Yay!
I can join you in the celebrating. I got my first Echinacea sprout today!

When did you plant the coneflower seeds? Mine that I planted on 12/30 haven't come up yet either and maybe I've not given them enough time. It is supposed to be in 60's and low 70's for the rest of the weekend..I keep hoping to see sprouts in those jugs.

My Echinacea seeds were sown on 29 December. They got afternoon sun and very little snow cover. Except for two short bouts of subzero temps, our winter has been pretty mild. This is my first try at WS so I can't tell you if the date they sprouted is typical or not. I have two containers of them and only one has sprouted so far.

I don't know what to tell ya, except maybe sow another container just in case your originals don't produce.

Congrats!

Hi, do the different varieties of echies ever crosspollinate & give you polka dot flowers? I think most of new colorful ones are grown from cuttings & patented but I see seeds of pow wow wildberry & may want to get some.

IâÂÂve only got the traditional pink echinacea purpurea right now. I am concerned about possible crosspollination in my one small area that gets enough sun if I get pow wow. Should I be concerned or not? Thanks!!

I sure hope Pow Wow Wild Berry doesn't cross pollinate with my E. purpurea or 'White Swan' but I'm assuming it's worth taking the risk. I bought seeds from Hazzard's and WS them January 15. No sign of sprouts yet but last year my Echinacea seeds (WS 12/24) didn't sprout until April 2 so I won't be looking for sprouts for another couple of weeks. One day of high 60's (yesterday) doesn't spell early germination.

River, I've had a couple of the newer hybrids 'Summer Sky' and 'Sunrise' for about 4 years. They are pretty but they have cross-pollinated prolifically with the plain old E. purpurea which resulted in a mish-mash of seedlings, most of which I'm not crazy about. They are an odd assortment of heights/shapes and the pink in the blooms tend to fade out quickly. So I weeded out a lot of them, because I want a more consistent look.

Last year I WS'd seeds from my 'White Swan' plants and will hopefully find out this year whether they will bloom true or not. As for PWWB, I wouldn't be surprised if they are cross-pollinated they won't seed exactly true, but we'll see since I've sowed a few of those seeds this year.

Thanks so much, Terrene. You've saved me money as well as time & energy. I'm sticking with the old fashion purple coneflowers & not buying any modern hybrids no matter how pretty & how colorful they are. Here's hoping that you got rid of all the obnoxious neighbors & that yours bloom true. I've been googling & found a post saying just what you have said.

Strong eagle wrote on 12/13/09:
"Echinacea ... various colors cross readily ... several years ago, my purple crossed with the white ... and I now have light pink flowers on several large plants."
idiginmygarden.com

Gardenweed, doesn't it often depend how close the plants are as to whether or not they crosspollinate? Your pics show a big yard. Could you put a good bit of space between different kinds of echies? I am very grateful, thanks!

Congrats to you, aklinda & kvenkat!! How about a cat off the internet to dance with you?

{{gwi:364968}}

Credit for dancing cat

It took about 6 weeks for the coneflowers to start sprouting. I planted the regular purple ones, white and the green wizard. Only a few have sprouted out of about 24 cups so I'm hoping for more over the next few weeks. Everything else is going gangbusters.

I took some Echinacea seed I got at WalMart and put a half dozen in a ziplock with water and tossed them in the freezer for just a couple of days and then "planted" chunk of ice with seed in a small pot. They germinated in 14 days.