Rudbeckia shrivelling up

I have three clumps of around half-dozen rudbeckia. One-by-one the plants are dying. The leaves turn browm and shrivel and so do the flowers. I thought drought but the ground is damp.

 

Often when plants do this its some kind of basal fungal problem right at ground level.
Check the stem where it joins the roots, it might have signs of fungal attack.

 

I have had the same problem in the past and with tithonia too. I have had to pull up whole plants as they go crispy. Such a shame. So what can we do about this?

 

Are you judging the level of moisture by that meter? Many of them really aren't very accurate, and there looks to be a lot of planting round about them so perhaps they're much drier than you think. They do go like that anyway as they mature, especially if there's lots of them.

The foliage curls and yellows and flowers go over quickly the more dense the planting is, especially if they go short of water. It's pretty much like any annual/perennial.

 

I would try digging one up and having a look at the rootball.
Another thing to consider is that the roots weren't "teased out" when planting and they are just sitting in the same clump as they were in the original pot. Even if the surrounding soil is wet, no moisture can penetrate the roots, especially if they were pot bound to begin with.

 

Thank you for your replies. From additional research it looks like it's Verticillium wilt. There's no cure or treatment. I will be carefully removing the complete plants, bagging them up and binning. Very sad :-(

 

Are you in the USA or similar @trailguru ? I've never heard of rudbeckias getting that in the UK.

 

I'm in the UK. It looks like some nearby Eryngium are also affected. The RHS website has a list of susceptible plants.

 

I'm glad you have identified this problem @trailguru. I haven't grown rudbeckia or tithonia for some years. Maybe I will have another go next year.

 

I love Rudbeckia but find they only seem to last a couple of years here. Never understood why

 

Many aren't true perennials, and lots are annual, or bi-ennial, so that's possibly why @Butterfly6 . Perhaps you've only grown certain types. I think it's only the fulgida ones that are true perennials

Easy enough from seed though, which are the ones I've always done, although the slugs are always a threat, and Ilost the few that I started this year.
I've just been perusing again recently....sigh...

 

That’s interesting @fairygirl, I’ll have a look and see which ones my alleged perennials were. I’ve fallen in love with the Gloriosa Daisy ones, after getting some free with a magazine. Our second year growing them this year. We lost a few to slugs but not too many. ​