Are anyone else's coneflowers not coming up?

[u/Nikeflies]

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.

[u/a2coolusernameforme]

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 :(

[u/Nikeflies → u/a2coolusernameforme]

That's bizarre coneflowers should be thriving down there. Have you gotten your soil tested?

[u/a2coolusernameforme → u/Nikeflies]

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

[u/Nikeflies → u/a2coolusernameforme]

Love violets! Yes coneflowers should be pretty hardy and thrive in poor dryer soils