Another nursery plant name fiasco
Some great new echinaceas in yellow and peachy shades have been introduced in recent years so when you see Bulbs Direct listing a plant as Echinacea ‘Yellow Storm’ you might well think that you’d be ordering the latest of these.
Not so fast. In fact what you’ll be getting is good old Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ - just click on the picture (although even then it's not really the right color)! There’s a wopping clue there, of course, Goldsturm is German for – Golden Storm.
Innocent mistake? Or a nursery trying to cash in on the popularity of these new echinaceas? Either way, don’t be taken in. Of course, Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm is a colorful and dependable plant. It was Perennial Plant of the Year in 1999 and has been awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit. But if you’re looking for a yellow echinacea – look elsewhere.
I’ve emailed them to point out their error… we shall see.
None of the "yellow" echinaceas I've seen--and I bought one immediately, sucker that I am--come close to the yellow of a rudbeckia.
But I can understand the confusion--people do often grow them together so I can see how the marketing would follow along.
Posted by: eliz | February 27, 2007 at 12:01 AM
What puzzles me is why they listed it as 'Yellow Storm'. It's as if they were feeling guilty about the wrong genus attribution and were offering a little clue to those in the know!
I was also wondering whether their listing could be justified using 18th century taxonomy. Although several Echinacea species (E. pallida, E. purpurea) used to be in Rudbeckia, as far as I am aware this Rudbeckia (R. fulgida) has never been classified as an Echinacea. So they can't invoke a Linnaean defence!
Posted by: Mike Grant | February 27, 2007 at 06:21 AM
Is there any chance photos were mixed up? To a non-gardener the two plants would look about the same and the description would match well enough, too. Just wondering.
Posted by: Barbara Martin | February 28, 2007 at 05:20 PM
Well folks, as I said at the end of my post, I emailed them to point out the error (in the nicest possible way) but so far no response and the listing has not been changed. And they don't list any rudbeckias so the chances of muddle in the pictures seem remote.
Mike tries to take a charitable taxonomic view - but reality defeats him, I'm afraid.
Posted by: Graham Rice | March 03, 2007 at 04:56 PM