Well, looks like the last chance for any rain this spring here in north Orange County just fizzled out. There was a 30% chance for rain predicted for this morning but not a single drop fell and skies are clear. I am putting a thick layer of mulch around all my plants but my fruit trees have almost no leaves as its too hard to deep water on a hillside. Only thing that will really wet the hill is a long prolonged rain which we haven't had in three years. It will now cost more to just keep them alive with water than the fruit they produce is worth.

We had a bit in Athens today, enough to make the ground ready for more, keep it coming! best ever weather site- http://www.wunderground.com/ Being a Yankee, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes make me a bit edgy. This site shows storms and where they are expected to go, rainfall totals and a bunch of stuff I like to look at just because the info is there (echo tops etc.). wishing you all wet weather! m

I don't know why this thing double posted. It usually gives me trouble if I post more than once. Thanks Rita, Your day lilies probably do already look better. I didn't get as much rain as I would like, or even as much as I needed ( we got 8/10 of an inch) but every bit helps, and watering doesn't compare to rain. kay

Dry rootballs are often the result of textural differences between the soilless potting medium or claylike field soil the plants came from the nursery in and the soil on the new site. If the rest of the bed was moist with the heucheras only being dry then it was something like that - something involving the heucheras specifically - and not the overall conditions. This should have been apparent when these were dug and pulled apart(?) but heucheras specifically are prone to weevil larvae gnawing the roots off and leaving a sort of nearly rootless husk sitting on top of the ground, unable to keep itself turgid without diligent watering - and maybe not even then. The same thing is common here with primroses.