Mums and echinacea blooming in the fall

Post by **Chris_W** » Oct 24, 2007 1:25 pm

Here are just a couple of the plants blooming now:

Echinacea 'Razzmatazz', Dendranthema 'Samba' (with Panicum 'Dallas Blues' in the back), Echinacea 'Art's Pride'

Enjoy

kHT · Post by **kHT** » Oct 24, 2007 1:30 pm

Those are pretty! I just spend all day yesterday cutting ours back due to the lack of water here. Now that we are seeing rain 18 days solid it's time they go to sleep.

(Mental note to add Echinacea 'Razzmatazz')

JaneG · Post by **JaneG** » Oct 24, 2007 2:57 pm

Love that Razzmatazz!! Did you take these pictures at night to get the black background?

Post by **Chris_W** » Oct 24, 2007 3:07 pm

Glad you like them

I took the pictures in the evening with the flash. It was light out enough for the camera to focus and then the flash "creates" the black background. That way you don't see any weeds

newtohosta-no more · Post by **newtohosta-no more** » Oct 25, 2007 6:33 am

Such beautiful colors! I'll have to add some of those to my wish list!

eastwood2007 · Post by **eastwood2007** » Oct 25, 2007 9:59 am

Thanks for sharing those, Chris. All my perennial flowers have been gone a long time with all the weird weather we had. First time ever, I didn't cover stuff for the last two frosts....I, too, will be adding Razzmatazz...very pretty!

Ginger · Post by **Ginger** » Oct 25, 2007 1:57 pm

Those make a nice splash of color when all else is dying back.

Thanks for sharing Chris!

Ginger

nanny_56 · Post by **nanny_56** » Oct 25, 2007 2:04 pm

Very pretty!! Now just what is Panicum?? I may need some!

Annie · Post by **Annie** » Oct 25, 2007 5:20 pm

I love all cone flowers. I had 2 Razzmatazz planted by my pond, but Muttly decided to get into that part of the fence and I fear that they are goners

DryGulch · Post by **DryGulch** » Oct 26, 2007 10:56 am

Are nearly all of the flowers on Razzmatazz like the one you photographed? Or are there a goodly percentage resembling a typical purple coneflower?

Post by **Chris_W** » Oct 26, 2007 11:03 am

Hi DryGulch,

Razzmatazz will start out looking like a regular coneflower but the center will eventually fill up to look like the one posted. All of the flowers on the 100+ plants I've grown do look like the one posted at the height of bloom, but then be sure to deadhead them once they start to brown. That's the only thing I don't like about this plant - it looks bad if you don't cut off the old flowers.

Patrushka · Post by **Patrushka** » Oct 26, 2007 5:10 pm

They're beautiful Chris!

As you already know, I want Razzmatazz next year.

DryGulch · Post by **DryGulch** » Oct 30, 2007 8:32 am

Thanks, Chris! THanks probably why I haven't noticed it anywhere, just catching it at the start iof its bloom.

caliloo · Post by **caliloo** » Nov 01, 2007 10:32 am

Those are gorgeous.

For some reason, I just can't keep echinaceas going. They start out growing and doing wonderfully, then all of a sudden they turn brown and shrivel up.

Of course, I can't grow asters or monarda or joe pye weed either.... but I can keep my roses healthy without even trying!

Alexa

TeresaMy · Post by **TeresaMy** » Nov 10, 2007 10:20 pm

Here's the one I got last summer. Yours looks similar.

tsneal · Post by **tsneal** » Nov 12, 2007 9:48 am

Beautiful Chris!

Stephanie

whip1 · Post by **whip1** » Nov 27, 2007 12:22 pm

caliloo wrote:Those are gorgeous.

For some reason, I just can't keep echinaceas going. They start out growing and doing wonderfully, then all of a sudden they turn brown and shrivel up.

Of course, I can't grow asters or monarda or joe pye weed either.... but I can keep my roses healthy without even trying!

Alexa

Maybe you're trying to hard? My experience with echinaceas is they thrive on neglect. The less I tend to them, the better they seem to do.

newtohosta-no more · Post by **newtohosta-no more** » Nov 27, 2007 1:12 pm

If they thrive on neglect, then they definitely need to be a part of my garden.

Welcome to the forum, whip1!

Post by **Chris_W** » Nov 27, 2007 3:32 pm

I tend to agree, that Echinacea should be pretty simple and most often thrive on neglect. If the leaves go right from green to brown or with brown spots, that sounds like a fungus. Different fungal problems can be easy for them to get if they are too wet or stay wet. It is somewhat easy to overwater Echinacea. They really like to start out on the dry side and then stay pretty dry while growing.

We grow our Echinacea on the dry, sandy gravel hill side of the property. Basically we plant them and walk away. During last summer's drought I think we watered them 2 or 3 times, but only when the foliage was completely wilted. A couple years ago we killed a whole bunch in pots after they got watered and fertilized while still dormant. They just weren't ready for any moisture

After comparing all of these last summer I am about ready to give up on Twilight. They were really weak, yet the other varieties near them grew great. I'll just have to see how they do next year.

Last fall we were watching several seedlings from Sunset. They have been very robust, growing larger than Sunset, but unfortunately just as they were starting to bud the frost hit them. A couple looked like they would be lighter colored and others looked like they would be darker. I'm kind of anxious to see them bloom! The only other seedling I got was from Harvest Moon. It looked just like the regular purple coneflowers (pink) but was fragrant

eastwood2007 · Post by **eastwood2007** » Nov 27, 2007 4:22 pm

A problem I had with coneflowers at first, was that the place I bought them had them planted too deeply in the pots. Their crowns rot very easily if set too deeply. As long as I watch for that, and overhead watering, they do great!