JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Eigenvector" wrote in message
. ..
I tried growing Echinacea in my patio area and they seemed to take off
quite nicely, but knowing nothing about them, I left them alone to do their
own thing.

I read somewhere about deadheading them, but didn't do that as I am not
familiar with the practice.

So right now I have the plants in my little plot, looking perfectly dead
and wondering if they will come back in the spring or did my ignorance
turn what should have been a perennial into an annual? How do echinaceas
seed and grow - by the flowers, like marigolds, or some other mechanism?


Where do you live?

Even in California, my Echinacea are totally dead-looking right now, and
they will come back strongly in a couple of months. If you're planting
it in a colder climate, it may take longer, but they will come back.

Echinacea has a rhizome and spreads out bigger and stronger every year,
after dying back in the fall. You can also grow it very easily from the
seeds that are in the "cone" that remains when the flowers die out.

Paulo