Sombrero Hot Coral Coneflower

Sombrero Hot Coral Coneflower

Echinacea x purpurea 'Balsomcor'

(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

I am actually starting to plan my spring now. I have been working for an organic landscaping company and learning about some different ways to take care of plants. One customer wanted their perennial border spiffed up and the owner loves bold colors. Echinacea is always a “go-to” plant for me and it does well in borders. It seems to be able to grow organically. 

This very blog has railed against all the Coneflower breeding that has been going on down in Atlanta, but the market seems to shake out the lame attempts at new cultivars. I really try to keep an eye out on gardening trends but my strategy is mainly to wait before adopting new ideas. This coneflower has been out for a couple of years now and seems to be sticking around. Most of the time it really gets to be about availability and this plant is available. It certainly meets the bold color specification. The color is one seldom seen in the garden.

Here is a link to a page with some new flower varieties for 2017. Can you see the color trend?  I guess I would try that PUFF Vanilla Coneflower. I have found the white ones a little harder to grow.

New Garden Flowers for 2017

I have a written work I’m finally trying to bring to market. That is taking up a lot of time but I will try and update this space a little more often.

Fan Flower

Fan Flower

Scaevola aemula 'Purple Fan'

(skee-VO-luh) (EM-yoo-luh)

This is a plant that seemed to take the botanical world by storm several years ago. It doesn’t seem quite s popular now and I am not sure why. Used as an annual in most climates it is actually a tender perennial. While it needs water it can thrive in the hottest locations and provide a ground covering mat of blue flowers. A white form and rarely a pink colored version is available.

Hailing from the hot and dusty Australian Outback this flower grows well in containers providing a nice spilling accent in pots. I have been going through this site and trying to remove some of the broken links and get it up to date. That is going to take awhile.

Bonus picture! A rather strangely colored version of Sunrise Coneflower. I don’t know if this is just an anomaly of the season or some Coneflowers are just revolting against the overbreeding they have been the subject of.

Sunrise Coneflower

Echinacea 'Sunrise'

(ek-in-AY-shee-uh)

Sombrero Hot Coral Coneflower

Sombrero Hot Coral Coneflower

Echinacea x purpurea 'Balsomcor'

(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

We planted this 2012 introduction last summer and it performed well. It is a quite stocky and compact variety with a brilliant flower color (only partially represented here). In fact the color completely overwhelmed the camera and the saturation and levels had to be adjusted in Photoshop.

I am not sure how much further out of control Coneflower breeding can get but surely we must be getting close to the pinnacle. It seems every year a couple more hybrids/cultivars make it to the market. Here is a link to a page with a lot of cultivars: Darwin Plants Coneflowers

Finishing up the discussion on the groundcover Lamium here is the Sunday bonus snapshot. This cultivar is a tidy garden citizen that shows off the silvery center of it leaves.

Spotted Dead Nettle

Lamium maculatum ‘Orchid Frost’

(LAY-mee-um) (mak-yuh-LAH-tum)

Eastern Purple Coneflower

Eastern Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea
(ek-in-AY-shee-a)

Here area couple of Coneflower shots from this summer. They are both of cultivars but I am not sure which ones they are. The pink ones had a nice tight formation with good color. One of the keys of growing these flowers is giving them a nice dry winter. They really don't like wet feet in the winter.

This bonus snapshot is the less seldom seen white type of Coneflower. The estate has a big collection of 'White Swan' Cones and we tried to spread the seed in the beds as we cleaned up. It usually takes a couple of years for the population to build up and mostly you end up with some nice light pink ones from the seeds.

Happy New Year.

White Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea cv.
(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)
Synonym: Echinacea purpurea alba, Brauneria purpurea, Rudbeckia purpurea

White Coneflower

White Coneflower

Echinacea purpurea 'Virgin'

(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

Purple Coneflower

Eastern Purple Coneflower

Echinacea purpurea

(ek-in-AY-shee-a)

I will never understand why this flower is called ‘purple’ coneflower and not ‘pink’ coneflower. The Echinaceas have been doing well this year and we actually planted some new ones. The perennial part of the population seemed to have been decimated by a few of the previous winters but last winter was warm and dry and those are the conditions they like. We planted a big group of my personal favorite ‘Ruby Star’ and a couple of Echinacea 'Hot Papaya', which is kind of a ghastly bright orange. The 'Hot Papaya' is a big hit and the client loved them.

Funny how things work out like that sometimes. Like today, I have been waiting to perform for about a month and finally it is show day but when I woke up this morning there was some sort of sting on my left wrist. It is kind of swollen and extremely itchy. Luckily I still have full range of motion and hopefully it will not effect my playing.

White Coneflower

White Coneflower

Echinacea 'Heavenly Dream'

(ek-in-AY-shee-a)

A rare double photo Wordless Wednesday :)

Purple Coneflower

Eastern Purple Coneflower

Echinacea purpurea

(ek-in-AY-shee-a)

White Coneflower

White Coneflower

Echinacea 'Fragrant Angel'

(ek-in-AY-shee-a)

Synonyms: Echinacea purpurea var. alba

Daydream Coneflower

Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea 'Daydream'
(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)


This Coneflower was introduced last year by Terranova Nurseries as part of their “Dream” series. The color is pretty amazing and is one of the darkest yellow cones I have seen. It has a semi compact habit, growing to a height of about 21 inches. It looks to me that this plant will be around for long time and it is always interesting to see if these new flowers can make it on the market. For gardeners will test its durability and life in the landscape not a laboratory or closely guarded field tests. One thing I have noticed that new and unusual flowers do not hold a big price premium like they used to. ‘Daydream’ was the same price as the other Coneflowers. Terra Nova is also the name of a great new TV series on Fox.


Since it is Sunday come join us at Today’s Flowers .

Sunday also means a bonus flower. This photo was taken without me realizing that the camera was still in Monochrome. It came out okay anyway. The huge flowers on ‘Summer Storm’ were an easy target. The bigger the flower the easier the macro shot becomes. This cultivar was introduced in 2008 and its color, foliage and temerity is sure to carry it on.



Hardy Hibiscus
Hibiscus moscheutos 'Summer Storm'
(hi-BIS-kus) (mos-KEW-tos)

Black and White Coneflower

Eastern Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea 'Merlot'
(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

Another black and white flower for today. This is a strong growing Coneflower with big deeply colored flowers. It seems to be a little more sturdy than some of the others.

My Coneflowers at the Estate have gotten decimated the last two winters. They have almost completely disappeared. I guess a new stock of plants is required to beef up the population. Not only did the cultivars vanish but all the seedlings did too. Very depressing.

On a lighter note some old friends and I have started a band. I have become the de facto musical director. It is a nice position as I can sneak in a lot of songs that I have wanted to perform for years. It is an interesting group and a lot of fun so far.

Since we have a female singer here are a couple of songs that are on the list. The first one is someone I consider an American Treasure. Sometimes beauty and talent collide in a way that is extraordinary. Sheryl impress me with her songwriting, singing, guitar and bass playing and style. She has sold 35 million albums worldwide and been through a lot in her personal life. Her she is singing a Cat Stevens song (sorry about the ad, you can skip it with the button):




Here is another pretty and talented American singer. I have always wanted to play this song:

Harvest Moon Coneflower

Hybrid Coneflower
Echinacea ‘Harvest Moon’
(ek-in-AY-shee-a)
Synonym: 'Matthew Saul'

This marks the third time ‘Harvest Moon’ Coneflower has made it onto this blog. This little patch had a lighter color scheme then most ‘Harvest Moon’ and I have to confess I have been enjoying some muted colors in the garden’s palette. Don’t get me wrong I still love bold colors but have become fonder of the subtle color displays too and might even start designing with that in mind.

You can see a Bumble Bee was about the flowers and I was pleased to see some Honeybees around too. There seems to be more and more Yellow Jackets and fewer Honeybees then ever.

It was wildlife week at the Estate or so it seemed. Upon arriving for work on Monday a group of several Coyotes were in the woods raising a heck of a racket. We couldn’t see them but the calls were a little nerve wracking. It reminded me not to bring my dogs to work. They would have been running to see the source of the noise.

We also had a Red Tailed Hawk swoop in and grab a Chipmunk. The Chipmunks have had a population explosion and it was nice to see a predator take one. It all happened in a blur and took a couple of seconds to actually figure out what happened.

Yesterday I decided to prune the male Winterberry Holly because it was hiding one of the females that has a good berry crop this year. Right next to me was a super big Butterfly Bush at eye level. I am not sure what happened but the Butterfly Bushes got bigger than ever this year. Most of them are grown from seedlings and that maybe the reason some got to 20 feet tall. While chopping the head of the Holly a Hummingbird flew in to feed on the Butterfly Bush. It was about 2 feet in front of face and I marveled at its flying and feeding techniques. It was visiting every flower on the stalk (which is hundreds of them) with such precision. The bird never seemed to notice me and flew off after a few minutes. It looked to be on some sort of route.

To top it off we have a large Orb type spider leaving in the front of the shed. Bugs don’t usually bother me (I have seen my share) but this guy gives me the creeps. He is quite industrious completely rebuilding his complicated web several times already. I did notice quite a few flies and mosquitoes in his web so it’s beneficial insect for now.

Marmalade Coneflower

Coneflower

Echinacea purpurea 'Marmalade'

(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

Another new Coneflower for 2011 Marmalade has a truly unique color. The large flowers are fully double with a lot of petals. This is a flower that can look several different colors depending on the lighting with tangerine, yellow and pink overtones. It seems sturdy and the stalks can support the heavy flowers. This plant was developed as part of the Cone-fections series by AB-Cultivars in the Netherlands. The flowers are fragrant (I didn’t notice that) and work well as cut flowers.

Coneflower

Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea 'Raspberry Truffle'
(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

It wouldn’t be summer if we didn’t get a couple new Coneflower varieties. When I say new it means new to me. I generally don’t think of a plant as ‘introduced’ until it makes it to at least a couple of the wholesale distributors we use. Then it is on the market and not just something you gawk at in a catalog. 'Raspberry Truffle' is a brand new flower for 2011 and it is already available for sale. The flower shape is a little weird but the color is stunning. We have laid off using too much Echinacea because a lot of it died out over the years. I think a couple of winters had conditions that were favorable to them not returning.

Since it is Sunday come join us at Today’s Flowers .

Bonus flower for Sunday.



White Coneflower
Echinacea 'Heavenly Dream'

This Coneflower was introduced in 2009. Its bright white flower and compact habit do make it a bit of a dream.

Coneflower

Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea 'Now Cheesier'
(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

White Coneflower and Bumblebee

White Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea 'Virgin'
(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

Bumblebee (Bombus sp.)

Wordless Wednesday

Couple of Black and Whites from the Weekend

Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea
(ek-in-AY-shee-a)

A couple of black and white flowers from the weekend. Shot in monochrome with the D700. Coneflowers aren’t quite blooming in my neighborhood but were out full force 60 miles to the south. This macro is a regular pink type of Coneflower. I am pretty sure that there will be a few new cultivars and types to see this year if history repeats itself. The second shot was an unnamed Asiatic lily. They have really been doing nicely this season.

Pale Coneflower

Pale Coneflower
Echinacea pallida
(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (PAL-lid-duh)
Synonyms: Pink Coneflower, Tall Coneflower


Here is a flower that I have never grown before but want to try. As you can see the flowers are a little different than the ‘regular’ Coneflowers we usually grow. While researching the conditions they like I found that it is not a fussy plant that can tolerate a wide variety of soil conditions. It appears that it likes to grow in drier sections of the garden the best. This patch, which was blooming in Battery Park, was about 3 feet tall and I liked the way the flowers were at several different heights. Dividing is recommending every 4 to 5 years.

Black eyed Susan and Coneflowers

Black eyed Susan and Cone flowers

Rudbeckia
(rud-BEK-ee-a)
Echinacea purpurea
(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

This was quite an effective mixture of flowers. This planting kind of looked a bit like a happy accident but got me thinking that planning something like this would probably work out. If I ever do another large scale Black eyed Susan planting there will definitely be some Coneflowers sprinkled through kind of randomly. One other note on some of the Black eyed Susans at work they are blooming in the shade. Well not full shade but darker than a part shade. Just another desirable trait of this great plant.

Since the addition of a lot more storage space on my network I decided to gather all of my memory cards and clean them off. They are the larger Compact Flash type of cards and have been very reliable. The fact that I still have a few 256MB and 512MB cards shows that they have been around for a while. There are also assorted 1 and 2 Gig cards and the two 8 GB cards I bought with the D700. Those were only $17.99 each and I am sure that were a couple of the smaller cards purchased for almost 3 times that amount. For fun I put the 256 card in the D700. You get 23 pictures. The other day after putting the 8GB card in the D70 I thought it said 22 pictures left. After looking for the pictures I realized it was reading 2.2 (2,200 pictures). That’s over 91 rolls of 24 exposure film. That should be enough to get the shot, don’t you think?

Here are two pictures from the 256MB disk. I hadn’t used it since 2007 when these were taken at the Pepsico World Headquarters, which is also the home of the Kendall Sculpture Garden in Purchase, New York. The White Birch (Betula jacquemontii) seems fitting as the colors are starting to come out here. The insect is unknown to me. The only other time I have seen it is on the little patch of Chinese Lanterns at the Estate. They come every year to eat some of the foliage. The date of these photos says November 25th, 2007.

Big Cone

White Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea alba
(ek-in-AY-shee-a) (pur-PUR-ee-uh)


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Wordless Wednesday