my cardoon was growing so perfectly all winter. the leaves were huge and in early march it slowly began to fail and finally collapse. does anyone have and ideas. it did begin to have sooty mold and i did find lots of pill bugs around it.

i cleaned up all mulch around it and took out all dying and wilted leaves plus cut back all wilted leaves. perhaps should't have done that. the one photo shows the collapse, the red line around the cut back cardoon shows the stalk that had previously been hidden by huge leaves, about 2" around and 5" tall. anyone have any ideas as to what happened?

i would add that the poor thing does seem to be firmly rooted - thought of digging up and potting it. either way i don't have much hope for this one. i'm really bummed out. ordered 2 new ones from forest farm.

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