The PowWow plants are good definitely. I planted them from seeds and they bloomed the first year. They came back this year too. Yay!

Marmalade and Milkshake were duds for me. I would wait about Raspberry Truffle. There hasn't been enough time to trial it yet.

There is a new seed variety coming out soon called Cheyenne Spirit. It looks amazing. It'll be a very economical way to grow a wide variety of Echinacea colors and it's from the same people who created the PowWow variety. I think it just won an award.

I love the blooms on Milkshake. I only had one of the three come back this spring, but it was in an area of my garden where only one of three of almost everything I planted is coming back this year. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm trying it again since it wasn't just the one plant.

It's not on your list but Meringue is very good. It's shorter than Milkshake but is floriferous. I'm trying it with Pow Wow this year. We'll see what transpires.

Ah darn, it was Meringue that I had, not Milkshake. Now I've got two Milkshake plants that were supposed to be replacements that I've got to find new spots for.

I tend to behead echinacea the first year, the idea being to let the plant establish itself rather than using up it's energy blooming. I've had good success with this method. I'll admit that I do cheat a bit and let a couple of flowers bloom just for the anticipation.

I'll be curious about what comes back. As most of you know, a many in that Big Sky series just petered out, after they finished annoying us with quilled petals and other distortions.

I had about 6 in three varieties and I don't think a single one is alive after 4 or 5 years. Good old Magnus is still going after 10 years.

It sure makes me cautious about trying first releases.

Marie

I too would love to know what comes back. I have some "doubles", pink double delight. And I hope they come back in the same form in upcoming years.

echinaceamaniac, what do you mean by "duds"? Did they not come back? Or did they come back in a single form?

I used to have some big sky series that didn't return. This post made me recall that.

Meringue came back strong this year. Off topic leucanthemum Snow Cap is also a winner. Looks like a bouquet of daisies and is long blooming. I like to use reflections in colors so to me they make a nice match. So far Pow Wow is as advertised, beautiful color and bloom your socks off.

I've had Echinacea 'Fatal Attraction' for a few years and it has always come back well each year until this year. Many of them have barely grown. From what I can tell, these tend to be more sensitive to winter wet.

On a positive side, I added 'Milkshake' and 'Hot Papaya' to my collection this year and have been really pleased so far.

I planted Milkshake and Hot Papaya both have come back this year and hot papaya has turned out great! , coconut lime was a dud the first year out, but replanted last year and it looks like i have a few plants doing great.
oh don't get me started on the sun down series, they're going to have to market those as annuals. holly