Love those Coneflowers....but....

You all know how I love cone-
flowers!
I have them growing all around the pond now.
This is my newest one: Tomato Soup. It is just starting to bloom.
This is Hot Papaya. I know the original Purple Cone-
flowers are the best, but this hybrid was planted last year and look how beautiful it is this year!
I dug a few purple up last year and started them along the little pathway behind the patio..




..and I noticed they are starting to naturalize in this area now. Yea!! However, if you will remember last year I did a post on all my Coneflower woes. Since that time, several gardeners have commented on having similar problems. Basically here was the issue: the heads of the flowers got a tar-like look on one side; then the flowers just kind of fell apart, or did not continue to develop. Trying to find the cause, I discovered little worms in the seed heads. I had comments from people in Canada and Nebraska, all the way down here to Texas. Well--the same thing started to happen to mine earlier in spring. I decided to keep a careful watch on the flowers to see if I could determine the problem. As I watched, I began to see these bugs that looked like yellow lady bugs flying all over the coneflowers and coreopsis. After a while, I began to notice that tar looking head again, and after digging into it, I found the same greenish worm I found last year.
I never got a picture of the bug, but this is the closest thing on the Internet I could find. This is a "cucumber beetle." However, after reading about the larvae of this kind of beetle, I don't think this is it. (The larvae attack the roots) There is also a type of beetle called "asian beetle." I didn't think the description fit either. Then there was the "squash bug beetle." One picture looked like it might be the culprit...but again the description did not match my problem. So...folks I just don't have an answer for you. I did use insecticide soap on the flowers, and if I sprayed it heavily, it did seem to work. I also cut off the flowers that were damaged. Once the spring rains stopped, and the high temperatures hit--the problem seemed to go away. Looking back, I think that is exactly what I remember happening last year.
Wish I had better news for you coneflower lovers out there. The bees and butterflies love the flowers as much as I do, so I suppose I will just keep on researching and watching. But in the meantime...I am still in love with coneflowers!

Note: I did some research on aster yellows disease because it is one thing coneflowers are known to get. (It is spread by leafhoppers) However, I did not think it fit my situation. Here is a link to an article that gives good information and a picture that could be some help. Let us know if those of you with coneflower problems solve the mystery!
http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/4DMG/Pests/Diseases/astryel2.htm

Good information on Coneflower Problems

In June I did a post on the problems I was having with my coneflowers The seed heads were turning brown and the flowers were dying. You can read about it here. Taking the heads apart, I found little, tiny worms. After that post, I got several emails from other folks have similar problems. Two of the gardeners were from Ontario, Canada. I want to share one of the emails with you that I thought was really interesting. Her description of the problem matched what I found exactly. This is what she said:

Yesterday I noted my coneflowers were not looking as good as earlier this summer. The leaves look great but the flowers were looking like they were all going to seed. However, I noted no new blooms.So, a closer look identified the heads of the blooms appeared to have dirt on them. Among the dirt, I noted small holes. When I opened a bloom, it contained brown and olive worms. These worms (0.5-3 mm) were eating their way through the blooms. Every bloom with the black dirt contained at least two worms. It seems that 85% of my coneflower blooms have this dirt and worms. So, I have removed all the dirty blooms.Since I have biology training, I know these worms are the larval phase of something. Given the size of the larvae, I can only guess they will mature to be beetles.So, this blog identifies these larvae occur in the Dallas area, in Delaware, and in Ontario. That seems to cover most of central North America.I am going to try to figure out what kind of larvae we are dealing with. One approach is to go in to the compost pile and find a larvae from a coneflower, so I can identify it directly. Or I can find out what other folks here in Ontario are writing about... something that has not turned up on this search tonight.

Interesting, right? I cut off all the infected blooms on mine, and the plants seemed to be ok for the remaining of their bloom time. Perhaps this was a one time problem, but after everyone including the Master Gardeners I talked to said coneflowers rarely have insect or disease problems, I would sure like to know what has developed that is causing problems with people in very different areas. Next year when your coneflowers start to bloom, keep an eye on them and see if you find any problems.

Update on Coneflowers

I thought I would give you an update on my coneflowers and the worms. As suggested by you wonderful blogging friends, I cut off all the blooms on the plants that had the tiny worms. And, I am happy to tell you the coneflowers are blooming again and show no signs of the pesky little worms.
They look really healthy even in this heat, but of course coneflowers really kind of like all this hot weather.
The only plant that is not looking very happy is the White Swan. There are quite a few buds, but they are not developing as I think they should. I wonder if worms continue to be a problem with this plant. And, something is enjoying the leaves as you can see. I really don't mind a bite or two taken out of a leaf, but please leave the seed heads alone!
This is my newest coneflower:
Hot Papaya.
It starts out as a light yellow, then as it grows the petals turn a pretty apricot color. I found a worm on one of the flowers earlier, and cut all the buds off.

This plant has tons of blooms now and as far as I can tell, it is worm free.
I still don't know what type of worms I had. I tried to do some research on what it could be as did Tina. (thanks so much Tina!) I read about diseases coneflowers are susceptible to, but could never find anything about problems with bugs of any kind. Such as life in a garden.. you never know what surprises--good and not so good--you will find! I hope all your garden surprises were good ones today!



"Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do."
Michel de Montaigne

Coneflower Trouble

I have coneflower problems! I started to notice the heads of the flowers with something black looking on them. At first I thought they were just going to seed, and some are. But when I began to notice the young buds with this same black marking, I decided to take a closer look.

I actually picked a few flowers and buds off and started to dig through them. On some, there was nothing. On others-I found tiny worms about the size of the end of your fingernail. They have some yellow on them and are burrowed down deep in the cone. What are they??
I was afraid my flowers had "aster yellow" disease which I read is a death sentence for coneflowers So, I was happy to think it was worms, but who has worms on their coneflowers?
"Nothing can hurt coneflowers" they say. Well, I beg to differ. I am losing mine everyday.. The funny thing is that this is all in the back. I have a few in front and on the side that look healthy.
I love my "pink daisies" as I called them when I was a little girl. I don't think these would be worms for butterflies or they would be eating the leaves. I tried insecticide soap on the cone heads, but I don't think it worked. Does anyone have any ideas?? HELP!!