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Echibeckia (Echinacea x Rudbeckia) 'Summerina Electra-Shock!'
I saw this plant for sale recently at Roger's Gardens. I didn't bring the camera on that visit, so Beloved took some phone-tos. The label said:
The thing is, neither parent is a great plant here--a little winter chill seems to do them good, and we don't get winter chill here. Echinacea was an expensive annual in my garden. I had several years of success with Rudbeckia hirta, but other SoCal gardeners reported they did not. Anyway, I didn't buy an Echibeckia.
I'm also unenthusiastic about plant names that end in an exclamation point. A lot of plants names are more appropriately finished off with a question mark.
Huh. How 'bout that?
I'm with you - both plants have generally been short-lived non-performers for me, although Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy' last a little over one year (and rebloomed) once. But that was when water was provided more liberally and before our summers became as nasty as they currently are.
ReplyDeleteOther locals report similar experiences.
DeleteFelt like Autumn was on the way early this morning! Actually a slight hint of chill. Hooray!
Pro-tip for marketers: Electroshock doesn't have high favorables, even tarted up with cutesy misspelling and pointless punctuation.
ReplyDeleteThe plant itself is not responsible for any of this silliness, of course; it's fairly appealing. But given how short-lived many of the new coneflowers are, I'll wait to hear more from those who've planted it. Inter-generic crosses are intriguing.
Further exploration has deepened the intrigue, but also my dismay. "Echibeckia", which seems to have the form of a genus name for an intergeneric cross, is actually a trademarked (!) invention. The accepted botanical genus name is X Rudbeckia, indicating an intergeneric cross with Rudbeckia as the pod parent. The cross from which the Summerina series introductions up tonight now have been selected is Rudbeckia hirta x Echinacea purpurea (R.h. the pod parent and E.c. providing pollen).
DeleteRoger's label has it backwards, probably because they took the "Echibeckia" as legit; X Echibeckia would, it it were an accepted intergeneric name, be a cross with Echinacea as the pod parent and Rudbeckia as pollenizer. All the European suppliers call the Summerina series Rudbeckia or X Rudbeckia -- which leads me to conclude that Pacific Plug & Liner are the culprits responsible for trademark the misleading generic name. The good news is that the exclamation mark isn't part of any version of the name. And those quilted petals are cool looking.
Info based on the Monrovia site, among others; If they're wrong, I'm wrong: https://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/5409/echibeckia-summerina-yellow/
No exclamation point?!? Awww.....
DeleteRudnacea? Interesting information, thank you! The marketing department rules where names are concerned. Roger's does have intriguing experiements for sale every once in a while. Less than they used to, because the focus is gradually shifting away from interesting plants, unfortunately. Chi-chi restaurant and baby clothes, sigh.
The quilled petals were indeed cool, but the flower color was incredibly muddy--worse than the phone-tos show.
Tony Avent (Plant Delights) is doing this combo naming thing with Agaves species. No likey!
DeleteIt looks interesting. I wonder if it is good for pollinators? Sometimes when they mix things up so they aren't good for much of anything.
ReplyDeleteNo idea. Yes, sometimes a hybrid has not got anything to offer the rest of the species on the planet, just the particular Homo sapiens ssp. plantbyerii. ;^)
DeleteI can't figure out what the breeders thought they would gain by this cross. Echinaceas bloom for a very limited time where it is hot, which would be a negative contribution, to say the least. And none of the new colors of Echinacea being churned out by the dozens are remotely attractive, being very muddy in tone. Rubeckias on the other hand, will bloom all summer, as long as they are given enough water, and come in some very pretty clear yellow hues.
ReplyDeleteThose Echi-becks were the most dreadful muddy color. Some plants are experiments, a way station on the way to somewhere else--for example the 'Drakensberg' Gerbera daisy series, decent garden Gerberas I have a couple of , have apparently led to the Galvinea Gerbera series that are superior.
DeleteThought these Echi-becks/Runaceas may be something like this, because the dreadful color needs to be fixed.
@Hoover Boo: "Homo sapiens ssp. plantbyerii" - not quite. "plantbyerii" would indicate that the variety was discovered by a Mr. or Mrs. (or Mx.??) Plantbyer. It would be "plantaemptor" instead. And it would be var. or f. plantaemptor depending on the variation being considered major or minor, but definitely not subsp. (ssp.) as this would mean that the variety would be native to a specific region on planet Earth while other regions have other varieties. plantaemptor however is a phenomenon that arose with settlement/agriculture and barter in various global regions independently from one another.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, thank you for this helpful clarification of binomial nomenclature. Less seriously, in the case of that never-seen-again "Echibeckia", might one say var. caveatemptor?
DeleteA nit worth picking, even when the bloom has faded. :^)