What happened to my lambsear

I had a beautiful lambsear in my rock garden. It had more than tripled its size in the last three months. We went away for two days and when I came home it was flattened out and instead of being a soft beautiful green it was now a soft clump of brown. I was told we had an extremely hard rain but would that kill it so quickly? Is it gone for good or can I just clear off the top and wait until next spring for it to come back

If it had bad drainage, yes it could die off htat quickly. Is it possible some person or critter stepped on it when it was vulnerable?

It may come back from the roots. I would trim off the yuccky stuff and let it be until next spring.

The same thing has happened to one of the plants in my gravel bed, and for sure drainage is not a problem there. I'm not sure what the plant is, but the label says "Lamiacae sp. aff. molucella", and it has sage-like leaves on low, spreading branches. It bloomed all summer (lilac flowers in green bracts), looked fine all through a couple of hot, very dry weeks, then turned brown from the center outwards after it rained. My guess would be heat/drought stress, followed by fungus invasion, but I'd be interested to hear other theories.

June

the same thing happened to me. I posted a question months ago and no answer. mine was planted inground, with a little morning sun and mostly bright shade. After growing well to almost triple its size, it turned into a brown mess rather quickly. I will be shocked if it comes back. I thought this was supposed to be a vigorous, almost weed-like plant!

Everytime we have a bad rain, mine just "melts away" like that. But it does come back. The ears really do not like to be wet and they just kinda dissolve. But the plant doesn't really die. It will send up more babies that get big quickly. It looks bad, though, doesn't it?

On the other hand, it is hard not to like a plant that provides its own mulch, and is extremely attractive to earthworms. I am using some to build "plant guilds" in areas that need more earthworm action.

I have been told by a nurseryman that a period of relative drought followed by copious amounts of rain really, really stresses some plants. It's just all too sudden. I guess it's just one of those things that gardeners (and farmers) can't really control. I think I just lost some bearded irises to a two-inches-over-three-days rain, even in fairly well-drained soil. It just stayed wet for too long.

Joan

If anyone wants some replacement lambsear, I currently have them for trade
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/643520/

Let me know ASAP with your address by dmail, I am shipping them this week.

Thanks for all the replies. I will trim it back and just wait and see. It had been very hot for a couple of weeks with no rain and then the heavens opened up for two days straight - so I just hope it comes back because it is so pretty even when it is not blooming.