Anyone know whats up with this?

[lurky]

Last year my mother planted a cone flower plant and it was just the way it was supposed to be. This year, this is what came up. Has anyone ever seen this before? Or know why it would change like this?
Thanks for looking

 

[herbsherbsflowers]

That is so weird. The plant looks like coneflower but the flower looks like sweet william. I don't know what could have happened to make that.

 

[patandchickens]

I dunno, the whole thing just looks like sweet william to me. Pretty sure that's what you've got there.

I would guess that things got moved around or misplaced, or the coneflower croaked altogether (or is lurking down at soil level as a rosette and has been overlooked because of the large pretty sweet william)

Pat

 

[simple life]

I agree about the sweet william. I have both plants in my yard. If you planted only one coneflower, while it does spread it wouldn't spread that rapidly in one year.At least that has been my experience, at least here in New England.Thats a pretty established group you have there, its possible that those were planted a long time ago and have been lurking underground and this year they came up. Maybe when your Mom planted the Coneflower it stirred something up.I have had that happen with my poppies. I planted them years ago and they never came back and then suddenly after quite a few years a whole group of them appeared in the very same spot I had planted them years before.
The group you have there are very pretty.
I agree with Pat, try looking in the group for your coneflower and replant it somewhere in a space of its own.

 

[bunch-a-chickens]

I don't know if coneflower is a hybrid or not, but I know that if you plant hybrid seeds, It will be the mother plant