Echinacea Cheyenne Spirit and Aster Yellows

Wiese Acres All Creatures Great and Small Garden

Another of the plants I'm anxiously awaiting is a 2013 All America Selections Flower Award winner, "Cheyenne Spirit" echinacea. 

First, a little bit about All America Selections (AAS).  AAS is a non-profit organization that independently tests new culitvars and then promotes as AAS winners only those that perform at very high levels.  Trials are conducted across North America so chances are pretty good that if an AAS winner is hardy to your zone, it will perform in your garden, provided you can offer the growing conditions that plant requires.

Now, back to Cheyenne Spirit.  Brilliant hues of orange, red, yellow, purple or white surround a large brown cone.    Coneflowers are great, long-blooming, drought tolerant, wind-resistant, and deer resistant work horses in my gardens.  Deadheading prevents self- seeding, but I leave the seed cones standing for winter interest and for birds.  Birds love the seeds and usually clean up enough of them that I don't need to worry about my coneflowers self-seeding themselves to pestiness. If you must, remove only the flower stalk and leave the foliage at the base of the plant to protect the root from winter's freeze and thaw cycles. Coneflowers are slow to emerge in the spring, so you might want to mark where they are planted. They rarely if ever need to be divided, but they can be divided in early spring or early fall, if you need more plants.

Cheyenne Spirit blooms its first year from seed, making it a necessary addition to my garden this year.   Last year I lost all my coneflowers to Aster yellows disease.

Aster yellows is a systemic disease that affects many species of plants, especially members of the Asteraceae family, such as coneflowers.   Aster yellows is spread by leaf hoppers and while it doesn't kill the plant, it keeps it from blooming as it should.  Leaves and flowers may be distorted and stunted. 

Early aster yellows infection

Late aster yellows infectiom

There is no treatment for Aster yellows.  Affected plants should be dug out and destroyed at the first signs of infection to keep it from spreading further.  The earliest sign of infection is a change in the green color of the foliage from a darker true green to lighter, yellow green.  This color change usually begins with the lower foliage.  Unfortunately, much of the time it has spread widely before the first symptoms are noticed. 

It broke my heart to destroy all my beautiful coneflowers, but my hope is that I can rebuild my collection this year.  Aster yellows does not live in the soil,air, or even in dead foliage so destroying the plants should take care of the problem.  I will need to watch closely for signs of the infection in other plants and destroy them right away if necessary so I don't lose my new coneflowers.