I would have expected to see some signs of new growth by now. but give it to mid may and see if it does anything in the next 2 weeks. you could gently scrape away the soil around last year's stems and see if you can see any new growth.

You should certainly see new growth now.

I did think that. Especially as the winter has not been too severe. I thought there would be some green shoots. I'll see if I can clear some soil from around it. Does it normally die back completely during winter and break from below the soil?

my other rudbekia dies down totally so I suspect this will too.

Thanks, Seaburngirl.

Being herbaceous perennials, they all die back to the ground completely and the old stems are dead. I have 'Indian Summer' which already has its new basal fuzzy leaves out.

You should have signs of growth by now, it may be worth lifting it to see if it’s an under lying problem like vine weval grubs, seen a few Heuchera in recent weeks that have had their roots decimated so worth a look.

I dunno... I'm in London and my Rudbeckia never shows itself till May, sometimes even June... i

Is this plant affected by vine weevil too? I had a problem with weevils in the front garden, but not at the back. Now am wondering if they could have migrated. There was no sign of them on the plant last year.

Well, looks like this is a casualty. Drew away some soil around the neck of the plant and there is no sign of any life. I am inclined to go back to the garden centre where I bought this from last July and complain.

The thing I noticed with my Rudbeckia was that it seemed to ,move... it would appear a distance away from where it was originally planted, and in the years when it was late to appear, the weather was usually pretty dry.

An update on this one. Sadly, my rudbeckia had not decided to move like Bamboo's. :) It has died. I excavated it and did a post mortem on it. The roots around the root ball seemed immature and had died off. They were not well developed at all. However, the core root plug from which the plant had been grown was still tight and firm. I actually think this plant died of drought during the autumn/winter period. Let me explain more........

When purchased, the plant was well developed. Like most nowadays, it was sold during July with full blooms on it. After planting it, I realised that watering around the plant did little good. It would hang and look very sorry for itself. So, the only way to keep the plant happy was to pour water - without a rose - directly into the neck of the plant. Even then, it was taking watering 2/3 times per day to keep the stems upright. Admittedly, it was a warm summer, but the plant was in one of the more sheltered parts of the garden. Soooo, the root system has not developed well and come winter, the ground has not been so wet as to penetrate far enough or adequately to that core plug.

Make any sense?

Yep, makes total sense - as I said, my Rudbeckia was usually shy about starting into growth, and being in London, I suspect it was because the soil wasn't damp enough for it to be very happy. I think mine continued (albeit a few inches away and less of it) because it was originally a large clump from another garden, not a potted one, but likely the main clump had died out through insufficient water. It did seem to like regular supplies of moisture, which it often did not get. I was also growing it in heavy soil in part shade - it actually prefers rich, loamy soil in full sun and does need the 'moist but well drained' conditions for the first year or two. Its supposed to be fairly drought resistant after the first year or two though...

Thank's Bamboo. I think I will return to the garden centre about this. It was not an expensive plant, but neither was it dirt cheap, so I am rather annoyed by this. Modern garden centres always want to sell plants in flower rather than stock them before they flower and allow you to establish them properly. So, I think that they need to be aware of these issues.

Oh, my pet moan, that one - I hate garden centres for that very reason, everything is only available if its got berries or flowers or whatever, when its looking its absolute best, largely because they can charge a lot more for them then. And let's face it, if your plant dies, you'll go back and get something else to replace it with, so they don't mind that at all. I get most of my plants on line now, where you can still buy plants out of their flowering season... either that or visit a proper nursery if there's one nearby, they have everything available year round.

Here in the US, rudbeckia is considered a prairie plant and thrives in harsh conditions - brutally cold snowy winters, dry hot summers, rocky, sandy poor soil. Very little bothers it. They self seed readily so see if you have any wayward seedlings popping up around the place that you can rescue. That's if it had flowered at least one. They don't like rich fertile loamy soil and fertilizer can actually kill it. No fertilizer for this one. Try to duplicate a prairie setting. It's also possible you purchased a sick plant and it was doomed from the start. You can't always see it when you just buy it. That's not your fault. That's happened to me. Two things that would kill it is poor drainage & insufficient sun. Prolonged wetness will cause root rot. They have their place in my garden and they want nothing from me at all. They just bloom all summer until frost. I grew my own rudbeckias from seeds so I know I started with strong healthy plants and they just took off and bloomed the first year I put them out. Very rewarding.

Bathgate? You are in the US? I thought you were along the M8 from me in West Lothian!!!! :)

The soil was actually in pretty decent condition. One of the more fertile parts of the garden, actually. I had thought at the time of planting that it would survive there is it was going to thrive anywhere. But maybe I was being too good to it.

'Proper' nurseries are becoming hard to find here now, Bamboo. It is a real shame as we had a local one that was excellent. He was famed for his roses and hs other stock was excellent. Sadly, the business closed because they could no longer compete with the large chains popping up everywhere.

I'm a Native New Yorker, Fordham Grad. I live on Long Island, I work in Midtown in Business Development for a large global financial firm.

Yea, I know nurseries are closing - they don't get enough trade these days, its very sad. Most of the plants I order come from the Midlands or up north, where there do seem to be some nurseries carrying on - probably because they've had the sense to set up internet sales.

I should probably explain, Bathgate. Over here there is a town called Bathgate in West Lothian. It is situated close to the motorway M8. I had always assumed that was where you had taken you name from. I live and learn.

I've heard that before, but it's just the name of the street I lived on at the time.

Well, I was back at that garden centre today and took the opportunity to speak with the manager. To be quite frank, he wasn't really interested. I made my points about the plant being poorly developed beyond the root plug stage but he simply said that sometimes nature takes its course. At that I bristled considering the rather mild and reasonably dry winter we have had in this area.
He certainly did not offer to replace the plant. Sadly, there are really few other options locally now.
Oh well.

That's unfortunate. I've started purchasing more and more plants online. It's in their best interest to send me the best stock possible and they normally do. I enjoy having plants delivered to my doorstep, but still enjoy a stroll through the garden center now and then.