They're perennials. They'll survive (probably). They only have another month or two until Jack Frost would have killed the tops anyway. I have a ton of coneflowers and rabbits and I have never had rabbits eat my coneflowers.

Thank you for the reply. Maybe I have a higher rabbit to coneflower ratio than you! Thus I need more coneflowers?!

Rabbits decimate many plants in my yard, but they rarely touch the coneflowers. It might be some insects?

I have not seen the rabbits do it. However entire leaves are gone in 24 hours, that is one big hungry insect.

We planted two coneflower plants earlier this summer and within two weeks the rabbits severed the two flowers we had (both were sitting on the ground nearby), and ate most of the leaves. The plants haven't flowered since but they seem to be alive.

We also planted some black-eyed susans nearby, and I caught a rabbit munching its leaves within a week. I chased it off and they haven't eaten it since. The rabbits in my neighborhood are hit and miss, but it seems like once a plant gets big enough, they leave it alone.

Anyone ever had a squirrel eat an entire jack-o-lantern? Each of the last two years they ate everything but the stem.

I'm sorry you have bad bunnies too. My area rabbits leave plants alone once the plants are large enought but I guess its like us eating microgreens, young and tasty. I'm glad I don't have your squirrel problem! Squirrels will run off with whole tomatoes but I have never seen them take out a pumpkin. You would think they would want the innards not the rind. Try putting citranella candles in them, maybe they won't like the smell.

I put little wire cages under brand new seedling areas. Rabbits will eat just about any seedling I put out, but my experience is also once the plants reach a certain size they are left alone.

I am creating several meadow gardens in a wild area in the back of my lot. These consist of a naturalized mix of native grasses, clovers, and wildflowers. All planted as seedlings (started using the winter-sowing technique). The rabbits and deer wander around back there, and they've already found a few of the seedlings tasty. My Baptisia were pretty promptly munched down to about 2 inches and something particularly liked the Purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea) and Prairie Bush clover (Lespedeza captitata).

There are a lot of wild crabapples growing in the back yard too, and they have lots of sticky thorny branches. Next year, the plan is to cut lots of Crabapple sticks, about 1-2 feet long. I'll cut the ends at an angle so they can be stuck into the ground, then surround the seedlings with rings of thorny sticks, like a little biodegradable fence. Hopefully this will discourage the critters from nibbling at least until the plants have enough time to get established and can take some grazing.

It could be earwigs... they do a lot of damage to young plants at night too.