I just added some Echinacea to my garden, and I need to know how to deadhead so that the plant looks nice, and I don't lose any future blooms for the season. I gather (from reading another forum online) that you can get new blooms further down the scape, below the bloom that you are deadheading. Is this true? If so, then where is the correct place to cut the scape (presuming that you don't see any new developing buds)?

Thanks for any help or advice.

Often you will be able to see the next flower bud at a leaf axil. Starting at the top of the plant, look for a bud at a leaf axil. Deadhead above that leaf. If you don't see one, deadheading a little above the uppermost leaf will work just fine.

I'll check my plants later, and get a picture if I can find a new bud at a leaf axil.

Karen

I'm glad you posted this. I need to go out and get some seeds from my plants before the gold finches eat them all. I usually just tie up all of mine in a bundle and give them to the gold finches.

I do mine the way Karen suggested above .

I meant to post this earlier but I think I forgot to hit Finished. Duh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Virginiarose, I had seen that video - thanks - but it raised questions for me, which is why I posted.

For example, while she talks about cutting above visible flower buds, the buds on that first scape seem quite a bit lower down than the top leaves below the dead bloom. It would have been helpful to have had a discussion about that - where you can (and can not) expect new flower buds to form. It would also have been helpful to have had closeup shots on the flower stalk illustrating where to cut, or not.

Karen, thanks, I think I understand now - look for the new flower buds. If there aren't any, then cut just a little above the uppermost leaf. (And, I guess, wait and see what develops...)

Here is a plant I got in the mail, since I have not pruned any. Love the Goldfinches. It is always cut above the next set of leaves. The arrow is where the seller pruned the plant before he mailed it and the dash is where I would prune this flower when it dies.






Hope this helps.

Thanks, Virginiarose, for that excellent image. I don't see any incoming flower buds, but now I understand for certain (and this echoes Karen's advice) where to cut.

you are very welcome!

I deadheaded a bunch of my plants by the mailbox yesterday finally! I'm hoping to get a new round of blooms before winter. I need to see one last round of 'Cheyenne Spirit' before the dark days of winter.

I don't know, Clint. With such a cool summer I fear those dark days of winter might come early this year.

Karen

I am not really looking for any more blooms. The Hibiscus is still blooming and a few daylilies but nothing to speak of. This is usually our hottest month but so far we have already had two cold fronts and twice we were in the 60's at night. Crazy weather. We might actually have an early winter.

It's cool here too. I turned off the air in my car this morning.

Well, there was ground fog here this morning; it's a bit early (maybe a month early) for that.

Having recently learned that goldfinches like Echinacea, I'm thinking of adding some more to the garden (but this time, to the colorful part of the garden). There's a one night "Full Moon Madness" sale at my favorite nursery next week. I'm hoping they will still have the Echinacea 'PowWow Wild Berry' there. (The 'PowWow' plants were the only Echinacea they had. It is not a garden staple around here.)

Are you a seed person? If so, ech Cheyenne Spirit is available as seed.

https://www.harrisseeds.com/st...

Karen

Swallowtail Seeds has several as well:

http://www.swallowtailgardense...

I have successfully grown several of them, including Cheyenne Spirit, Primadonna Rose, White Swan and Magic Box.

Ummm... now you are getting me seriously confused. I thought the whole point of these named cultivars is that they are all genetically identical going back to some originally selected seedling. In other words, my 'PowWow White' should be genetically identical to every other 'PowWow White' on the planet, because they all are divisions (or, i suppose, tissue culture propagations) of the same plant.

But somebody is selling 'PowWow White' seeds? Those seeds aren't going to produce the same plants as the original 'PowWow White'. Their flowers may be white, they may have some of the same plant traits, but they aren't going to be the same.

Now I am wondering just what the heck plants I just put into my Moon Garden. They came from the nursery, they were labeled 'PowWow White' - but are they divisions (or asexual propagations) of the real (original) plant, or seedlings of it (or seedlings of seedlings of seedlings of it.... )?

(Not that I am against seed strains, mind you. Not at all. Nor am I adverse to seed starting. I just get seriously disturbed when the boundaries seem to be blurred, as they are here.)

A seed variety won't be identical. They will vary a little in height and bloom size. All Pow Wow plants are from seeds. If you want to divide your plants, that will be a copy of that plant.

Clintbrown, you're saying that ALL 'PowWow' plants sold at nurseries are from seed? That it's a seed STRAIN?! (As opposed to propagations of a selected seedling.)

I didn't know that. Seriously. Wow.

I mean, I am not unfamiliar with the concept, at least with regards to ANNUALS. I think of Echinacea as a PERENNIAL, so this comes as somewhat of a shock to me, that named perennials could be a seed strain, as opposed to a selected and propagated individual cultivar. I just thought of the names 'PowWow White' and 'PowWow Wild Berry' as being just unimaginative, or else maybe originally related siblings or indicating the name of the originating nursery or something like that. It truly never occurred to me that the names indicated seed strains, as with certain annuals.

Now (I'm almost afraid to ask) is that the case with any and all commercially available Echinacea? Are there any truly selected and asexually propagated cultivars? Or am I clueless (well, with respect to Echinacea I concede that) and missing something?