I'm curious whether anybody has experience of growing seedlings from
any of the recent echinacea hybrids -- which, if I understand right,
usually involve crosses between E. purpurea and the yellow-flowered E.
paradoxa, with possibly some involvement of tennesseensis and/or
pallida.

Do the seedlings closely resemble the parents, I wonder? It seems like
with all those genes bouncing around -- not to mention the likelihood
of cross-pollination from other, non-hybrid plants in the neighborhood
-- you might get just about anything.

I just copped a handful of seeds from a lovely, clear-yellow-flowered
plant. The gardener didn't know the name of the variety, but I surmise
it might have been 'Sunrise.' The form of the plant was typical of E.
purpurea. (Some of the hybrids I've seen more closely resembled
prairie species like pallida, with long, narrow leaves arising from a
very tight clump.)

I'm looking forward to experimenting with these, though it will be a
while before I have flowers to show for it, I expect.

--

Wundern kann es mich night, das unser Herr Christus mit Dernen
Gern und mit Sündern gelebt, geht's mir doch eben auch so.

I can't be surprised that our Lord, Jesus Christ, liked to hang out
With sinners and harlots.* That's how it is with me, too.
* -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832