A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Purple Coneflower oddity

I have a bed of purple conflower where some of the flower heads have some sort of mutant growth on them. The growth is green and looks weedy coming out of what was the flower head about a quarter to three quarters of an inch. The plant itslelf is dying back and no petals remain. Can anyone explain this growth and advise if it is healthy or should I remove the affected plants?

Thanks

Sorry about the typo! Thanks

could you post a pic?

WCutler,
Does it look like more petals??
Coming out of the middle or brown area>???

Something like these??????? Purple Coneflower Doubledecker

It does look like the seeds in the flower head are growing a plant but they are all green at the moment. If that is so and they live long enough to bloom before frost they may result in the picture you presented. There is more than one growth on the cone part of the flowers which are otherwise now dead. I cut back all of the other plants and those with this oddity these out of curiosity.

We will see

Thanks

Ohhhh, I hope so......
We love pictures,
and they help us figure stuff out, faster!!!

Wow cool picture you found Weezie! I wonder though, the only reason I would grow purple cone flowers is because of the medicinal properties of the roots, I wonder if these double deckers would still have the medicinal properties??? Very cool looking flower...LOL I may have get some, just because.

I love the seeds for the little birds..
They just love getting them...