A few years ago I planted black eye susan on one side of the arbor and morning glory on the other. They looked nice for most of the summer, but I never really got the black eye susan up the arbor (mostly due to laziness) and it stopped flowering abruptly at the end of August (didn't use any fertilizer). Personally I thought it looked beautiful for a few months.

Those black eye susan which bloomed last summer grow so slowly this year, while the new one which I sow their seeds last fall grow so fast and almost ready to bloom. Is it natural this way? I also noticed that other perennials which bloomed have a die-back condition, whereas who did not bloom remain green through winter. Is this because those who bloomed need more time to recuperate and store their energy back to their roots, so the green leave grow slower? Thanks

I live in North Central PA. My Rudbekia that are doing wonderful are in mostly shade. They look great this year. My Rudbekia that is in full sun are having difficulty this year. Rudbekia like to have their roots heavily watered and then dry, and the heavily watered. I would not recommend moving the plant if the leaves look healthy. I would give it a good drink of compost tea, once a month until first frost. If you don't have compost you can use Mircle grow for flowers and veggies. It most likely didn't bloom because the soil needs conditioning. I had the same problem the peonies I planted last year. They look great and healthy but they didn't bloom this year. Then I realized that I planted them in the same area with my early spring bulbs which I heavily fertilized with a custom blend to promote root growth. The soil was out of balance so the plants focused on root growth instead of flowering. Too late for this year but, next year will be geat.

catherinet: I know of no way to increase the female flowers over the male flowers. I must say I too am having a bad year on winter squash as well. I planted 3 varieties and as soon as 6" long I started spraying for vine borer on a weekly basis for 3 weeks. Sad news is it seemed to rain just after every spraying. I have lost my Jumbo pink banana squash to borers. I will not grow that variety again as it seems the worst for attracting borers. My Myrtle Anderson sweet potato squash is growing well and despite some borer damage has a nice crop that is ripening well already. A definite winner for me. I also grew bush delicata squash. The delicata flowered like crazy yet almost all were male flowers. They are done flowering now. Sad to report I got only 1 fruit per vine set. That fruit is huge but still I am very disappointed in the lack of female flowers. I grew bush delicata last year and had much better results. Next year I will try some bush butternuts and will be growing Myrtle Anderson's sweet potato squash again. Here's to a better squash season for 2020!