Double Decker Echinacea: Waiter, this isn’t exactly what I ordered

Did you ever look at the picture on a box of microwave food and think “wow, that looks tasty” then you bring it home and after a magical two minutes in the microwave and it looks like something you wouldn’t even feed the neighbors dog?

I am feeling that way about my Double Decker Echinacea (aka Doppleganger). For those of you who are not familiar with it, the Double Decker Echinacea is yet another garden freak. It is an Echinacea that grows with a little top hat, or at least it is suppose to. Blackswamp_girl mentioned them in a comment which is why I was thinking about them today. I hate it when plants are not the weirdos I thought they would be.

This is a pic of it about two weeks into the flower being officially “in bloom” and up till two days ago, if I had not known that I had planted a Double Decker Echinacea in that spot, I would have thought that this was a volunteer, everybody-and-their-lawyer-has-one Echinacea.

Even now, I am a bit disappointed. If you click on the pic, it will take you to a picture of what the Double Decker Echinacea is suppose to look like. *coughbullshitcough*

My Double Decker Echinacea’s top hat petals are heavy on one side and nearly non-existent on the other. Not to mention that the bottom petals are already starting to fade and the top petals have just appeared. I think I may get about a week, if I am lucky, of both sets of petals.

I won’t be taking it out. I am not that kind of gardener, but I am just a little disappointed in the promise vs. reality of the Double Decker Echinacea.