We've had a luxuriant patch of monarda, probably Jacob Klein, for around 20 years, maybe longer. It spread and didn't require weeding and bloomed gloriously. This year it didn't even sprout. I know perennials don't live forever, but would they all die off at once? Presumably there were plants of all ages there. And no weeds grew in that plot this spring or summer. That's weird. I've included one photo from its heyday and 3 from this week.
Any idea what happened?????
tia
las
Not sure what caused the demise of your Monarda but it was likely not old age. In perennials that decline with age, the process is usually gradual with vigor and flowering declining in the last few years of life. Perennials like Monarda that regenerate new growth via stolons are generally self-perpetuating as long as they don't become overcrowded or overgrown by competing plants.
So it looks as if your Monarda may have been killed by external factors. In warmer climates, a likely suspect would be crown rot/Sclerotium but it probably doesn't get hot enough in your area for that (but maybe w/climate change it does?) Another possibility is a pest such as voles or grubs that ate the roots.
One more thing... did you have any extreme weather last winter? For instance, usually you have a gradual transition to colder weather, with insulating snow on the ground during the coldest parts of the winter. But this past spring, did you have less snow cover and/or warm weather followed by hard freezes which could have killed the relatively shallow roots of the Monarda?
