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How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Coneflowers
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This is not just normal as it is the rule. Thee purple coneflower seedlings do not bloom the first summer, the plants die back and go dormant in late summer. This first-year dormancy is important and when plants develop strong roots. Plants flower in summer of the second year, and every year after that.
Hi,
I live in Iowa. Our winters get a bit chilly -- hanging at -15F (-26C) for periods last winter. I cut the coneflowers to the ground in November. They are covered with snow for months, and they do fine the next year.
I had a pot full and cut the heads off but left the stems in the pot will they grow back or do I need the seeds. Not sure if these have bulbs or rhizomes.
Keep covered with a frost cloth. Dead head the blooms and keep the plant nice an short. Put mulch around the mound of the stem and make sure you keep some kind of slow release fertilizer mixed in.
How can I do to encourage more blooms than leaves on the Cornflower plant in a container? When pruning the leaves, should I prune the bigger more established leaves or the smaller ones?
Try and keep the bigger leaves green. If they are yellowing or turning brown cut them off. In order to coax blooms fertilize and leave in the sun for at least 5 hours a day.
My cone flowers have green stalks growing up out of the middle of the bloom. The bloom still has purple pedals, with six or so green stems growing out of the middle of the seed cone, with more blooms. They look very strange.
Well, what ever is the cause, it’s not good. The plant is either infested or infected by leafhoppers and/or eriophid mites. The leafhoppers carry a disease in their saliva that causes the plant to fail in a variety of ways. The mite feeds on coneflower. These bugs lay eggs in the grass and hatch to tunnel up the stems of the flowers. You need to discard the plants and keep the lawn trimmed.
I live in North Texas. I planted some coneflowers I got at a nursery. During the day, they look wilted but the next morning, they have perked up. I thought they liked heat and sun. Is it because this is their first summer in the ground?
This is all a natural response to the heat and sunlight. Continue watering as usual, but not to excess in reaction to the wilting.