Echinacea: Which comes true from seed?

barefoot_contessa

15 years ago

With the little experimentation that I have done in the past, these are the ones that have come true for me:

Doppleganger/Double Decker

White Swan

Kim's Knee-high

I've tried Harvest Moon, but they came out pinkish/purple.

Are there others?

Carrie

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Comments (5)

bigred
15 years ago
I've tried some of the new name hybrids and only got foogly pink colors.

Never say die....I've got WS "Jade" sprouting from seed trade in the greenhouse now.

White Swan
Doppleganger/Doubledecker (I haven't made up my mind if these are the same plants w/ dif. names)
Magnus
have come true for me.

my best purple coneflower is a OP with heaven's only knows what parentage(maybe Magnus was da baby daddy) that grows to be about 4 ft. tall and blooms profusely.

Peggy
brandymulvaine
15 years ago
I saved all my seed from my echinacea(I have sunrise,twilight, and the common purple one) not knowing they would cross pollinate! I'm real curious to see what they turn into!
SUNRISE ECHINACEA
{{gwi:27623}}
does anyone know HOW far apart echinacea must be to prevent cross pollination?
-B
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jim_6b
15 years ago
I was watching a show recently about honey bees and they said that they flew up to 5 miles from the hive in search of flowers.
Jim
brandymulvaine
15 years ago
Duh! I'm thinking corn and wind!!LOL!! So the only way to make sure my echinacea atrorubens and paradoxa stay true is to completly isolate them? I don't know if bagging would work, does anyone here do that kind of thing? Maybe I'll ask on the "saving from seed" forum too :-)
-B
remy_gw
15 years ago
I answered for B over on the Seed Saving Forum, but I figured I would re-post here for others to see:

Being that they have different second(species) names I think crossing is probably low. I'll try to explain.
If you are growing E. purpurea(regular purple coneflower) and E. purpurea 'White Swan', they will cross being they are both E. purpurea varieties. Most of the popular cultivars are E. purpurea. A baby I saved of a E. purpurea and E 'White Swan' cross came out paler pink than the regular.
But if you are growing E. atrorubens and Echinacea pupurea 'White Swan' and E. paradoxa, you should see no crossing of seeds.
You do have to be careful though. Some species of echinacea are not thought to be true species and can cross. An example of this is Echinacea tennesseensis. It is thought to be a sub species of E. purpurea, and if so, cross breeding would readily happen between E. tennesseensis and E. purpurea.
Did all of that make sense? lol. I hope so.
As far as keeping seeds pure if you are growing two crossable cultivars, you need to bag blossoms. They are probably outbreeding flowers meaning you need insect pollination to get viable seed. In that case, you need to bag a few blossoms, uncover them when full of pollen and pollinate them yourself(a small brush works if you can't rub the blooms together) then recover them immediately to stop any further pollination that could happen from insects traveling.
If something didn't make sense, let me know,
Remy