Last year, I tried pulling as many as I could, but they just came back again this year. What is the best method to thin out all these coneflowers so that I can get my daylillies back?

thanks so much!

Dee

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

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.

Kevin

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.

We are all at different stages of gardening and we all have different perceptions. I think some of the comments here can be construed as a bit rude.

Anything can be a thug if it spreads/reseeds excessively, especially if you have a small garden or - my particular problem - you don't have time to keep on top of things that are aggressive.

I personally agree with the original poster that echinacea is aggressive. I have a bed to prove it. The coneflowers have indeed taken over the bed, and while techically it's easy to pull out a single plant, if you don't have time to spend hours on end in your garden pulling and deadheading, and doing other general chores, things can get away from you. It doesn't always just take a few minutes, especially in a tightly packed garden where the use of tools is restricted.

Halemoana, I think your best bet is to try to deadhead as much as you possibly can this year, and rip out what you want/leave what you want. It does help to try to stay on top of it every year, but me saying this is the best-ever example of the "do what I say not what I do" scenario, lol - as evidenced by my own overtaken bed!

I hope you continue to ask questions here as well. :)

Dee

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

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 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!

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!