Yes, I suspect it's too much water, too. In fact, we've been getting TONS of rain and mine is really water-logged, too, so I think I'll go right out and move it where it will dry out! Anyway, I cut mine clear back to a few inches above the caudex last summer because my dog knocked something right on top of it, squashing the foliage. It had been cut back a few years ago and had 3 heads of foliage on it. This spring, it has sprouted 8 new heads of foliage and is looking pretty darned good. I've had mine quite a few years and it's in a 10" pot with about a 6.5" caudex. But I also have one at my business I bought a few years ago, large to begin with, that's well over a foot in diameter. I have another here at home that has four bulbs still attached to each other. That one's kind of neat, too. They're pretty common, but I find them hard to resist! Denise in Omaha

Thanks a lot for the compliment Bananafan! I appreciate it! I definitely try to make the best of my climate. Luckily there is a lot of moisture year round by me so that does give me the opportunity to grow a lot of vegetation. Every year I get more and more species of plants, it's hard to keep up with them all after a while, but so far I've managed pretty well. Not sure what purple sedum you are referring to (is it the purple heat vine?), but that, the arborvitae and the passion vine are all cold hardy here so they are one of the easier plants for me to grow! Arborvitaes are a little bit overused here so I'd rather have something else in my yard other than them, but they look nice and are expensive (and just as expensive to dig up and replace) so I'll be probably be keeping them for many more years! The passion vine is probably my favorite bloom. Not only is it cold tolerant, but it's a fast grower too. I got it as a small plant for 2 dollars at a local nursery in July 2010. Now they cover a huge portion of my pool fence and there are seedlings popping up around my yard (they dont seem too invasive though). I know that the Pacific Northwest has some of the best gardening in the country and it is definitely cool year round so I would agree that cool climates are actually great for a lot of flowering plants! It gets pretty hot by me in the summer so that does limit the number of flowers I can grow a little bit.

Jose- These seeds germinate very easily. I have had them germinate slightly moist in a ziploc bag just hanging around my greenhouse by accident. It is best to get the skin off, but no need to crack the nut.

I am the original poster. Wow, lots of discussion on this. I took more photos. It will be one of my winter projects here. As to why it cracked, my hunch is that it was just a crappy piece on site and they used it anyway. I don't see any smoking gun that could have caused it after the fact. The flooring above in the master bedroom is carpet. Nothing in the bedroom area of the cracked joist that is of significant weight. I could run a string line on either side of the crack to see if it is dipping significantly versus the other joists. I managed to get a straight 2x10x8 for the job. Actually got four, just in case I find other spots as I remove dropped ceiling tiles to do other work. So I could shove the new joist all the way to the rim, but there is no way to get it tight up against the left side as in the photo, because of that "peel" coming off. So I guess the plan is to jack it up slightly, use clamps, construction adhesive, 10d nails 6" on center. I imagine marking a "crack path line" in pencil on the new joist would allow me to keep the nails 1.5" away from the crack lines on the damaged one. I do have a palm nailer to use as well. Would ring shank/spiral nails be better to use, or makes no difference? To the left, on top of the wall, is another joist, more closely spaced to the problem joist than the one to the right of it. By the cross slash mark and the knot, you can see a roughly 2.5" wide "peel" coming from the nailing point on the rim joist. The sister. Straight 8 footer.