Purple coneflower/echinacea

I planted quite a few seeds weeks ago. The all have dedicated soakers that keep the ground nice a moist. My problem is that they don't want to come up. They are in semi-sun, one full sun, and I only see aobut 2 sprouts (that aren't growing mind you) out of the 30-40 seeds I planted. Any good tips out there? Just be patient?

i also planted cone flower seeds a few weeks ago and have about 4 that sprouted a little tiny sprout and nothing more--but i read that they are hard to grow from seed so next time i will buy them as plants

Some seeds need to be kept cold before they will sprout. We can grow coneflowers here, but, they never reseed themselves because we are too warm in winter.

Also, in nature the birds eat the seed and then pass them. A few seeds make it thru the birds without being digested completely, but, the outside coating on the seed gets thinned. I used to grow Fuchsia from seed and had terrible luck with getting them to sprout until put them in my mouth and got them all wet. Then I would spit them out and spread them across potting soild and bury them. I left them alone for a couple days and then started to water. I went from 5% germination to about 80%.

That is a couple of things to think about.

I am lazy I just buy plants now.

This message was edited Jul 11, 2007 8:11 PM

even if you spend some money on established plants now, coneflower grows and spreads!!! You'll be digging up and seperating making more and more for your yard. They come back every year for me thicker than last! I dug up quite a few this year and planted them elsewhere in my yard as well as passing on to a friend. Maybe you can find someone in your area that will share and dig one up for you???

Am I the only person that thinks these cones are more pink than purple?

I don't know if they are pink or purple dale but what a beautiful garden. That is what I hope mine looks like when it grows up.

Leslie

Dale

I agree with you. I've never actually had a purple coneflower! Go figure!

And you have expanded my notion of spitting seeds well beyond the traditional watermelon contests:-)) Funny!

Bev

Hello everyone,

I was just reading your posts, because I'm new at gardening as well. A funny thing is, I have purple coneflowers growing up in my garden and they just bloomed (I also just found out what they were).

You've mentioned that you've never actually seen a purple echinacea coneflower, I think mine actually look purple (more lavenderish), What do you think?

I guess you could stretch the color thing. It's all in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? :) I still perceive them as pink...go figure!

Yeah, I think those look a little more purple...I wonder if the acidity of the soil could make them more pink or purple like hydrangeas?

Kristie

Could be, or maybe sun exposure...Mine get full blazing sun all day.

That could be...the sun would probably bleach them out making them look pinker...

Well, it certainly makes ME pinker..oww;))

lol

Echinacea germinate slow for me, but I am used to annuals that come up overnight too. Yes the cold stratifying could be a problem if they weren't chilled or commercial seed. They sure reseed well on their own here, but as a plant I prefer to just divide them for new plants.


Is this purple ;)

tggfisk - yes it is in the eye of the beholder, and I think that it all depends on what is surrounding the color to bring it out. Plus cameras don't do flowers justice.

dale - I have to agree your garden is beautiful, mine will be one day. - to you in adoration!

bigcityal - that is purple! and I like that. I like mine too! Again cameras don't do justice.

I can see I am going to have adjust the color on my internal monitor :-)

Can you work on mine while you're at it? ;-))

I have all kind of coneflowers and all were grown from seed except for the Montana Sky I got this year. They are all different shapes and colors of pink and purple.

Here's the other side of the bed.

Pepper~Pure coneflower heaven:-)

lol. I have irises next to this bed and the coneflowers jumped this year to surround them. I am gonna pull those few out later his year

For what it's worth, I have purple coneflowers on the east side of my house (morning sun only) and on the west side (gets blasted with very hot afternoon/evening sun). The ones in the east garden hold their color better that the ones in the west garden. BTW, the ones in the west garden were volunteer seedlings from the east garden flowers. I too had lots of trouble growing coneflowers from seed. I just buy one plant and wait for it to reseed itself.

Hope you don't mind if I jump in here. I planted purple coneflower packet seeds in the summer of 2006. Presently the plants are growing well in the sunny areas EXCEPT no flower stalks at all! I just read in a gardening book that seeds produce inferior plants so I guess that's what I now have. The PC plants that I bought at the nursery this spring are full of flowers. My gardening book says propagation is best by division or with nursery plants. It also says full sun may bleach out the purple color-so I guess that's why some are pinkish. I'm new at all this and seem to learn best by making mistakes. --Trish

All my coneflowers are in mostly shade. I have all shades in there it seems. The coneflowers are from a wildflower seed mix with fertilizer. Got it at Wal*Mart several years as a last ditch effort to get something to grow in the yard.