I am going to take a (not so) wild guess here that this member of the asteraceae family will be absolutely fine, regrowing from the base and flowering 3 weeks later than the other ones. Although silphium is a new one to me (I have first year seedlings on the go) I regularly abuse my rudbeckias, asters, phlox (not asters I know but) with a cutback at the end of May in order to maintain a sturdy framework which does not need staking. I honestly would expect this robust plant to be utterly undaunted by its early prune.

unless it was a 2 inch seedling.. i doubt if it was a bird ... probably one of the furry vermin ...

there arent many things.. that die.. due to being cut down ... especially on a plant that is not newly planted ...

ken

It was about a 6" bare root last fall... And had grown about 12-16" tall before it got broken off. So I just don't know if it had exhausted all its energy shooting that up.

ill hold off on replacing it then, I'll watch and see what happens. Probably don't need to give it any extra water or anything right? Just ignore it?

my cup plant on the other hand came out of nowhere and is as big as a bush already. It's very cool.

I grow this plant and I just dumped into some clay and it disappeared during the hot summer the first year and IO forgot to water it. It came back the second year and bloomed fine and it is now on its third year. I can't tell you if it will come back this year in Virginia in average garden conditions. I am a cruel and forgetful mother in hot limey Texas. It might return where you are this year. But it will definitely come back next year. I also grow S. gracilis. It is 6'+. . It has been growing through a decade and more of abuse.

You all were right, and thanks for saving me some cash replacing it... It did nothing for several weeks, but now there's 2 little green shoots coming up from the... Crown?... Whatever it's called... Looks exactly like the top nub of a carrot.