Verbascums don't need too much water. Are you overwatering?

Push gently on the soil. Voles or chipmunks tunneling under a plant can cause this.

I over watered it... It is planted next to arundo and arundo loves water...

Hope it recovers... I was looking forward to the yellow candles with all kinds of bees hovering over them

It is quite short lived and may not live much beyond flowering so maybe start some more?

I've had them do that from too much rain. I wish I had good news about its chances...

it is the perfect time to start seeds for next year tho

That doesn't look as bad as I thought, there might be some hope if things dry out. How's the arundo though? Now that one will be a cool plant, I think I see a bit of the leaf in your photo.

And here's another picture of the entire bed -

the arundo loved the additional water and has new sprouts out of the ground -

That looks promising, the arundo will be an amazing monster in no time at all and the banana looks very happy as well. I like how you plant :)

Is it 'Peppermint stick'? I think I see a Santa Rosa tag there, mine from there didn't make it through the winter, but we don't have quite the long summer like NC does.

Yes, that is Peppermint Stick from Santa Rosa. I also got a Arundo variegata at the Fall sale at SRG last year and put it in part shade - it did not come back this year..

The banana is musa velutina - very hardy here and bloomed last year. It was planted in May and bloomed in July. It has grown into a large clump with several pups. I have it in 2 spots and it grows very fast. The blooms and pink bananas are awesome. Here are pictures from last year -

Some more pictures from last year - these show the arundo more clearly..

are you adding potting MEDIA to mother earth??

why??

that may be complicating your watering problem???

whats your base soil???

ken

Base soil is clay. I add a handful of Miracle Grow Garden soil to the clay and mix it in when I plant anything into the ground to make the transition from the potting mix used in the nursery to native clay easier.
I realize I erred in watering the verbascum. And the error got compounded by all the rain we have had in the last few days. Anyways, I hope for the best and if it doesnt survive, I will order some seeds in a couple of weeks..

Thanks for your comments. I purchased the verbascum last year from Annie's annuals, so it is/was in its second year. It looks like it might survive...

How do I send you a message?

I see you also have the variegated Iris - I bought that last year but it somehow died..

I give up. I can't find a spot to start a new message, I wonder if that feature is no longer available...

Anyway, send me an email, the address is itoldyouso1.2and3 at gmail.com

The iris is very nice, I had both the yellow and the white variegated but the white tended to go dormant for the summer and wasn't as good a grower. the yellow is a lot easier.

katob and nchomegarden, here's how to deal with messages. You have to turn on an option on your page:

Go to Your Houzz in the upper right of every page, click Edit Profile, and on the left side click advanced settings. Well down the advanced settings page is a dropdown menu labeled Who can message me. In the dropdown menu change this option to Allow anyone to message me.

Then return to the top of the page and click Done Editing.

Once it's turned on, click on the person's name to get their GW/Houzz page, and there will be white oval Message button on the upper right side of the person's page.

Thanks, Babs. I just updated my profile. However, if I view my public profile, I dont see a message button. Hopefully, anyone else who view my profile can see the button. In any case, I sent an email to katob.

I can see the message button, so you are good to go.

Thanks Babs, I was in my messages and trying to send from there, so was frustrated when no 'send new message' option came up. I didn't realize I needed to click on the recipients account and find it there.

I was starting to feel a little dense and am not quite sure how I sent the other messages!