For one thing it appears as thou the plant is sick as well. With asters yellow you see vein clearing and curling leaves. Echinacea is also a host plant for cucumber mosaic virus. This well also cause deformed buds but leaves show as mottled areas of light and dark green with curling leaves. If comes back next year It will be sicker. With mites plant stays healthy with distorted buds. Hope this helps a little. I can't but be cautious and take them out mites or virus. Eriophyid mites they are vectors of rose rosette disease so plants are taken to garbage even faster.

I guess I didn't notice the leaf curling, I had thought it was from needing water, but I checked later in the day and they were still curled.

If I remove it, is it safe to plant another coneflower there? I know with hosta virus x you can't since the new one may be infected if in the same spot. Do you know if it's the same with coneflowers?

This is the first I've read about the vein clearing, although I've been reading more since you posted that. If there is no vein clearing, is it safe to say that it isn't aster yellows?

There should be vein clearing or yellowing. Thats what leads me to think your plant is sick. It appears that the veins are yellowing. As far as replanting I would wait just long enough to be sure all the roots are gone. While the bacteria doesn't live in the soil. It is in all parts of plant including the roots.Thats how it over winters in the north. When infected weeds regrow in spring their still sick. Thou everything I've read says that the worst damage comes from the little hopper blowing north from the south when their food sources become scarce. I personally would not be offended if leaf hopper decided to stay down south for a few decades.

I would just call that one as mite issues alone. There have been a lot of recent posts about AY on this site too to help diagnos your plant. As google to get good image for comparison.

I had a coneflower with buds looking similar to yours. I finally took a bud, sliced it in half and looked at it under a microscope. I definitely found mites. I could not see the mites just by eye or with a magnifying glass. Of course, this does not rule out aster yellows, but it did make me feel a bit better. I decided to keep that plant.

If you do not happen to have a microscope handy, you might be able to take the sample bud to a local group or agency that does have one. If you live near your county extension office (run through your state's land grant university), they might have a plant diagnostic lab. A local university or community college might have a plant sciences/ag department that could look at it. Sometimes even state parks with education centers have microscopes available for community use. A local Master Gardener group might be able to look at it as well.

gl whatever you decide to do!

thanks!