planted last year from what size ... seed or larger??? .. any chance at a pic????

ken

+1 to Ken’s questions. Also does it perk up after watering and not in the sun?

It is more common than you think and is generally associated with stem rot. First the unopened buds begin to droop or nod and eventually they just rot at the bend in the stem. These are prairie wildflowers by nature and prefer a very lean, well drained soil and conditions on the dry side. A too rich or a too moisture retentive soil can lead to various fungal issues. You often see the same thing happening with potted echs here in nurseries with the container medium being on the richer/wetter side. High summer humidity can also produce similar results.

Summers are humid here... also, the bed is located in an area that is particularly moist/humid... my BES suffer from some sort of black leaf issue... posted last year and people remarked that it looked like some kind of fungus... the echs get no more than 6 hours sun (maybe less)

maybe I need to plant a differnet kind of ech? the white ones are white swan...

Oh, and they were purchased as small (4"?) container plants...

What about obedient plant, culvers root or boneset ? White good aster and heart leaf aster might be OK there too.

to be honest, most of the flowers are ok... they are still upright... and I haven't seen a worsening... I may have overreacted... we'll see

thnks

Mine do well in much less sun.

Just give them more time to toughen up, I think they will be fine :)