Anyway, my question is - if this is indeed asters yellow, what is the chance all my other echs will also become infected? Of course I will rip out the whole planting in this area, but I have a beloved Pink Poodle ~50' away, and a lush planting of echs on the other side of the house that I hate to rip out unless necessary.

Updated with photos:

I think this single plant of Magnus may be okay - ?, is away from the White Swan:

I would check for mites--looks like they might be visible with a magnifying glass or even just careful inspection.

Good luck!

are you getting green petals? or just spiky cones?

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/landscape/flowers/hgic1182.html

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/pests-and-problems/diseases/viruses/aster-yellows.aspx

Again do some other searches on controls... But I don't believe there are any systemics that do anything (ie bayer 3in 1)

I hope it's just mites and not the dreaded yellows. I'll pull out a mag glass and try to find any evidence of mites.

Coneflower rosette mite was new on me till very recently.
The flower deformation I had this year on the 'Hot Papaya'
(see below) looks exactly the same as the flower deformation I had the previous year on 'Sundown'. The plants involved looked otherwise quite healthy.

I am soon to pull out all of my coneflowers. I am convinced that most of the issues we are seeing right now are due to "asters yellow". Last year my echs were affected much later in the season.

I'm quite confused about my echinacea.

The only problem has been with flower formation.
Otherwise the plants have looked fine.

I completely removed the 'Sundown' (1 plant) last fall and always remove all perennial material above the surface in later fall and don't use mulch.

The affected 'Hot Papaya' (3 plants) were in the same bed, a foot or so away from the 'Sundown'.

I'm not buying any echinacea for gardens this year.

I'm assuming that the coneflower rosette mites originated with horticultural stock. Perhaps they are a result of over breeding coneflowers for a few traits (e.g. colour, flower shape) resulting in otherwise weakened plants (e.g. with poor pest resistance).

Have read that the mites have now moved out to affect some wild populations of coneflowers.

Mine also. From all that I have read re AY, the foliage is unaffected. The flowers emerge deformed or w/o petals. At this point I don't really care if it is AY or mites or etc. This is not the first year this has happened to most of my coneflowers. So out they will come.

Mites don't cause the green petals. There's enough of a difference between mites and asters to say your plants are just mite infected.

Have read of several approaches with treating coneflower rosette mites.

I do mixed sunshine perennial gardening and figure that as long as the perennials in a bed have sun, adequate watering (if needed), good soil and good plant hygiene, the rest is up to them.

I've never in 20 years of maintaining such beds ever had to use insecticides (even insecticidal soap) (or herbicides), so as far as I'm concerned the "just mites" have struck a fatal blow against my Echinacea in the same way that lily beetles struck a fatal blow against my former Lilium and related plants.

Thinking that as coneflower rosette mites are so plant specific (only affect Echinacea), there's no harm in eliminating plants when, and if, they become infected.

I am partial to echs though... so my view is most likely skewed a bit.

Agree Echinacea are useful plants.

Love your border!

You're saying you keep the plants, just remove the bad flower buds? How long have you been doing this? Many of the flowers on the remainder of the plant are fine?

If the results are fairly good maybe I'll try it too. I really don't want to dig out all my coneflowers! When the buds start to open next spring, I'll cut off anything suspicious. It's worth a try. Were half the flowers okay on affected plants? If so, it sure would be worth a try.

I see plants being sold tha are obviously infected ... So you would have to swear off the new coneflowers if you didn't want any chance of mites.... Or grow all from seed.... Which is a very viable option now with the great colors you can get from the 'Cheyenne spirit' seed line.

It worked for you and makes sense. The whole plant isn't the problem, it's the eggs, so I think I'll keep my cone flowers and see what happens next year. If it's fairly successful, I'll repeat the process. Besides, what can a gardener plant to replace cone flowers anyway?? Again, thanks for writing back and sharing your experience Nevermore. It could prove to be very helpful to many who read this form.

Happy gardening to all!

Read the message from me that's right above your own post. Nevermore44 has treated her or his cone flowers this way and has had good results, so cheer up and don't panic. Folks posting here pass on lots of good experience. Just read what they suggest and Google pictures of aster yellows. It's appearance is not at all like your flowers.