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chase_gw

Coneflowers not doing well....

chase_gw
14 years ago

Something seems to have my Coneflowers this year. Almost all of them are looking mutated on the new growth and the lowest leaves are very limpid. No visible evidence of anything on the leaves or stems. I dug up two that were particularly bad expecting something had the roots but the roots were clean.

I'll take a sample to the nursery tomorrow but is anyone else having a similar issue? The rest of my gardens are doing very well but my Echinacea is sad!

Comments (6)

  • ferne
    14 years ago

    Don't know where you live, and you haven't given much detail...so a bit of a shot in the dark.

    By mutation, I'm guessing, you mean the leaves don't look normal and are misshapen? Virus can cause misshapen leaves, as can aphids sometimes. If the lower leaves are truly limp, that suggests the plant isn't able to take up moisture. Could too much water could be causing them to rot? Coneflowers (Echinacea) are draught tolerant so I wouldn't expect them to be limp from heat or dryness as other things could be.

  • dahlitsa
    14 years ago

    How interesting! Mine are the same. I am in the Kitchener area.

  • ianna
    14 years ago

    Not exactly having limp looking leaves but rather odd mishapen buds/preblooms yes. I've noticed these on several of my coneflower clumps located in various areas of the garden. However later blooms on 3 year old clumps don't look as mishapen as the younger ones. Other than looking mishapen, they are healthy. No rot. I suspect it's got more to do with the wet and cool weather.

    On the other hand, my patch of blue thistles has been displaying problems. It looks all goosenecky (for lack of a better description) might be a fungus, a pest or a bacteria or mineral problems. Strange.

  • slbtab
    14 years ago

    I'm also having great problems with my coneflowers this year. I am torn between assuming that the lack of sun in Eastern Ontario this year is to blame and thinking that at least one of my patches has aster yellows disease. One of my patches has heads that are not maturing (changing color or developing petals) and for the couple of heads that have petals they are green and are not changing color.

  • ianna
    14 years ago

    It's not only the coneflowers that have been affected. I see some odd situations with my blue thistle. I just had to throw one away and noted that it's roots were affected by a spongy bulby thing. Could be bacterial or fungal.

    Plus there's a proliferation of insects. One really odd one that leaves polka dotted chew marks all over my dahlias, shasta daisy and even a couple of coneflowers.

    Oh - not to mention - aphids chewing up my pear tree.

    So - we are hit by a pest/disease double whammy here. Cimate being too cool and wet and Ontario's antipescticide policy. Not that I would suggest Ont.'s pesticide law is wrong.

    Ianna

  • tambo747
    14 years ago

    Well, this is my first year with coneflowers and Im having the same problem. I thought it was because they were young plants, but one never develope and flowerheads and the others seem to blacken and die before they have the chance to develop into flowers. The leaves are also limp and some of them curled. We have had late frosts and sooooo much rain, maybe that has something to do with it...?
    Tammy

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