I have never started perennials from seed before and decided to just try an uneducated experiment. I put starting mix in styrofoam cups (with a hole punched in the bottom for drainage), added 3 echinacea seeds to each cup, rubberbanded some clear plastic wrap to each cup, made a slit in the wrap, and put the cups on my north-facing front porch. I planted 10 purple coneflowers and 9 germinated. I planted 10 pow wow coneflowers and they are just now starting to come up, a week behind the purple ones. Am I accidentally on to something, or is this just freakish beginners luck?

Prairiegirl, I put in one 'Paprika' last fall that I got from a swap, and it is just now starting to bloom. There is a 'Walter Funke' a few feet away in the same bed, so I'll be able to make a good comparison this summer. If I like the 'Paprika' better, I'll just divide it in the fall, and replace the 'Walter Funke's. ... on the other hand, some of those 'Tomato Soup' Echinaceas would make a fine replacement for the 'Walter Funke's ; ) This is my second year for the Achillea 'Terracotta', and I am very pleased with the bloom color, and like the golden yellow color that it fades to. My only problem with them is that I placed them in a spot that gets too much wind, so they are leaning on some other plants a bit. I may try staking them to tidy them up. Someone on this forum suggested using a peony hoop, but mine are way too big for that. Sorry, Echinaceamaniac, for wandering off the topic. Bonnie

"Do you know (assuming that this is a Cheyenne Sprit plant) if the seeds from individuals in the seed strain tend to grow true to parent type? So, red from red, yellow from yellow, spoon from spoon? Or are resulting seedlings pretty variable? I’m guessing the latter..." You correct in assuming the latter :-)) Seedlings can be extremely variable w/ no regard to parent characteristics. If there was more distinction or a reliable trait passed on consistently from the parent plant, then they would likely be separated out as a unique cultivar.

I use to be a crazy echinacea person... i use to have a lot more... but... all the above posts are true. I have plenty of paradoxa, pallida, white pallida, and other species. They still around for years and years and you can then collect and set seed... or just let mother nature do it for you. For the other colored varieties... you can always get the cheyenne spirit line of seed to get your colors. The plants seem to hold on quiet well compared to the earlier generations of colorful echinacea that were only propagated via tissue cultures. It's weird though, I've seen some of the earlier tall orange varieties... that haven't been sold for many years... being grown in someones hell strip for 6+ years now... and they don't appear to be "gardeners" by any means based on the overall yard. So maybe some poor care does them good! beesandblues88 --- as for aster's yellows. There is a much more common issue on echinacea of mites that causes the distorted cones. This doesn't require you to destroy the plant to fix the issue. Were you plants growing out green petals? or producing mini bloom stalks from the cone head?