Offer them on GW for postage and dig them up :)
Otherwise, overwater them...

The same thing happened to my sister in her good Kansas soil. Between the chin high rudbeckias and the waist high coneflowers she was just about engulfed in a forest of them, pretty in spring but an unsightly nightmare later on when they go ratty. You can definitely have too much of a good thing. She pulled most of them last year, this year they were back somewhat and she pulled again, so I'd say just keep at it, that's what she's doing and its becoming manageable.

I have the same problem every year in one of my gardens. Each spring I pull up all but a few to give the other perennials a chance. Still, by August I have too many. They are definitely thugs.

Deadheading will also cut down on the new seedlings in spring. I have a bed which is being overtaken as well, so I will be pulling out lots this fall.

Dee

Deadheading is the only thing that works for me. If you get the finches coming in all the time... then the seeds are already dropping and you need to get out there.

If you like seeing the finches come, you can always just take all the cut huts and place them out somewhere else where the dropped seed won't cause a problem

They seem easier to give away than most plants, so I pot up most of my unwanted seedlings and re-home them. They are not thugs here though, they are excellent. It's different everywhere, obvioously!

This is hilarious. If you think Echinacea is a thug, you need to give up gardening. Nothing is easier to remove than Echinacea. Is this a joke thread?

I wish mine would spread.

I have really grown to love them....

I do cut mine back to get a later bloom, and thus prevent the "ratty" look thru the summer.

This post was edited by lilsprout on Tue, Aug 26, 14 at 20:23

I winter sowed seeds, planted out and now have what I hope will gradually become an Echinacea patch. Yes, they reseed, but I'm grateful when they do since I enjoy the blooms and the titmice enjoy the seeds. Isn't that what they call a symbiotic relationship? Neither my neighbor nor I have had any problems with them taking over the garden.

I have tried to increase the number of Echinacea purpurea in my garden for 28 years. It has been a very slow process so much so that I rarely give away Echinacea seedlings. This is the first time I heard that Echinacea is a thug. Are we talking about the same plant?

Anything can be a thug if you don't remove unwanted seedlings when they appear. Seriously, there is a device called a hoe which does the job just fine. It really only takes a few minutes to use.

Kevin

Please pardon my ignorance as I'm still a novice trying to learn. I apologize if my beginner questions annoyed a couple of you more seasoned green thumbs. But thank you for the suggestions. I will pull and dig up whatever I can this weekend hoping that they do not return next year.

For reference, here are a couple pictures of the flowers I am dealing with. I am almost certain that they are Echinacia, but of course I could be mistaken.
And the next post is what the garden looked like 2 years ago before they spread and outcompeted everything else.

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Here is a pic from 2 years ago before they took over.
Obviously this pic was taken a bit earlier in the season while some were still blooming. Only pic I could find.

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Would love to have your problem...

I like coneflowers - but curse their abundant seeding habit too! :-) Deadheading and regular digging out of unwanted ones is definitely an on-going chore here. We dug out a lot this spring, but there are still lots and lots in the garden. DH is in charge of deadheading and digging out - but he's in a sort of conflict-of-interest position since he's big on bird and butterfly photography so he likes to have lots of coneflowers to attract his photography subjects! *sigh*

Before we moved to where we live now, I had about 3 large E. Magnus planted. They were mulched and the next spring, I was pulling thousands of tiny seedlings out. Way too much work for me.

We moved that same summer and I have never put another Echie in that wasn't a hybrid of some kind-mine now are all the different colored ones. Learned my lesson with the older variety, plain pink ones.

I get occasional seedlings from the new hybrids but only a few, They are quickly taken care of as long as I get them pulled early in the spring. The only pink one here is Pow Wow Wildberry and it has just produced a very few seedlings. I let two grow out to see if they looked like the parent and they grew taller but still were that deep purple - pink color. A neighbor took them for their yard.

The long and the short of it is, if you grow the older pink varieties like Magnus, Bright Star, etc, I think it will always be hard to control their seeding, even if you try to keep on top of it. And even if you heavily mulch.

Linda

My personal taste is for the drift of coneflowers, but we all have different reasons for garden. I think they are such great flowers that help out so many different wonderful creatures--nectar for butterflies/bees, seed for finches (I don't get too many volunteers since the finches get them), and host plant for Silver Checkerspot and possibly Gorgone Checkerspot, depending on your location.

Looks like you coneflowers are right up against your house? That might be why you don't get enough finches coming in and eating up your seeds.

You could dig out some of your coneflowers and give away or start another garden; often this needs to happen with most perennials--they all need dividing every so often. I did this last year with mine because I wanted to include some other flowers/plants in my beds, and it worked.

One other thing is to learn what the seedlings look like and pull in the spring and either compost or give away.

This way you can keep the two or three you like to have there and be able to have the flowers you want.

The Phlox can be the same way--it might be thing you're pulling next year. Just life in the garden, always tinkering and adjusting and balancing.

Hope you get to enjoy those beautiful goldfinches enjoying the buffet you have for them.

The Echinacea is more of a background plant. It needs room to grow. Don't plant the other plants so close to it. The Echinacea would work in the back. If you want some smaller Echinacea, there are tons of compact varieties.

The Sombrero series has one called 'Hot Coral' that is very nice and compact. The PowWow Wild Berry from seeds is also smaller. If you don't want seedlings, just cut the dead blooms off. Otherwise, they are very easy to pull and grow very slowly.

There is a double variety called 'Piccolino' that is very tiny. Double varieties don't set as many seeds either so you can't go wrong with those. Double Delight, Milkshake, etc. are good ones. The double called 'Supreme Elegance' is large, but very nice. Also check out the Double Scoop series for medium size plants. The double blooms are not as attractive to pollinators and often don't set seeds. However, that means they don't have as many butterflies. That's one thing I don't like about them.

You can also bundle up the seed heads and tie them under a bird feeder. Goldfinches love them. Hope this helps!

You can also bundle up the seed heads and tie them under a bird feeder. Goldfinches love them.

Now that is an excellent idea! I'm always torn between my urge to tidy up and wanting to leave the seed heads there for the birds. Now I can do both!

They love them. Here's a photo of mine. I tie mine to the place I hang the bird feeders.