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kaspian · 22-11-2006, 09:11 PM posted to rec.gardens

On 2006-11-21 05:45:54 -0500, said:

If you plant seeds from hybrids you will get very varied results. Plant
enough ( hundreds ? ) and you might get a few decent ones, one or two
outstanding ones, and the remaining hundreds will be dire.... Not all
these will be stable and may revert over time to indifferent forms.

[snip]

Oh, I don't know about that. I've never seen a "dire" echinacea.
Many gardeners grow the straight species E. purpurea, or a seed strain
derived from one of the named varieties like 'Magnus' or 'White Swan'
-- which, of course, are not identical to a vegetatively propagated
specimen of that variety. Folks who are into "wild" or native North
American gardening sometimes grow one of the prairie species like E.
pallida or E. paradoxa. These all make attractive plants and durable
garden specimens (assuming you've got anything like congenial growing
conditions), even if they lack the particular selling points of their
upmarket relations.

I do agree with the "varied results" part -- but I'm still curious
about what KIND of variation one might expect in the offspring of a
hybrid between, say, E. paradoxa and E. purpurea. The few hybrids that
I've actually seen in real life all have closely resembled one parent
or the other but NOT both, in terms of basic plant structure when not
in bloom. It seems quite possible to me that a stand of naturalized
seedlings would be rather an attractive and possibly quite striking
spectacle, in an informal or meadow setting perhaps, given the possible
range of colors that MIGHT arise (or might not).

So I guess, since nobody here seems actually to have tried this,
I'll raise a few dozen seedlings from the plant I suspect to the
'Sunrise' and we'll just see what comes of it.

--

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