Two comments: the first picture - I have seen Cercis flower along the main trunk and major branches like this, especially when the plant has been stressed the previous season. I have both C. canadensis and C. reniformis and they both do this. Secondly, the fuzzy picture looks similar to a Liatris species as the flowers are just beginning to extend themselves. If the photos are current, kind of early for Liatris, however. hortster Here is a link that might be useful:

I had a plant do the same thing last year! It looks kind of orange in this picture, but it was a small sickly brown flower. I was really bummed. I did absolutely nothing special, just treated the plant as I did all my others. This year was a different story. Here's a close up - with a couple still looking kind of sickly. I never figured it out, but maybe the same will happen for you.

Skyler Nurseries will recommend what they have to sell, and sometimes the person you are talking to doesn't really know any better. If you look at list of ingredients on the bag, you could judge...if there is lots of peat and/or forest products (or something similar), it is likely too water retaining. Best mix for succulents would be one that contains lots of inorganic and larger particulates: grit, perlite, turface, scoria, pumice...The size should be just a touch smaller than grit you see in the photo above: that is #3 chicken grit that is suitable for topdressing. Look for size #2 or 'growers grit', it is available in farm feed/supply stores. Other ingredients should be as close in size as possible. If you find it confusing and expensive, you could try adding perlite at minimum 50/50 ratio, or even more perlite. There is no point adding just a little, it won't help anything. Perlite is available at many stores and is quite inexpensive. Btw, it is less expensive to make own mix, in the long run, but buying ingredients in very small quantities ends up being more expensive.

Hi, I have the same problem. Did anyone manage to give you advice on this? Is it maybe heat stress, or is it spreading?