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.
10 comments:
Great info to share Linda. Hopefully you won't have this problem again.
Happy weekend!
Very interesting - thanks for the post/update and if you hear anything else, please share...not for me but my sons are interested, I'm clueless ;-)
I hope the problem is over Susie, but I have a feeling I may run into it again next year.
Happy weekend to you too! :)
JJ--you are so funny! Yes, I will post if I hear anything else and you can pass it on to your mom and the boys.
I have the same problem with my coneflowers. At first I thought they were going to seed, which I thought was odd. Today, I had some time to go out and more closely inspect the flowers. Some flower heads were fine on one side, but had what looked like black dirt covered the other side. Other flower heads were completely blackened and when pulled off the stem, what appeared to be sandy dirt particles covered the base and inside the head itself. I also observed tiny brownish worms in some. On one stem, at the base of the flower head, I found a small, caterpillar/larvae-like worm. It reminded me a little of a silkworm. It's about a centimetre/a quarter inch in length, has a reddish-brown back, and two or three sets of legs at the head, one set at the end.
If you know what this pest could be, could you please post it? Thanks! :)
Wendy, you identified the same symptoms I was having earlier in the summer. Where do you live? And, yes...I will definetly post something if I get anymore news. Thanks so much for your comment! :)
I will definitely keep an eye out and hope you find out the exact identity too. Odd that the coneflowers would get these worms.
Thanks for sharing that interesting info Linda. I will keep an eye on mine for sure. Hope you are able to resolve this pest soon.
Tina, it is odd since coneflowers are suppose to be so disease and insect free.
Racquel, blooming season for my coneflowers is over, so I won't know if the problem continues until next year. But...I will watch for the worms and perhaps take them in to our County Extension office for advice.
We had them too in MN. No one seems to know what they are here either. I can hardly wait for you to find the answer for us all. Plants that bloomed later than the rest were not plagued by the problem but I never did see what they turned into. I have an odd feeling that we have not seen the last of them.
Ohhh Lori- I am afraid I agree with you! I don't think we have seen the last of them either. I have to wonder...mine were on the early blooms, back when the temps were lower and we were getting rain. The hot summer blooms did not have any. What a mystery! I will sure let everyone know what I find out! Thanks for writing!
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