I really love 'Prairie Splendor' and mine have been fantastic. I bought 5 pots from Lowe's last September and the blooms this summer have been just amazing. These coneflowers just keep on blooming after deadheading.

Cameron {{gwi:251613}}From my blogDefining Your Home, Garden and Travel

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This is basically just regular old Purpurea that someone selected and packaged the seeds. It looks just like my standard Echinaceas that you can get at Wal-Mart for 97 cents per packet of seeds.

I'd love to take all the money that I've spent on the disappointing designer echinaceas and buy a lot more of prairie splendor "regular" plants at $3-5 each instead of $15-20 each! LOL :-) I bought some seeds of PS and planted recently and they have already germinated.

Cameron

I agree with you Cameron. The standard ones are pretty but they shouldn't take the standard variety and give it a new name. LOL.

Actually, Prairie Spndor is a legit new variety. Here's the blurb:

Unanimously voted in as a 2007 Fleuroselect Gold Medal winner! This is the first Echinacea to bloom 100% the first year from seed! It was introduced by S&G Flowers.

Prairie Splendor boasts and earlier bloom time (up to 2 weeks earlier than other varieties) and an extended flowering period from late June to the first frost. The 4-6 inch wide, rose pink flowers are presented atop compact, well-branched plants. This variety is relatively short for an Echinacea, measuring in around 2 feet tall.

Personally, Magnus blooms for me until frost although I do admit that it doesn't start blooming until July.

looks beautiful! anyone care to trade some seeds?

I have never had problems with Echinacea purpurea blooming the first year from seeds. We understand it's claimed to be a new variety. I thiink the original poster was just disappointed with it. I have Echinaceas that just seed themselves and they look just like these.

I wouldn't say that I was disappointed with the plant, more disappointed that a seed propagated variety has a trademarked name. I mean, the plants on that shelve at Lowe's were clearly all from the same grower and same batch. Yet there were so many differences between the plants hat at first I thought they had mixed the labels. Thos differences were not due to different growing conditions or different age of the plants. I mean some had drooping flowers, some had deep purple flowers, some had pink flowers that reminded me of Echinacea 'Hope', and some had really bad looking ragged flowers. Some plants were short, some were tall. So what is the plant 'Prairie Splendor' supposed to look like when you have a batch of maybe 30 plants and only about five or so look similar. I am not complaining about the plants (maybe about the really raggedy looking once, they reminded me too much of some Big Sky series losers), just the fact that they give such diverse looking plants one trademarked name. And like I said, I selected a shorter blooming plant with nice upward petals and a good pink color. I'll see how it will develop over the rest of the season, and if it makes it through the winter.

Btw echinaceamaniac, thank you for your posts on here about your observations. I have started to point out those miserable Sundowns and Sunrises and the other bad plants to my local nurseries. I think once they receive honest feedback and see for themselves on thier own plants they might pass some of that information on to the growers.

Anyways, on to better things, such as Milkshake, Avalanche, and others... :-)

Marcindy, I didn't mean to disagree with you, what you saw at Lowe's was a mess of plants of varying garden value. That is sometimes what you get with many seed grown plants, even trademarked ones. However, Cameron's plants, also bought at Lowe's, look just fine in the garden. The advantage of seeding them yourself is that you get so many that you can cull out the ones you don't like. Obviously Cameron did a great job of culling out the good ones from Lowe's :) and those echinaceas do look better than my naturalized (more than a dozen years in the garden) purpureas.

I was deadheading the PS faded blooms today and there are already new buds forming on the stems. I think these bloom better than any other echinacea that I've tried.

Cameron

If anyone wants to try these, seeds are $2.95 at Swallowtail Garden Seeds. You can winter sow some this winter and pick out the ones you like. You could give the ones you don't like to a friend. LOL.

Cameron's plants do look good but all of her plants look good. LOL!

Here is a link that might be useful: Swallowtail Garden Seeds

So, is the PS darker purple than Magnus? I really like my Magnus, tons of dark purple flowers and very vigorous all for $8.99.

Well, I guess that depends on which PS plant you select either at the nursery or from your seed bed... :-)

But seriously, that's exactly what I was trying to say, you can't really make a statement about PS in relation to other echinacea varieties if PS is just a collective term for many different shades, sizes, heights, and (I am guessing here) propensity to flower.

In any case, the one I have is a little more pink than Magnus, but I have seen others labeled as PS that were in the same shade category as Magnus. I hope this answers your question.

marcindy - I know what you mean. I saw a bunch of these yesterday at Lowes. Some of them had really thick, purple stalks that looked almost like After Midnight. Some of them were tall. Some of them have green stalks. They aren't uniform at all.

I don't see how someone could identify these in a garden. They aren't unique enough to even identify. That's why I don't think they should be considered a true cultivar.

Someone just gave me an Echinacea "Prairie Splendor." LOL. My friend heard me talking about it and bought me one. It looks nice with the thick purple stalks. It looks like a different plant than Cameron posted. The stalks are very dark. She said she got it for 2 dollars!

2 bucks! sweet deal! Emaniac, do you have any red knee high? i am looking for something darker than my Magnus.

I don't have red knee high. That one isn't very dark from what I've heard. Darker than Magnus...I'd try Fatal Attraction, Vintage Wine or Merlot. Another nice one is Raspberry Tart. If you want to risk it, try After Midnight. LOL.

This Prairie Splendor has dark stems but I don't know how my blooms are going to look because they are just buds now.

I'll suggest Fatal Attraction for darker and deeper color.
Plus the stems are almost black...nice plant.

My next is fatal attraction, coral reef, gum drop and marmalade.....plus maybe a after midnight thrown in.....

I also bought the Prairie Splendor echinacea from Lowes fall of 2009. Mine is gorgeous and looks like the picture. It is June 5th and it has been blooming for over week even after torrential rains. I don't remember a wide variation in plants when I bought mine, but anyone who buys plants from Lowes should realize that you get what you pay for and that sometimes, you get a dud, and sometimes you luck out. I've been pleasantly surprised by mine and found this forum accidentally trying to find out where to get more. I've also had named cone flowers set seed and naturalize in my garden and the plants were tall and rangy; the flowers were small and sporadic at best. This plant I have now is the Belle of my border!

Slighty OT, hope no one minds a sidebar. I planted Sundown and Summer Sky just last year, to add to my good ole Magnus and White Swans. They are still in bud but they are GIANT, towering over my Magnus that have been there for years. I can't wait to see the flowers; I hope Summer Sky is really peachy-pink and Sundown is orange.

From my experience, White Swan is rather weak, took awhile to bulk up in the garden. The new ones are strong growers. That is, when they "take"; back at the nursery, there are LOTS of duds that seem to take a while to get growing. Fragrant Angel would be my pick for a white coneflower if I was just getting started with these.

Just wanted to say, Marc, that I've been thinking the same thing about portable internet! Hubby suggested the other day that we get Droids. At first I was like, "We don't need those..." but the next thing that occurred to me was that I would be able to look up plants while shopping at the nursery. LOL!

My PS and Magnus bloomed about the same time. The PS just looks like regular Purpurea. I like the Magnus much better with the darker petals.

I bought a 'Prairie Splendor' last year from a local garden center not a big box. It is growing nicely this year. I've lost 'Kim's Knee High', and several of the Big Sky series over our wet winters so was glad to see it emerge.

The Prairie Splendor I bought is shorter and has nicer flowers than the purpurea in my garden. As others have said there is variation in Prairie Splendor since it is seed grown so pick the best ones you can find.

Re 'Sundown' (above) and what was said previously about the Big Sky Series:

The 'Sundown' I planted in flower, in 2009, now "blooms" with no petals at all on roundish cones. It's time for it to go, but I'm going to try to keep it in a pot as a curio.

I gather the problem is inherent to this (interspecific) hybrid series. Big Sky cultivars are destined to lose their looks over time. Another mean trick played on we gardeners!