Sunday, July 27, 2008

Pretty picture: Echinacea 'Virgin'


I'm not all that impressed by Echinacea in general. Unlike certain people, I think the weird cultivars have more going for them, just by virtue of not being just another in a long line of vaguely daisy-like plants. Nothing against daisies, but, you know, I've seen them before: I'm not impressed.

("It is not modern enough, the sound the wind makes stirring a meadow of daisies: the mind cannot shine following it." -Louise Glück, "Daisies," in The Wild Iris)

Also I'm not nuts about Echinacea because I don't like how they poke me when I'm trying to move them around or groom them or whatever. But I suppose they're better than some things.


3 comments:

Benjamin Vogt said...

How absolutely cruel of you to quote from Gluck's awesome book in your (mild) defense of coneflowers. I don't like cultivars that look like daisies (or look evil ala 'double decker')--I like the staight species because the petals curve down, and ESPECIALLY because I've not had trouble, NONE AT ALL, growing it vs. these weak weak weak cultivars I keep trying. My latest failure is 'harvest moon.' It almost pushed out petals, then both plants, not near one another, turned brown. Whatever. I yanked them out yesterday. Rudbeckia maxima is coming in.

Anonymous said...

Echinaceas can also be "thugs" in a garden.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love my echinaceas, but you are right---they can be a bit spiky and coarse. I've had almost no luck with the new cultivars I've tried, but the original still brings me joy.