Poke around in the dirt and see how damp it is. I would only keep them moist, not sodden.

Hi Kath! I just went out to check, and the stems are nice and light brown. And there are just as many (sickly) leaves at the base of the stem as along it. The ironic thing is plant looks like it NEEDS water, (i.e., the leaves and buds are limp and shriveled like an unwatered plant left out in the hot sun) even though I had soaked it every day on a shady porch. In fact a neighbor insisted I was not watering it enough! The day I got the plant I moved it to a larger hanging planter. It was somewhat rootbound and a large mass of healthy looking small white roots were visible on the surface of the root ball. I repotted it yesterday (~3 weeks later). The dirt ball from the original planter no longer had white roots on its surface. I didn't poke around too much 'cause I didn't want to stress it anymore. At this point the plant is in pretty bad shape. My family is having some laughs at my expense - calling me a "fuchsia killer" and claiming that our porch is haunted. It is sort of stunning how fast the plant went from glorious to "next-to-dead". While the leaves and buds are SO limp and dead looking, at this point the branches are still live "green wood" (i.e., not brittle). Should I cut the plant back in hopes that with less plant for the (remaining) roots to support it might re-grow. Or just hold tight. Thanks for your help, Helen

Puna includes a lot of area, from sealevel to nearly 4000 feet; some areas are dryish, others soggy. Its all on lava, which cracks and provides good drainage in most areas. Most puddles occur in the middle of roads. I would avoid obvious stream and meadow areas (no trees generally mean trees don't grow well there). You need to figure out the requirements of the plants you want, then match the area to those needs.

" will this rain cause them to rot?" Soggy soil that takes longer then a day to drain often causes dahlia tubers to rot. Dig down to the same level as your tubers (a foot away so you don't hurt their feeder roots), and see if water gathers in your hole. If so, you have a drainage problem. The tubers have 'breathing holes' called lenticels along the sides, and when too wet for a prolonged period of time, often expand to spongy slits that can look quite alarming. Other then making it difficult to write on the tuber after dividing in the fall, the bumps are harmless. But they DO act as a warning sign, when caught early enough, that the soil is too wet for too long. (technically, the lenticels "functions as a pore, providing a pathway for the direct exchange of gases between the internal tissues and atmosphere" through the outer skin of the tuber) Digging trenches around your beds can give the water somewhere to go, other then around the tubers. Raised beds are good, as well. In low areas of my garden, I do both, digging trenches and mounding the excess soil up 6 inches so the tubers can be planted at ground-level. Often I see water sitting in the trenches, and I haven't lost tubers to rotting since I've implemented that double technique. What would be better yet is if I had a place to drain that water farther away from the beds.