Re: White Echinacea question
- Subject: Re: [SG] White Echinacea question
- From: C* P*
- Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 13:34:47 EDT
In a message dated 7/3/01 7:52:18 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
diehlr@INDIANA.EDU writes:
<< I have a friend who thinks it does (she claims her two white plants have
become one pink and one white this year) and I have certainly bought at
least 5 plants of the white and yet only have one in my garden. I know
that at one point I did have two whites... Meanwhile I am overrun with the
pink ones to the point where I must yank some out. >>
As soon as I say this, an exception will be written but there is not any way
a plant can change colors if you are observing the same plant at all times.
Echinacea seeds all over the place and a second plant could grow very close
to the first fooling the observer. They are listed as short lived
perennials. I have plants that are many years old and prefer the unimproved,
native plant. The white plants will remain white if they remain alive. I
have always thought the white an off-white and haven't grown it. A white
flower that blooms at the same time is sidalcea or malvas of many kinds.
If cross pollination affects the seed, I do not know. Seed affected by cross
pollination would show up one year later. For the my part of the country
echinacea need two years to become a blooming plant.
Nearly all cases of color reversions turn out to be seedlings next to
original plants not observed to be seedlings. Phlox paniculata is the example
most often cited.
Claire Peplowski
NYX z4
