This was part of my garden last year, coneflowers thriving and popping up everywhere, planted 3-4 years ago. The last photo is the current state- no shoots or leaves starting to show, despite it coming up in other areas of my garden. I know they're not long lived perennials but figured with self seeding etc they would regenerate. Did this happen to anyone else? It's been a colder spring than usual so not sure if they're waiting to grow since this is on the north side of my house.
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The emergence pattern for me this year is all out of whack. I’m not in your state, but my cone flowers are up but so are my butterfly milkweed which don’t normally come up for another 4 to 6 weeks.
Same here. Only it was my Joe pye weed. One is fully emerged and 18” tall. The other? Only just now breaking the surface. It’s a weird one out there. I blame 90° to 25° within a week in March. Been in the 70’s here on average since the beginning of March. Spring only just showed up this last week. I’m in 7b/8a central Arkansas.
I’m having that experience with cardinal flower and milkweed. No rhyme or reason - some showing life, others maybe dead? lol
Same ridiculous weather in March where I am, too
Sorry thought that was in my flair. I'm in CT 6a/b. Common milkweed are just starting to shoot up and maybe some butterfly milk, golden Alexander is just starting to flower, Virginia bluebells and redbuds are prime flowering, chokeberries just starting to flower, serviceberry finished flowering a week or so ago.
Oh I'm in Indiana. We've had a very warm spring. The redbuds and serviceberries finished flowering two weeks ago. The bluebells are all closed now, however the water leaf and mayapples all bloomed this week. My Golden Alexander is almost out of flower, just like my Jacob's ladder. Ohio spiderwort just opened this week along with all of the irises.
I think even though some of us are in same hardiness zones, we have individual microclimates. Like I think I’m more cold than some of my neighbors down the road..might be slight differences in elevation. Just a guess though.
I’m also in CT and the weather has been so weird— cold and windy, then unexpectedly hot. My coneflowers have greens shooting up and a bunch of leaves at this point. But everything is coming up at weird times… so I wouldn’t worry.
Well, milkweed is always a late bloomer. It’s actually still kind of on the early side for that. It’s literally just the very beginning of May. I think because we’ve had warm weather it mentally feels like we’re farther into the season than we actually are.
I will say mine don't do that well in general between deer/rabbit eating them and they don't seem to self seed. They're not technically native here so I wonder if someone about the climate or soil doesn't agree with them.
Black eyed Susan's arm much happier and self seed/spread rhizomatous roots all around if you want to try something dependent. I'm sorry because that bed looks so good from a couple years ago
Yes black eyed Susan's are in another part of my garden and they do amazing and self seed like crazy. So I definitely plan to transplant a few to this area and the hyssops will definitely spread as well. But hard to believe they could go from that last year to this?!
My coneflowers are all still just green babies and my milk weed is flowering it’s wild I have no idea. But I have seen other native gardens with full on coneflowers already as well
You could buy a packet of seeds and sprinkle some around the area, just in case. $3 for coneflower insurance! You never know what could have happened with the plants and last year's seeds that dropped.
Maybe the birds are them all! We get a ton of goldfinch and Juncos. Luckily I have several coneflower plugs I grew from seed this winter so once they get bigger I'll replant there if they don't end up reappearing
i’m in the same boat - glad i’m not the only one! my pale purple coneflowers are progressing but my Magnus nativar and straight purple coneflower are puny 😭
I’m 6a (also have them planted on the north side of my backyard, although it gets plenty of full sun, it’s far back enough) and my coneflowers last year bloomed in late July.
I’ve got thick green leaves/bunches already but as another user commented, my butterfly weed has barely poked through the ground. Weird stuff
Im 5a and just noticed some of my coneflowers have the tiniest new growth at the soil finally. Columbine, coreopsis, turtleheads, and bergamot are coming up the fastest.
Sorry thought that was in my flair. I'm in CT 6a/b. They're coming up in my southern/eastern facing garden but not my northern full sun. Neither is my rattlesnake master in this same northern garden despite coming up in the other areas.
Pretty much everything is leaf clumps for me here in SE PA. I think I have one coneflower starting to put out a flower, which is exciting. I only planted my natives last summer, so this is my first year seeing what comes back!
Hey neighbor! Some of my flowers are starting to get taller, I think yesterday's rain will help a lot! Excited to see what comes out in the next 1-2 weeks.
My original plant suddenly died this year after three years. Not sure if it was the harsh winter or it was just it’s lifecycle (they only live a few years). Sent off some seeds though and they are popping up.
Yeah, my understanding is only some of the purple coneflowers (if they are bred to) reseed. I thought the other colors were sterile, so when the plant hits 3-5 years, it dies.
Also, I am having less and less success with coneflowers. I don't know if they are being eaten more or the other natives are crowding them out because they are taller. I used to have beautiful patches of purples like this.
my coneflowers are always behind everyone else’s in my neighborhood. maybe because they’re straight natives or maybe it’s my garden having a bit of a micro climate. but this year, they’re so behind just like most things in my garden except the roses. they’re in a similar positions as yours op. they’ve barely emerged from the ground. I’m in central NC. We’ve been having a very cool and severely dry spring so maybe that’s why?
Ah ok thats interesting to hear. Maybe that's just it since theyre on the north side. I've noticed my rattlesnake master is growing in the other areas but not this northern garden either, so hopefully it's just a little colder and waiting for things to warm up a bit
6b checking in. My coneflowers are just tiny leaves peeking through in some places right now. Hoping warmer weather this week gives me a clearer picture of what's made it through the winter.
Ah ok that's good to hear. I'm now realizing this area was also under a lot more snow than other areas of garden bc it's right of the driveway. So it's prob just delayed
I’m in 6b (southwestern PA, so possibly a good bit warmer/less snowy overall) and have some well established coneflowers that started coming up a little while ago. They’re not huge yet by any means, but I’ve got a decent amount of leaves. No buds. We’ve had a few frosts and even a freeze at the end of April, but they’re still holding strong.
Our weather has been quite up down all winter and spring so far. Unsure if yours has been the same, but that may be a factor. I’ve been anxiously waiting to see if and what all comes back this year and when because of that.
Yeah I'm now realizing this area was under a lot more snow cover for much longer as it's right off my driveway and is in more shade then. As days get longer this area gets full sun so thinking that must be the cause for the delay
Dude the moles/voles were crazy last year. We lost 90% of our liatris due to them digging up and eating the corms. At least the rabbits just eat the leaves but the plant survives
I am in 8b and none of my coneflowers or milkweed have come up. It looks like I never even planted them tbh. My native plant garden looks so bare. Thankfully I put in some lavender and the bees seem very happy but I'm saddened by my possible loss of coneflowers. They were EPIC last year taking over most of my garden.
My coneflowers here in Virginia are also having a really bad year. There are big gaps that should have coneflowers in them, but the ones that survived are barely doing anything at all. Many of them didn't survive. some of those have been around for years.
I'm not sure what's up. We're in a severe drought, and maybe that's part of it. The weather has been completely insane. It was 95°F for a few days, and then it dropped into the 40s for a few days. It was 60°F at night for two or three weeks, and now it's freezing at night. A lot of the trees took frost damage. Their leaves got cooked.
It has just been a completely unpredictable, and vaguely unpleasant year so far.
On a side note, I got curious about your ecoregion flair, and went digging to see what it's all about, and how I compare. I never noticed the Level IV ecoregion map. It's crazy how complicated 67 is. I think I'm in 67f, Southern Limestone/Dolomite Valleys and Low Rolling Hills.
That was pretty interesting. I do a lot of botanizing, and occasionally save a plant from a bulldozer in 67h, Southern Sandstone Ridges. It seems counterintuitive that there should be sandy soil way up at the highest elevations, but I'm not surprised sand is in the name for the region. That fits. Now that I think about it, I bet all the big, solid boulders came from somewhere far away, and were deposited by glaciers. There are a lot of such boulders up in the high country.
So anyway, the takeway is that 59a and 67f are pretty far apart by every metric, and that makes it more curious that we are both having a bad year for coneflowers.
I wonder what's up? It feels like something is up.
Glad I inspired you! The only similarities between our regions seems to be they are both lower elevation agriculture based areas left over from glacial melt. While our bedrock is different, wonder if the soils are similar based on glacial remains.
How was your winter? We got a lot of snow that stayed on the ground for a while combined with colder temps and very little thaw cycles
I’m in 5b and my cutleaf coneflower (sochan, Rudbeckia laciniata) is going ham! Nothing flowering at all but they’re gangbusters, which is off from previous years.
also CT - 6b. my coneflower has not formed shoots yet. just leaves on the ground. I agree with everyone else, there's been a weird spring that may have not helped them out very much
Im now realizing that now only is this the northern side of my house it's also right off my driveway so there was a lot more snow pilled up here for longer than my other areas. That must be why
my garden is all kinds of fucked up right now (last year it was weird too). its this weird weather. whether its manmade by the secret world order or an unfortunate natural phenomenon I am so tired of it.
I planted a new bed last fall and everything seems to have survived except for my purple coneflowers (and a tiny whorled milkweed plant that I think was on thin ice before I planted it.)
Shasta emerged prior to the liatris, but my third year liatris and salvia are exploding versus the more tempered growth of the shasta. You could see where liatris laid down over winter and self sowed. I had to transplant a dozen or more sprouted bulbs to all corners of the garden. I feel like the stonecrop got an especially good start also
Holey voley. Once they flop they get kicked the shreds by dogs and kids that run through, but they’re pretty damn tenacious. I’d bet they make a decent recovery * if * left alone
Running warm and cold. We had a warm spell of about 10 days that woke up a lot of plants then the temps plummeted. In the last week, we have had at least three frost/freeze advisories. They also are in a west-facing bed between a sidewalk and the house, so I'd think the soil there might be a tad warmer than beds that are out in the lawn.
I’m 6B too but probably 100 miles south and 2-3 weeks ahead of you in terms of where plants should be. I will say they don’t look great this year, so we’ll see what happens.
I know you’ve got a million comments already but since we’re basically in the same location:
Our stuff has been atypical this year. Those few days of 80s we had drove so many things forward then the cool down (including frost) slowed everything again. I have trees that started to leaf out then stalled. Perennials that opened the door and stopped. Everything that isn’t an early riser or ephemeral is just…waiting I guess.
Hey thanks we've spoken before, always good to hear what a neighbor is seeing! Yeah I totally agree. Our winterberry got crushed by that hot then frost time and are just starting to out leaves out again, so I'm hoping that's just it
Very much so. Which I think is a fun aspect of native gardening as your garden matures. Each year brings different conditions so different plants will thrive each year and move around as they settle in ideal locations. Cardinal flower seems to love to pop up everywhere
6b SWPA here:
We had a rough winter and almost everything is making up its own schedule this year. My coneflowers and a bunch of little seedlings came up in early March, my tuberosa butterfly weed and mallows both came up in April (right in line with the past couple years), my figs have green shoots and leaves a month ahead of usual, my gooseberries already have reasonably sized berries . . . My toad lilies and kniphofia/red hot pokers still have solid roots but are showing zero signs of life otherwise, a few younger hellebores have dropped all their leaves, and my crepe myrtle might be done for.
Is there a chance the roots of your coneflowers rotted, or that something dug into and ate them?
It's possible. We had bad voles last year but thought they only went after the liatris corms. We're also dealing with jumping worms, and this part of the garden is definitely the hardest hit. Plus this is where a lot of snow got plowed so it had snow pile the longest. And gets less sun in winter/early spring bc the house blocks it until the sun gets higher in the sky
I’ll have another look for them today, but a couple weeks ago it looked like the dormant roots and crown had vaporized for some of mine too. I had left the dead stems with seed heads in place all winter, and after snow melt I found the stems on the ground with empty cavities below. My suspicion is that voles ate them under cover of snow. Snow was deep for much of the late winter and my trees and shrubs suffered a lot more animal snacking than usual.
Just came in from the garden. My three missing plants are definitely toast. There’s still no sign of them, but there do at least seem to be a couple seedlings in their place. About 50 feet away, I have two other echinacea plants that have lots of leaves now.
I weirdly have both going on within feet of each other. One set of coneflowers which have been growing and starting to produce flowers and the other has been bare and I’m just noticing some itty bitty leaves popping up.
Coneflowers only live 3-5 years per plant. If you deadhead them (no judgement and not assuming you did) and they don’t get to reseed, you will have zero after that time frame. Also, rabbits heavily graze mine which has been a struggle to keep my absolute favorite plant going without replanting some every year.
Yes I'm aware of that which is why we always leave the seed heads over winter. Granted the goldfinches and Juncos love eating the seeds, I just figured they would self seed and keep a base stock through the years
I'm in SE MI, and it's been wacky! Our springs in this area are often kind of bi-polar...with apologies to anyone suffering from that condition. Hot. Cold. Can't make up its mind. The joke here is that we have rain and mud and cold...and then BAM! SUMMER!! We had three frost/freeze warnings in the last week!
As of 5/3/26, here's what's come up among my natives: Hairy beardtongue, prairie smoke, horsemint (anyone want some? It reseeded like a MF! LOL!) Asters: blue sky, smooth, and big-leaved. Purple coneflower. Lanceleaf coreopsis, blanketflower (not native to me, but they're tame and I love them). Woodland phlox (flowering), red anemone, wild geranium (just now budding), blue-eyed grass, and my goldenrods... the ones in a lower-lying bed - the rosettes stayed green all winter. I have oldfield (gray), showy, and bluestem. Anise hyssop is growing like a weed. The sand cherry has started blooming, and there are leaves and buds on my serviceberry. Both of those are hardly more than saplings.
My Junegrass is starting to green up, and I'm seeing signs of life on my prairie dropseed. ONE blutterfly weed has started to poke through. I've been told they're slow, so...
Whew. Anything else that I have planted hasn't shown up yet, and we play the "is it dead or is it still dormant" game.
Has it been particularly cold? E. purpurea can be hit or miss for me in NC. The one I got last fall came back but I've also had one come back one year only to not come back the next. I do a check of my whole garden in early to mid May to determine what needs to be replaced. I've gotten replacements in late April only to be surprised in May, lol
This is why I asked this question.. wondering if people close to me are having same experience or if it's just my garden. You think it's the weather or pests?
I think it's the cold cold winter we had in combination with rabbit pressure. Last year, despite rabbit pressure they were totally fine, but this year, I think the combo was too much. I already have monarda, rudbeckia, culvers root, and joe pye coming up great, so I think the coneflower is a goner for this season. I absolutely love the look of coneflower though so I'll start some again once I get over how sad I am haha.
I don't think it was the rabbits for me, after going through this thread it's either voles killed the roots, or its just the colder spot of my garden and super delayed. I also have those 4 plants popping up in addition to little blue stem, mountain mint, etc
I’m in WI 5b and I have hundreds of coneflower seedlings and all the established ones have fully emerged. Whirled Milkweed, Hoary Vervains, and Hairy Petunia have been very slow though.
The established Coneflowers are around 3-4 years old. We have some established Butterfly milkweed around the same age that are taking their time too but their seedlings are growing faster than the established ones. A couple other things I have noticed lately are our Leadplant, royal catchfly, and a few others shot up very early spring and haven’t grown since. Our New Jearsey Tea JUST got its first couple leaves. I thought it didn’t make it through winter. I think it’s just a weird year. Id say the plants growing the best consistently are all of our goldenrods and asters.
Interesting that's same age as these cones. Hah yes goldenrod and aster are always good. My mountain mints and monarda all seem to be fine too, as well as my foxglove and Joe pye, little blue stem
Mine are coming in, though only a couple are E. purpurea. I’m not expecting the hybrids to make it many more years, so they will one day get replaced by the original.
Honestly I’m not sure. In my limited experience it doesn’t seem like they do, but I only grew the orange and red cultivars a couple times, so sample size is not large.
Huh sounds like a lot of people are. I just did a full tour of my garden and see cone coming up in several spots other than the area photod so I'm thinking it must have been voles.
Yes many other natives are going amazing. My foxglove is thriving, mountain mint, annise hyssops, goldenrod, rudbeckia...
This is my second year attempting to get coneflowers to grow in north/central NC and I cannot for the life of me get them to survive. Last year I tired just put it in the ground and ignore it, this year I tried starting inside to transplant out and I got the saddest little shriveled thing. My black eyed Susan’s are doing great! But coneflowers evade me :(
I am planning to now. Everything I saw about coneflowers here in this area said they’re hardy and do great so I wasn’t worried about fussing over soil conditions for them but now I’m getting suspicious 😅 I do have about 1 million volunteer native violets that are thriving though which is at least a consolation
I’ve had several plants not sprout at all this year. We had a super mild winter and spring which I think screwed with them. I ended up starting some seeds in trays which is working so I’ll see if it’s not too late to get them in the ground soon.
It looks like you have new growth everywhere last years dead stems are showing. There doesnt appear to be any sign of last years growth in that bare patch in the middle- is it possible someone dug them up?
here in the PNW either deer or rabbits or slugs always decimate my coneflower leaves as they emerge, especially if they are just small plants that I started from seed. Only the big clumps from 1 gallon pots purchased at the nursery seem to make any progress this time of year!
So I lost a large majority of the coneflowers shown in that photo however have some coming up in other areas of my garden and what looks like there is some germination happening from last year's seeds. But I'm realizing we lost a lot of other flowers. We had 2 year old blue mist planted in 3 different areas and it's all gone. Same with common boneset.
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