"Paulo da Costa" wrote in message
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Eigenvector wrote:

"Paulo da Costa" wrote in message
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[...]
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

Okay, that's certainly reassuring. I was about to clip off the dead
flowers but wasn't sure what effect that would have on them. I was also
going to pull weeds from around them, but not knowing what an echinacea
looks like when just starting out I didn't want to take the wrong thing.
It's been rather warm and wet here (Seattle) lately and the weeds are
coming out in force. I wanted to tag them before they had a chance to
establish, and since I have the day off I can do it at my leisure.

Right, the flowers are probably brown and dry by now, and full of seeds.
You can clip them off and save the seeds or spread them around if you want
your garden covered with them.

The new leaves coming from the old plant with be strong and big and
unmistakable. The first leaf from one growing from seed is dark green and
heart-shaped, anything else is a weed

Paulo

Excellent, thank you very much for clearing that up.

Now that I know what I'm looking for I can pull the weeds and crush the
flowers and spread the seeds.

I ID's the weeds too. Catnip and Galium Aparine, that stuff is EVERYWHERE
in my garden. This very group warned me a year or so back about growing
catnip in my herb garden but did I listen - Noooooo. Oh well I guess I know
what I'll be doing this spring.