On Mon, 5 Jul 2010 13:40:20 -0700 (PDT), Darren
wrote:

Greetings all,
Over this past weekend, I bought a small "purple cone flower" plant at
my local nursery to add to my little butterfly garden.
I planted it as per the instructions of the guy at the nursery. I dug
out a small hole, then put the plant in, then filled in with a little
more soil. Then I watered it a little.
The next day, the plant had shriveled up a little, and just didn't
look well.
I had read that you weren't supposed to water them too much.
But, we have had blistering heat here in NY this week, so I though
maybe that was the problem. I felt the leaves and flowers and they
felt very dried out. So, I watered it twice today, and that seemed to
perk up the plant a little.
Any advice on this?
Thanks in advance, as always!

This is not a good time for planting in NY... here in the Catskills it
reached 100ºF today.... it's been blistering hot and saharan dry for
over a week

You may have lousy soil. Should have dug a big hole and added some
rich topsoil amended with organic matter. Keep moist (poke your
fingers into the soil) and well mulched to slow evaporation... and do
not compress the back fill... plants gotta breathe. I'd remove your
plant and replant it as described above.