I would have made fewer and smaller beds!

FB, lol, if you're like me I guarantee your beds WERE once fewer and smaller - you had to enlarge and add to make room for all the seeds you sowed!! Haha!

I was cursing myself yesterday as I was desperately trying to fit about 80 LEFTOVER cosmos seedlings at my daughter's house (had already exhausted my garden space and hers - was plopping them along a weedy wild shrub border along her property line). I sowed 15 different varieties, and did I sow half a dozen of each? No, I sowed the whole packet, up to 40-50 of each. It is a curse!

Sorry robert, didn't mean to hijack your thread! Hopefully others will chime in with their Green Twister experience. I will say in general, I find the purple coneflowers to be the hardiest, heartiest and toughest. I've tried a few of the new varieties in the past and just didn't have luck with them. That was several years ago and I'm sure the newer ones have improved, but Green Twister and Green Jewel are my first foray back into trying new ones, and both of those were just in the last year or two so I don't have much experience to share.

:)

Dee

Dee, thanks for the chuckle! I DID have smaller beds, like when I was 14 years old, honest truth, that's when the bug bit hard and I begun putting the petal to the metal with grand dreams of garden delusion, lol. I'm now not so young and have reduced here and there and would be more than happy if I could snap my fingers to have the work cut by half!

I do sow a good deal of annuals, just can't beat the color! :)

'Twister' metamorphosis, the first bloom

Large regular flower on another plant

.

Nice, I'm sure you are to really enjoy the uniqueness of 'Green Twister' :)

O, I am just reviving an echie craze after spending years (and £££) on ridiculous showy cultivars...which all faded away to zilch. Have been back to basics with plain old purpurea - a modest 3 plants - but will obviously save the seed and get going on bulking up a collection as I have abandonned vegetable growing and have a lot of space which needs filling, quicksmart before it fills with far less desirable specimens.

Thankfully, all the annuals are finally in the ground and left to their own devices while my gaze has been directed more to seed catalogues for next year.

Rosaprimula, purpurea 'Prairie Splendor' is a snap breeze, first year flowering and a bit more compact than similar purpurea seed varieties. Oh, and I'd also never be without my annuals, snaps, marigolds, dianthus, zinnias etc !!

I had a patch of green twister growing beautifully in my front garden for about 5 years; then it suddenly reverted to the standard version! This was at the beginning of the pandemic when everything went crazy. I haven’t been able to find it in any of the local nurseries since.

Just updating on my Green Twisters, and it's a rather disappointing update!

They bloomed.... and they're pink. Just pink....

You can see some budding blooms on the same plant which look green, so I don't know what will happen with them.

Also, this nearby plant (sorry, horrible photo but you can see the green)

I think both plants above are the second-year plants which never bloomed last year (and which I thought I lost, so I sowed more this year) if that makes any difference. But I don't think it does, as I planted some new seedlings this year at my daughter's house down the street and hers have all bloomed plain pink as well. Pretty disappointing!

:)

Dee

P.S. FB those Prairie Spendors are splendid!

LaLennoxa and Dee, I've had good success with my original seed sown plants having remained true, though will be interesting what is produced of seed from those. As for overall vigor, in my garden these are strong stout plants every bit or even more so vigorous to 'Prairie Splendor'. I love 'Prairie Splendor', first year flowering very hardy plants, I set out about eighty some seedlings last year and spy among them a few to mark as superior, a couple of them with an extra row or two of petals.

I'm not very optimistic about my GTs. If they don't come true the first year I'm not too hopeful for future seasons. I'll leave them for one more year and then if they are still pink they're outta here! Maybe I'll stick them in a corner where there was once an small garden and where there are still a few echinacea purpura. They can all hang out together and be boring pink lol

I do have some Rainbow Marcella about to bloom - FB these may have been inspired by you (can't remember but it was definitely either you or rouge... or was it mxk? Hmm lol...) Anyway I am more hopeful about these, although I need to get them out of the pot and into the ground!

:)

Dee

Dee, discouraging when things are not what they're suppose to be! I did sow another good deal of 'Green Twister' from Swallowtail Seeds, I don't like admitting this, though so had neglected several varieties within their seed trays that some were lost, mostly the 'Green Twister' that is, dang!

'Sunseekers Rainbow' is one I grow (photo from two years ago), can't say it's been overly vigorous and it certainly is later flowering than others and has sorely lacked in vigor, dug it up to discover the roots had not made their way beyond the original potting medium, I then had totally barerooted it along with other newly acquired echinacea from that vendor and all are doing quite fine now.

So a few days later here is that greenish bud in the first photo in my last post. Hard to see in the photo but there is a slight greenish tint to it on the petal tips. Perhaps there is hope yet!

:)

Dee

Dee, unfortunately, I'm confident that's gonna be a pink bloom like the other, how many other "supposed" 'Green Twister' seedlings do you have?

FB I think I have about a half dozen, maybe 10 total. Plus at least four more at my daughter's. She gets more sun than I do and hers are a good three feet tall and in bloom almost fully. Her are definitely pink, all pink, and nothing but the pink, lol.

My plants are in various stages - the ones that I planted last year and thought I lost are bigger than the new seedlings from this season. The older ones are the ones I posted above. I couldn't get out to the garden today but I will definitely be out there tomorrow. I'll check that last one I posted as well as the definitely green one a few posts above and see how they are coming along.

:)

Dee