I ws'd compass plant from seed 5 years ago. Can give you seeds from last years flower. I had to wait 4 years for a flower, but it might have been in a really dry area and could bloom earlier for you if you give it more attention than I did. Last year the flower stalks got at least 10 foot tall. I moved it to a place that gets less sun and they're only about 4 foot this year. Happy surprise - they have a long tap root and I was worried about moving it, but it came back without a problem in its new home - AND - the tap root left behind is growing a new plant in the old location!

In a garden, many prairie plants and many wildflowers in general tend to get too tall, grow too quickly, and fall over. The soft soil in gardens doesn't help. plus the large size of the plants, soft stems, and young root systems common in gardens all add to the problem. The main problem is that too much fertilizer and too much water and too little competition allow the plants to grow too much. To avoid this I would never fertilize prairie plants in a garden and try to keep the soil very lean. However, if the garden has been used for gardening or as a lawn you may already have too much fertilizer and the problem may continue for years. Avoid watering even if your plants wilt, unless you have young plants that might not yet be able to survive a hard drought. If you can't avoid excessively fast growth, you can cut most plants back without seriously delaying flowering if you cut a couple of months before flowering. This means it may be too late to cut back plants this year, but maybe next year it will work. I cut a few of my oversized plants back to about 2 feet tall once they have grown to about four feet tall, typically in June.

I'm not as extreme as you are, Wantonmara, but I only watered the yard once or twice a month and the potted plants got by with weekly waterings. I've got the lovely black clay soil that Dallas has, with little of it amended. I did water my rosemary occasionally when I watered the potted plants, it's still getting established and I wanted it to grow. I lost my thyme, lavender, and Mexican oregano, I think to heat and possibly being left out in too much sun for the amount of water that I gave them. I may have lost one of my guaras, but the other one is coming back. The Carefree Beauty rose did just fine. In the front I tried to put in a row of pincushion flowers that I started from seed and a row of cosmos. One of each survived the summer, the pincushion really took off over the winter. My iris is blooming, the Lady in Red salvias reseeded and didn't die so they may be coming back from the base, too. The cenizo and salvia greggii came through just fine, although the latter has some bare spots that I thought were dead but the wood's still green. The Henry Deuhlberg salvias were so happy that they gave me two volunteers during the summer/fall. The Mystic Spires Blue salvia did fine, although the blue salvias did slow down flower production during the intense heat. The althea that I planted last spring survived without me remembering that I needed to water it (it gets afternoon shade from the house). I'm waiting on the lantanas to start growing again, but they all still had green wood when I cut them back. I did lose the silver ponyfoot, probably not enough water and too much sun. Most likely, I lost even more grass in the backyard...guess that'll be the next project. :)

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.