5 Reasons Your Perennial Flowers Didn’t Come Back This Year

We plant perennials so that we can rely on them to keep the garden blooming and beautiful year after year. When spring rolls around, and they don’t come back to life, it can be a major disappointment. After all, the whole reason for adding them to your landscape is to enjoy them long-term. 

Perennials serve more than one purpose in the garden. They create a foundation of foliage and flowers, so in an ornamental sense, they are valuable. Meanwhile, they provide food for local pollinators and birds, especially if you plant native plants. They also help to prevent erosion of the soil, which protects your home and other structures on your property. 

When those plants that we expect to be perennial end up being annuals after all, there is typically an underlying reason. Let’s look at some of the most likely possibilities why your perennial flowers didn’t come back, and see if any of these apply to the plant you lost. 

They Weren’t Right for Your Environment

The first thing to address when figuring out why your perennial flowers didn’t come back is whether they’re suited for your climate and environment. Just because the nursery carries it doesn’t necessarily mean it thrives in your climate. 

For example, a tropical hibiscus will grow in roughly zones 9-12. At the upper reaches, a cold winter could do them in. If you’re a zone 7 gardener, tropicals are not going to work out for you unless you grow them in containers and bring them in for the winter. Most tropicals are not root hardy, so one decent freeze will kill them altogether. 

Likewise, many spring-blooming bulbs require a certain amount of cold to survive. They may come back in part, but they’re unlikely to bloom if they don’t get that cold period. 

Tulips grow best in zones 3-8, where winters are cold, and the ground freezes and thaws. In zone 9, they may come back, but they won’t thrive. However, in zone 10, there’s little to no chance they will return in the spring. In this instance, you can dig up the bulbs and store them in the refrigerator over the winter. This will give them the chill they need to bloom again in the spring. 

Various fruit trees require a certain number of chill hours. Like tulips, they need this cold weather in order to set buds. Your apple tree might grow foliage and be a pretty tree, but if it doesn’t get enough chill hours, there will be little to no fruit. 

If you haven’t already, find out what climate zone you live in. Then, find out what zones the plant in question can survive in. If those don’t match up, you have the most likely answer to why it failed to thrive. 

They Reached the End of Their Lifespan

Carrying the perennial label doesn’t necessarily mean that a plant will live forever. Many perennial flowers have a lifespan that you can more or less count on. While some plants may outlive the average lifespan, the majority will fall in or around a similar range. 

Perennials that carry the label of short-lived typically live for three to five years. If yours lived for about this long and then simply didn’t bounce back this year, it may just have died of natural causes. Long-lived indicates a lifespan of ten years or more. 

One other category sometimes finds its way into this group, and that is the biennial. Biennials live for two years, although occasionally, one may stick around for a third. Many of them put on green growth in the first year and produce flowers in the second. Many will re-seed themselves, though, so they can return in that manner in the coming years if the conditions are right. 

They Didn’t Get Enough Water

Underwatering can be another cause of perennial flowers that don’t come back. While most plants need less water over the winter, during dormancy, they do need some to survive. They also need an adequate amount during the summer when heat causes water to evaporate faster. 

Consider the plant’s condition before its normal dormancy. Did it dry out over the summer and lose those leaves early? If it looked dead at the end of the previous summer, there is a chance that it didn’t get adequate moisture. 

On the other hand, too much water can also cause death. Overwatering can leave roots susceptible to fungus. This causes roots to rot, disabling them from delivering water and nutrients to the upper portions. Drainage is important for most plants, and a lack thereof is a leading cause of death for many. 

If you want a more comprehensive picture, dig up those roots and take a closer look. Rotten roots will be mushy and dark and fall apart easily in your hands. Dry roots will be lighter in color, shriveled, and brittle. 

You Had a Particularly Harsh Winter

This hearkens back to climate zones, as weather can be unpredictable. For example, here in zone 9, we experienced an arctic blast this winter. We had a significantly colder period than is common here, and it snowed in Florida! 

Many tropicals claim to be hardy in zone 9. But I’ve already determined that my shampoo ginger is unlikely to come back this year because of the cold. Fluctuations that are outside of normal for your zone can make a difference, particularly if you are at the bottom or top of that plant’s range. 

To make this determination, find out where your plant falls in terms of cold tolerance. Then, consider your most recent winter weather. Was this an exceptionally cold winter? That may be the culprit.

Now, I want to take a moment to give this disclaimer. Not everything that looks dead truly is. A few years back, we had a similar cold snap that knocked every leaf off my Meyer lemon tree. I thought for sure it was a goner; citrus trees are pretty sensitive. 

Well, I butchered that tree and cut the branches back severely, thinking some small part of it might still have life in it. It looked pretty bad for a few months, and there was no fruit that year, but wouldn’t you know it? It came back all the way, and this year, it grew a bumper crop of tasty lemons. 

The moral of that story is, don’t rush to dig things up or cut them down just because the top looks dead. If you had a colder-than-usual winter season, give things a little extra time to recover. Some of those perennials may surprise you!

Pests and Diseases

This last one could be difficult to determine once the perennial flower is dead. However, you can still look for signs and make a relatively certain determination. Pests or diseases are another possibility that we should consider if the other factors don’t seem to line up. 

There are a few indicators to look for to determine the possibility of a disease. One is leftover dead leaves. A healthy plant will lose its leaves in the fall, but one that has begun to die may not release the foliage as usual. Dried, dead leaves clinging to branches can indicate this issue. 

Look for discolorations or irregularities on the bark or branches. Some diseases leave behind telltale signs like rust spots, dark rings, and galls that ooze liquid. 

Think back to the specimen’s condition during the preceding fall. Were there signs of a general decline in health? If the leaves wilted or turned yellow or the branches were dying back before the cold set in, these are indications of a disease.

Pests are tricky because once the host is dead, they will leave it in search of other food. However, you can look for signs left behind by an infestation. 

Black sooty mold is a sign of a pest infestation, as it grows in the excrement they leave behind. It interferes with photosynthesis and can cause whole-plant death. Spider mites leave behind fine webbing on their hosts, and some insects leave behind cast skins. 

When no foliage is present, it’s difficult to determine whether pests are the cause of death. Most often, this is where they feed and where signs of their damage are most obvious. However, if all other conditions are in order, this is a potential reason why your perennial didn’t rebound this year.