This one has been a strong performer for me at the nursery. Much more vigorous than Tiki Torch or Tomato Soup and seems to bloom earlier. I would also suggest Hot Papaya as another strong grower.

These look gorgeous! I have Hot Papaya, but it's slow to get going with all the rain & up & down temps around here this spring. I wondered if bone meal might help this plant or not, so now I know to give it a shot. I just planted it last year & it did nicely. I was hoping for a better show this year.

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Echinacea "Hot Summer" is the best hybrid Echinacea I've grown. The blooms are turning bright red now. I think second place is "Flame Thrower." "Hot Papaya" didn't return this year for me. I don't think I like the double Echinaceas that much anyways. I prefer the "daisy" look.

Clint, my Hot Papaya returned and is looking good, despite constant rain.

Karen

Strange. I think my "Hot Papaya" had been treated with some kind of hormone before I bought it. It was covered with blooms last year. It flopped over from the weight.

This plant just looks so much better to me. This is what an Echinacea should look like. I just prefer the bloom form. The color changes and multiple hues on one plant are an added bonus.

I'm not one for liking all the fancy foo foo hybrids in echinacea, but I do like that one. I may have to find one of those some day.

Karen

This is my favorite coneflower. I bought mine as a 1g plant last summer and this year it came back strong...it's actually bigger than my seed grown coneflowers.
Your pictures are beautiful.

Hey echinaceamaniac I took your advise and bought one

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BEAUTIFUL! Will these come true from seed? May add them to me seed trade list. :P

Please let us know if these do well in zone 5. They did good here in zone 7. Some of these plants do better in colder zones and some like it warm. I'm hoping this one likes both extremes.

These don't come true from seeds. You can get some interesting plants from the seeds though.

I bought one about 2 weeks ago but Kansas has had an early July with high wind and high heat so it has been subjected to some extreme summer weather and hasn't really taken off yet. I bought it and Solar Flare at the same time as 1gal. plants but put them into 3gal. pots. It has buds that aren't yet open. I can't wait! Love yours, they're beautiful.

I'm from Denmark. I have bought 3 Hot Summers. One starts as orange but the orange fase lasts for 1 or 2 days at the most. On the second some flowers open red. The third (to my horror) is showing distorted flowers(as in Big Sky series).But overall it seems to be the most robust of the orange/red single flowered echinaceas.

You people are terrible. Just when I tell myself no more, you go and post these pictures.......

Tomato soup was a dud for me, distorted flowers even after moving it around. Have space in a new bed and I feel obligated to try this one (just so I can answer echinaceamaniac's zone 5 question...honest)

One of my plants started like this:

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And ended like this:

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The other plants started like this:

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and then they improved a little:

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They have survived a terrible winter here in a sheltered place, and came bigger. Shall I hope the flowers will improve? Or will it be the same story as with the Big Sky rubbish?

Wiselaw, I was going to mail order this one but saw it at a local nursery and the flowers look nothing like echinaceamaniac;s pic but look more like yours. I will not be getting it. I think that this probably shows a lot of variability in performance like tomato soup

well.. i ended up getting one of these today. I found one that had good basal growth with multiple growth points. Plus half off for the end of the season sale.

Some of the other new varieties seem to take a year or more to really show... or fail. So hopefully yours will get better next year!

E.maniac, yours is awesome!

yep, I am DONE with echinaceas apart from pinks and white - the hybrid ones have been rubbish (and I have tried a lot). Over here, many nurseries have pretty much stopped stocking them apart from the odd Sunset or Sunrise...oh yeah, the abomination that is Art's Pride. If I want those oranges, there are heleniums.

Any follow up information or opinions on the performance of 'Hot Summer' over the past two years? Thanks in advance.

Update:

Here is one of our second year HS plant today.

Rouge: Is the pink coloration of the photo accurate for the flower color in real life? Such a different coloration from the pictures e.maniac posted 2 years ago.
Also, what are those small purple flowers?

Rouge, I wrote such thing already a year or two ago. Nobody believed me that the whole clump changed color.

The "bluie, purplie" flowers you see are from an on the ground scrambling "Arabella" clematis.

I so appreciate hearing everyone's real-life-experience with these new Echinacea.

Personally, I am so sick and tired with every catalog I receive. It seems like there are at least 2 new pages totally devoted to all the new Echs being introduced. If you read the descriptions, everyone of them is more perfect than the next.

How long ago were these plants created? Unless they were all developed years and years ago and only now being introduced to the general population after years of testing could I possibly buy into the hype. I have a feeling it's nothing like that.

Kevin

Thanks rouge.

I havent seen many catalogs touting new echs...but I am sometimes overwhelmed by the photos in the catalogs I do get. Some don't look like real flowers at all. And breeders seem to be trying to make all flowers look alike, double and fluffy and glow in the dark colors.

I also planted one two years ago. While the plant is ceratinly healthy, I too have an issue with some of the blooms reverting to the standard pink as you can see below.

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It's going to get moved in the fall because it now clashes terribly with the other plants.

a2zmom, what a lush helenium!

a2zmom, what a lush helenium!

Are these fragrant!?

I have it on order and it will probably arrive next week. We may have snow in the interim.