A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 which coneflower?

This grew as a seedling last year, and I believed it to be a baby from one of 2 purple coneflowers/echinacea that are planted behind it. You can see one of those flowers coming into bloom towards the right side behind.

Why are the petals whitish on this one?
I did also have an "Irish Eyes" rudbeckia that unfortunately dried out on my driveway before I had a chance to plant it, and I THINK I put some seed heads in this area also - but the leaves aren't quite the same as the coneflower...



Anyone?

Hmm... I'm really no expert on this particular type of flower, but I've heard it's possible for flowers to occasionally have recessive gene pairings and come out a different color than their parents. Interestingly, the variation I've heard of is purple plants rarely having white babies, but as I said, I don't know enough about this particular type of flower to know if that's possible in this case. If anyone else has an idea I'd recommend you listen to them first, since they probably know more about this type of flower than I do.

I don't think you are that far off, kagmi.
I was also wondering if they might have reverted to a parent color...?

Well the way I understand it, the white gene is recessive, so only if they inherit that particular recessive gene from both parents (which requires that both the parents have it in the first place), does it express itself. But once again, that only holds valid if I'm right about it being the baby of the coneflowers in the first place.

I have a white Echinacea called "White Swan". I also have some babies from my Purple Echinacea that have come up and they are green!

they look like coneflowers to me.

Lynne, the leaves and emerging blooms look like a Echinacea (coneflower), but since they are just opening it's hard to tell what variety they might be. The only white varieties I'm familar with are:

'Fragrant Angel' which has a double row of petals that stick out more horizontally. It looks like a daisy but with a much larger center and the tips of the petals are more pointed. It will be about 30-40" tall.

'White Swan' which seems to have a double row of petals that droop downward. The cone head has a more round shape and is orange in color. It gets about 24-36" tall.

'Cygnet White' appeared to have a single row of petals that seem more slender and pointed at the tips. The petals were kind of horizontal but seemed to droop a little bit. The cone head was a copper-looking color. This one seemed to be much shorter than the other white coneflowers and was probably under 24" tall.

'Finale White' looked more like the plain purple coneflower with the drooping petals. It had the rounded center cone that was copper-colored. It looked to be about 24" tall.

'White Lustre' had drooping petals that looked like they were in a single row. The cone head was copper-colored and seemed more flat on top. It gets to be about 30" tall.

Lynne, I don't know if I explained this very well because I've only seen the last three I listed once at the Missouri Botanical Gardens over a week ago. I'm not an expert on coneflowers and I probably pay more attention to the ones like. I really can't say I was that impressed with the last three, but white is white. :rolleyes: Now, if they had been pink, I might have noticed more about them!

I don't have a clue why you're getting the white coneflowers. Mine have always been the variety and color I planted, so I've never wondered why they might come up a different color since it never happened to me. I've had my mums come up a mixture of the different colors which I planted the year before.

I think I recall white being a recessive gene, but I really don't remember enough about the recessive gene stuff to offer any valid input. Maybe some birds dropped some seeds from a white one, but I really don't know!

I would really like to see some more pictures as the blooms get bigger. Sorry I couldn't be more help!

Wow Patti - you are a wealth of info on the coneflowers - thanks so much!

Here is a picture taken today of the white, and also one of the purple which I had assumed was the parent!

Lynne,
I had two coneflowers, one white, one purple...

They were in the same bed... but say about 3 different types of flowers between them....

My whites all turned purple...

I think's what the first poster said about the recessive gene in the plant...
and which one is dominant color...
*which one was the original, and which one the breeders have breed and hybridized..*

I have phlox that are doing that, and changing colors..

Yep Weezie and everyone else...
I, too , think it's a recessive thing going on here, but was just very surprised to see it. It's not that I do not like white flowers, it's just that that section of the garden was all pink. Of course I dont' have a space to dig these out and move them to.

Also... I had dug out a rather large baby last month, potted it up for Don to give to a friend of his from his office building. She was looking forward to the purple flowers! I can't wait for Don to get back and ask her next week which color hers turned out to be!

Hey Lynne, I saw your pictures and I'm still looking through the pictures I have but haven't found anything yet. I really need a better filing system!

Lynne, I think I'm a little confused about you saying this section of the garden was all pink. I thought Rudeckia 'Irish Eyes' was yellow, so I was wondering why you put those seed heads there or am I thinking of something else.

I thought it was interesting about the Rudeckia seed heads because Echinacea and Rudeckia are genetically similar and could lead to some unexpected and strange cross-breeding results, but, in this case, it wouldn't make any sense because of the yellow color.

I know some researchers did successfully cross- breed those two plants and came up with a 'Black Beauty' coneflower and I've seen it listed both as a Rudbeckia and as a Echinacea. This is definitely NOT on my Wish list because it's ugly and has no petals, but it IS interesting!

That is interesting Patti.

Yes, I did say that this was my pink garden, but in a last minute hurry, I just buried the few seed heads of Irish Eyes in an attempt to save some of that plant - I had paid a bit more than I would have normally, and was hoping to be able to get a few plants from the seeds, figuring I could move them if something developed.

I do have several very small babies growing this year in and around all the other coneflowers - they won't come into "their own" until next year most likely. But for now... I do have these 2 white flowering ones to figure out...

Just did a google search of the Black Beauty - haven't heard of that one... it is an interesting flower - where are the petals???

Lynne, there are NO petals!!! I think it's kinda creepy looking! Sometimes I think science goes TOO FAR!