I was driving innocently (okay, not so innocently) down the street a year or so ago and was struck dumb(er than usual) by a purple coneflower that was…orange? Bright pastel orange. Some strange mutant coneflower plant and if there is one there are sure to be more mutants on their way. What to do…rush home and gather friends, family, and children and head for safety? Would the mutants find us? Better yet, before allowing panic to overtake me, I would go seek an expert, a sage, if you will. So I went to Google. Indeed, as I feared there were more mutants but thankfully not big scary monster bear-mutants, only coneflowers, the product of years of effort by Atlantan Richard Saul. Named Big Sky Coneflowers, these coneflowers are the product of hybridizing purple coneflower, Echinacia purpurea, with Echinacia paradoxa.
To date, there are several Big Sky Coneflower to choose (to run away) from: Big Sky Coneflower Sunset (burnt orangey), Big Sky Coneflower Sundown (russett-orange), Big Sky Coneflower Sunrise (lemon yellow). While all of these varieties cause facial tics to appear in my normally serene countenance, I especially despise the cool citron yellow of Big Sky Coneflower Sunrise…Coneflowers and their ilk are symbolic of the warmth and lazy hope of summer…the colors are warm, golden, fleeting.
You might say in response that I’ve gone too far this time (some, indeed, may say I haven’t gone far enough). After all Big Sky Coneflowers are just another example of our breeding and hybridizing to make better flowers; indeed, there are hundreds of roses on Gardenmob that were the product of often vicious hybridizing efforts. To which I would replay touche’, but…it is not the hybridizing that I object too. It is believing a plant is worth something for the novelty factor. What else can recommend Big Sky Coneflower? Pastel flowers? By introducing Big Sky Coneflower will the majesty that is native purple coneflower be blunted? Hardly, but there is a mockery here and it is us.
Our gardens represent our values; they represent what we stand for and believe, even if it is the simple nobility of liking dirty hands or pretty flowers. Roses haven’t been in a naturalized form in most of our landscapes for decades or centuries, unless we go to the rural parts of our land. Echinacea is wild. Echinacea is the prairies. Echinacea is freedom. Now, it has been bent into a parody of itself, only we are the joke.
Related Posts:White Coneflower
Pale Coneflower - Echinacea pallida
I am…a daisy?
Brutal - Your Least Favorite Plant (at Gardening Intoxicated)
Perennial Echinacea purpurea - Purple Coneflower
Hardiness Zone: 7a
So, Barrie, how is Big Sky Coneflower different than pale coneflower in that it is a variation on a theme? Where is the line in the sand? I don’t think humans, especially gardeners, can keep away from playing God. It is in our nature to fiddle. I guess this explains the mess we are often in since the move from fiddling to flopping is often quick to pass.
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I’m not sure I understand your comparison to pale coneflower, but I will try to respond. First, thanks for writing…it’s all dialogue and enriching. Pale coneflower was not human bred, so that is a huge difference between pale coneflower and Big Sky Coneflowers. But…even there, I’m not in objection to the fiddling with purple coneflower. You’re right in that it is in our nature to test our limits, whether this relates to purple coneflower or nuclear weapons. But…what of the essence of a thing? Is purple coneflower just a pretty flower? My point in writing the article is that the search for unique colors has smashed the essence of what makes purple coneflower beautiful - admittedly from a human perspective in general and a totally subjective barrie perspective specifically.
Barrie
Hardiness Zone:
I’m in the camp that says you didn’t go quite far enough, Barrie. ‘Razzmatazz’ and ‘Doppelganger’ aren’t so old and entrenched that they shouldn’t have been lambasted as well!
I can’t even decide which of those I hate more. ‘Razzmatazz’ looks like a fake mum flower with a skirt of pink echinacea petals. ‘Doppelganger’ looks like a flower wearing another flower hat. Argh to both… but now that I reread what I just wrote, ‘Razzmatazz’ edges the other one in terms of ugliness.
Hardiness Zone: 4
Well here we can agree to disagree, cuz’ I bought ALL of the ‘Big Sky’ coneflowers this year, along with ‘Razzmatazz’ and ‘Doppleganger’, and a packet of seed of every other wild variety I could get my hands on! I even bought a variegated leaf purple coneflower, ‘Sparkler’! My method (madness) is to present my local butterflies with an “echinacea overload”…although it looks like some fellow gardeners have already reached their echinacea satiation point. When my new friends bloom, I’ll be sure to warn y’all so you can look away…
Hardiness Zone:
Lisa,
I’ve softened towards Sunset - it was planted in a garden with some liatris and was just spectacular. I thought long and hard about creating a section of the website called “never (ever) plant this…” but decided it would be fun - hearing others perspectives and debating a bit.
I think what got me with some of the newer coneflowers was the pastel nature of a few. Thanks for the comment and good-natured ribbing.
Barrie
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i must say, so i shall, that pastel nature looks absolutely stunning with black magic elephant ears as a backdrop.
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mary (mrm),
your sense of humor is awe-inspiring. sardonic as always.
barrie
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These new coneflowers are sickly little things. They really are mutants since all of them have been cloned in a lab. None of them are as healthy as the originals. I love the colors, especially the one called Twilight, but there is something about the plants that isn’t healthy. They seem weak.
Hardiness Zone:
[…] White Coneflower By barrie Gardenmob readers have come to expect a certain amount of love passed from me to coneflowers, especially pale coneflower. There is one notable exception in this lovefest - the Big Sky coneflowers. White coneflower is one of my favorites. Not as robust in growth as purple coneflower, but that’s okay - white is always appreciated in any garden. White coneflower, like most coneflowers, is easy once established. […]
Hardiness Zone: 6a
Quite an interesting debate… I’m a bright-happy-colors kind of person and that’s exactly how my garden looks. My mixed planting of Sunset and Sundown on the garden’s edge looks fabulous! Tall, strong, and healthy. With deadheading, they just keep on blooming. I am partial to orange anyway, so the Big Sky coneflowers were exciting to me. I have trouble finding orange flowers, so I’ll keep reading this blog and expect that I’ll learn a lot. Thanks!
Hardiness Zone: 6a
Gregory Mendel was playing around with peas in 1865 crossing wrinkled ones with smooth to see what he would get. I believe that as humans it is ok to try to tinker to make things better. That is the gift of intelligence.
Hardiness Zone: 5
Sorry, I love my “Big Sky” coneflowers. They compete just fine with my purple coneflowers (Columbus Ohio is coneflower land). Additionally, they tie together the shades of monarda, “ditch” lilies, assorted coneflowers and joe pye weed in the butterfly garden.
They are wild and natural enough that the goldfinches crawl all over them. *shrug*