I'm in Montreal, and my coneflowers have been up for weeks.

When did you plant them? They may not have had time to become established and settle down before the winter hit. Plants need several weeks to prepare for dormancy. When planted they would have gone through a growth spurt - if that growth spurt occurred while the plants should have been settling down they would not have been able to survive the winter.

If you planted the in an area that's not well drained, they might have rotted with all the melting snow we had.

Also, some of the newer, fancy coneflowers are just not very sturdy plants. You might have done everything right and they might just have been too fussy.

BP

Thanks for your response fellow Montrealer ...
Well that's disappointing I guess, they just died if I don't see anything yet.

Should I just dig them up to see ?

Did you top dress them heavily? If you did, it would take time for growth to reach the surface.

They are just about 6 inches below surface and I actually dug one up and it had a white and green sprout ?!?

6 inches is pretty deep for coneflowers, mine are just below the soil with an inch of mulch (I add more for the winter, but remove it in the spring). They may just be taking their time, especially if you do see some growth when you dig down.

BP

Thanks for the assurance ... I guess just wait and see over the next couple of weeks as I may have overdone it on the depth.