It sounds like the flowers are fading which is natural.

I wouldn't worry--astilbe only bloom for a few weeks in late June or July. What month they will bloom in depends on what your climate is like where you live.

The rest of the summer they will have the attractive foliage. You can either clip off the faded blooms, or leave them on--the faded blooms keep a nice ornamental shape if you just leave them on the plant.

I prefer a nice organic mulch to Miracle-Gro for our astilbe. A good mulch will also help retain soil moisture, which astilbe love.

Enjoy your astilbe!

I live in the Chicagoland area and have many Astilbe. The white blooms first - and lasts about two weeks then fades to brownish. Then the pink "Visions" start and are blooming now. This will last a couple of weeks also. Then they fade to brown. You did nothing wrong. Perennials do not bloom all summer. You'll have pretty foliage without bloom.

Westy

Ditto above.

It sound about right to me as well. As long as you keep them well watered the foliage will look great all summer.

Thanks for all of the help!! Ive had such trouble with that area of my bed that i was beginning to think it was my soil. (everything dies there!) anyway, thank you again for all the help and comments! this is normal, and i'm going to be ok !!! LoL!!

lingardiner, as everyone above said, you did nothing wrong. That's just the bloom period for your astilbe.

You said "Long time admirer, first time planter"...

Of everything? Or just astilbe? If you are an experienced gardener, you can ignore me and carry on as you were, lol. If you are a new gardener, and if you have shade, do some research on shade gardens. I absolutely LOVE my shade gardens, and while many people think "you can't grow stuff in shade", you'd be amazed at the beautiful plants you can grow. To me, shade gardens are restful and refreshing and soothing.

Also, you said "everything dies there" about this spot. Look into amending the soil with organice materials - shredded leaves, grass clippings, coffee grounds, compost, etc. Perhaps a soil test is in order also. If your soil is healthy, your plants will do well.

Good luck!
:)
Dee

I only have one astilbe, and it wasn't happy under the eaves on the south side of the garage which gets a lot of shade anyway for much of the day, kept getting smaller and punier for a couple years. So I moved it and don't fuss over it. It's a pretty pink and blooming nicely now, a semi shade bed which gets more sun than I would think it would like. I water it now and then because the hose is closer, seems happy enough and filled out quite a bit since I moved it. I haven't fed, mulched or composted it either except threw a bunch of leaves over that bed last fall.