Is it drying out? Does a dog pee on it? Are others afflicted or just this one?

I.t is not dried out.it was very wet here recently but not now. We do not have a dog. And it's the only one affected. this may have happened last year to the same plant that I can't remember for sure. Should I dig it up?

If you keep the mulch too close to the crown.. Plus extra wet weather... You can get rot. If you pull on one of the dead stem.. You can check if the rotted out at the crown

It does look like too much water for too long. Part of the plant still looks healthy. I'd try moving it in the fall to an area with better drainage and see how it does.

Martha

I'd throw it out along with the plant next to it, which has the same affliction. Dig out the soil and replace it. Then plant something else. I don't waste energy on sick plants. I love buying or seed starting new plants.

If you bought the plants recently, I'd return them.

OK, thanks so much. I think I"ll dig this one up but maybe leave the other one. We did have an extra wet few weeks. It rained a little for 20 days straight. But the other coneflowers in other spots are just fine.

Here is a link to a page where a lot of different diseases of echinacea discussed. You might not want to put another coneflower in there after you take this one out.

Here is a link that might be useful: coneflower diseases

OK, I'll do that. I will pull it up and not put another one there. I have a Salvia that has done the same thing for 2 years. (different area). I guess the same thing could be happening to my Salvia too. ?

Echinacea purpurea is so easy to start from seed, and it reseeds like crazy once it's established. Thus I weed out seedlings all the time and would not hesitate to shovel-prune a plant like the one in your picture. Maybe take a look at the roots to see if there is evidence of a problem when you dig it up.

It does seem like it was root rot, because the stems just came off without very much effort. But....I'm pretty sure it happened to this same plant last year. I dug the plant up. Do start is from seed do you just put the seed right into the ground? I have some really pretty coneflowers out front that I would like to plant somewhere else. Can I do that at this time of the season or should I wait until spring.

General rule of thumb is to transplant in
spring or fall. Transplanting in the heat of summer can put a lot if stress on a plant as it strives to deal with high temps and take up adequate water.

I have read that you can direct sow echinacea seeds. You could also try winter sowing.

Good luck with your coneflowers; I hope they do better for you next year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Winter sowing forum

This post was edited by trovesoftrilliums on Sun, Jul 28, 13 at 8:25

Oh, those Instagram photos are so weird looking! Why is that?

Anyway, yes, coneflowers just don't thrive like they did when I first began to grow them twenty years ago. I can always count on aster yellows or any one of the other echinacea diseases described in the link in a previous post. Yesterday, I pulled up a half dozen plants and was grateful so many had reseeded from last year. I still have many healthy ones. Cutworms, or something that does the same type of damage, always get mine, too. It's pretty frustrating.

Hi Tamsea, do you possibly have voles? They LOVE Echs and will eat away at the roots, and the plant will easily pull up from the roots.

I start Echinacea seeds via winter-sowing or in cups in the spring. I started some in solo cups in late May and they are almost ready to plant out - I do it at about 2-3 inches high.

As Troves said, transplant in spring or fall. Mid-summer is a terrible time to transplant most perennials. Also I would dead head the plants you plan to move after flowering, so that they will put their energy into roots and not producing seed.

Just curious -- how do you collect their seeds to winter sow them??

When the flower heads dry out enough that you are able to pull the seeds off, collect them. I scatter mine in November. I suppose you could scratch the ground up a little bit before broadcasting seeds, but I do not think it is critical. These are all started from seed as a holding area to use on other parts of the property. Total cost, zero.
{{gwi:248686}}

terrene. I do have voles. So that could be the problem. Thanks for the suggestion to deadhead plants that I plan to transfer. If I want to divide them do I just put a shovel down the middle of the plant? I've had terrible luck with winter sowing....not much comes up. This year I think I started too late though.
Thanks for your input MulchMama.
crunchpa. I may try sprinkling a few seeds in an area and see what happens. Do you have to put the seeds in the fridge first? (stratification) If I sprinkle them in a weeded place in the back of my property will the weeds choke out the coneflowers? Are yours in a bed in this photo? I have a very large weedy area that I would love to put perennials (especially butterfly ones) in but I think the weeds would choke them out.