We have a lot of Lava rock in my area. It's adds to a garden but if they are going to be placed where kids can climb on them or you will work around them keep in mind that they are very abrasive and will rub the skin right off you. They are like emory boards. We have red and black lava rock, the red is coarser but both have the problem. I think they would look great together. I can't say any rock would look bad, I love all rocks...

Hey Zozz-that looks great! Love the rest of your photos too. I'm the same, offer me something free, and I'll figure out a way to use it. The color contrast of the rock and plants is very pleasing!

Thanks - I think the rocks were the problem also. I never used them before, or since, and haven't had any significant losses. I do sterilize my pots cleaning them carefully with a bleach/water solution before using them. I just wasn't sure whether it was the lava rock or not. I guess it was rocks in general. I probably wouldn't have used them at all except I ran out of smaller pots and was trying to save on potting mix. Last year I bought a huge bag of a bark mix from my home-town nursery. It is what he uses in his pot-ups. It is hard not to notice that when you buy a potted plant there are no rocks, chips etc. in the bottom. I probably wouldn't even use the coffee filters except with 30 or more plants they are everywhere I don't want potting mix running out. Generally I avoid using dirt, but I tried to conserve $ spent on a prepaired mix. My thinking may have been flawed since I was just housing dormant plants during the cold of winter when the mix would have been biologically dormant also in freezing temperatures. I felt I was just trying to keep them from dessicating. Paul - that was a great link. I forgot to mention my soil was infused with a lot of pearlite. This wicking makes sense. The potting mix with its small particles has greater surface area than the rock so gravity is overcome by the wicking, thereby retainging water. Since I was simply overwintering the plants they were dormant and not using the wicked water up, thereby they became water logged. duh on me. Ken-I don't "insist" on any such thing. I only used the rock in 4 pots out of 34, and have overwintered a hundred or more in the past without rocks and with little loss. It seems the problem was using rocks in general rather than specifically lava rocks. Needless to say I haven't used rocks since.

We used black lava rock for our backyard landscaping project 2 or 3 years ago and love it. We bought the rock in bulk at wal-mart. However we just expanded the project and need more rock and can not find it anywhere here in the midwest. Did you have any luck finding it?