I have a beautiful echinacea seedling blooming, and I think it is stunning! I would have to say that it came from Tangerine Dream, since it is growing right next to it. I have a couple other seedlings next to it as well. One is pink, with basically the same form as Tangerine Dream, and the other is yellow, and a bit further away. Not too far from Tangerine Dream, maybe 3 feet, is Prairie Splendor, so maybe that is where the pollen came from. I have a couple of seedlings growing right next to Prairie Splendor, and they are nothing to brag about, and both are pink. About 15 feet or so away and around the corner, I have Hot Summer growing. I'm still waiting on seedlings to bloom from that one. Then about 30 feet or so away I have Double Decker growing. I imagine that the pollen could have come from any of those, but the likely candidate would be Prairie Splendor, because it is so close.

I'd love to gather some seeds from the seedling, but I know that it will probably have mixed pollen on it. Is there any way to stop that from happening? I suppose I could move it, but I'm afraid to lose it at this point. Maybe I'll work on that next year, and I need to know how far I should move it for a good chance of getting seeds that aren't cross pollinated, if possible. In the meantime, is there anything I can do to keep it from getting cross pollinated? That's probably a stupid question, but I know nothing about the plant, other than I have them growing in my yard.

Here are a couple of pictures of it. I just love it!

Very lovely! I really like that mixed color one.

Here's a photo of mine that I took yesterday.

Thanks Connie! Yours are very pretty too!

Hi Natalie! A couple things to keep in mind when trying to get seed from Echinacea plants. Many varieties of echinacea are self-infertile or sterile, meaning that they either can't make viable seeds when pollinated from themselves, or won't make viable seeds at all. This means that you may have more success when the plants are allowed to be cross pollinated. If you did want to try and self-pollinate this plant, you could use an organza mesh bag to protect the flower from bees or other potential pollinators. I know this has been used in daylily hybridizing, but not sure about echinacea. Hopefully this helps! Good luck!

Thanks Jessie! I really appreciate that information!

I'm a daylily hybridizer, so I know those plants well. I'm just totally clueless on any other plant when it comes to getting seed. Hopefully this one isn't sterile. I sure wish I could make a daylily this pretty!

I have no idea how to even pollinate an echinacea, and nothing is obvious on them, like on a daylily. Looks like I need to do some research! In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the blooms, because they are stunning to me!

if you want another plant that is true to that type you'll need to dig that plant in early winter and cut off any suckers coming from the roots these will give you the exact same plant. If grown from seeds it wouldn't matter if it was crossed with another flower or with it's self it still wont come true from seed because the plant is a cross of different parents and hybrids don't come true from seed.

Thanks Daniel. I hadn't thought about that issue. I won't worry about moving it now!

Is this the typical echinacea purpurea? It's about 90 cm 3 ft tall. Would it come true from seed ?

most purples will remain purple and whites white but if you have other Echinacea nearby you can have variants in the seedlings due to crossed pollen. Natalie's flower is unique because it's two toned and she was to grow seeds from it they would more than likely be ether solid pink or solid orange. That's why if she wants to keep it true to type it will need to be reproduce vegetatively.

I've had several seedlings from the purple one, and they have all been purple, and no where near as nice as the parent plant, so I've removed them. The orange one is making very interesting seedlings though! Besides this two toned one that I just love, there was a gorgeous deep rose colored seedling, as well as a beautiful yellow seedling. I was going to move all of these plants to a new area, but I've decided to leave them where they are to see what else the orange one comes up with. So far, I'm loving the colors!