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Hi! Does anyone know why my 3-4 year old coneflowers of the common pink variety grow over 6 feet? They are in bright sunshine, but I don't water them enough, or fertilize them at all. Yet they have spread a lot since I've first planted them. They look like they belong at the back of the border instead of at the front of the border hiding all of my smaller plants. Help!!!
Since you're not watering them a lot or fertilizing them, I think you'll probably be stuck with them at that height so your best bet if you don't like them where they are is to move them to the back of the border. Is your soil really rich? Could be in a leaner soil you could keep them a bit shorter. Or if they're taller this year than they have been in the past it could be from rain--I don't know if your area got abnormally high rainfall this year but I know many areas did and that could make them grow taller than they would in a typical year. But even normal height coneflowers are usually too tall to be front of the border plants, so they would probably look best a bit farther back anyway.
Thank you, ecrane3. They've been high since I got them a few years ago, and the weather then was very different. We're unusually cold and wet here in PA. I guess I'll move them in the fall when they are done blooming. The soil is heavy clay, but has earthworms, so it may have some nutrients. Anyway, thanks a lot.
nutcase I was at a park yesterday and saw some purple coneflowers that were 5-6 feet tall, they looked like echinacea magnus, there were some shorter ones around too. These were in a hot dry spot. I wish I had taken a picture with my cell phone.
