Since the end of May I have lost two agastaches. Now it keeps raining in the afternoon and I am losing two penstemon. Also I have three gallardias not looking so well either. Also three Mexican sunflower plants looking bad. All my plants are in pots so I can't figure out why they are dieing and not drying out enough to prevent root rot. Anyone else's plants looking bad from too much water? What type of plants?

What kind of potting mix are you using? I noticed a pot of coleus was full of water and not draining at all. I had used some fresh potting mix, Miracle Gro organic, and find it does not drain well at all and it also dries like concrete when it is not raining. Bad stuff. My plants that are in a better quality mix are doing fine although they are wet. We had 4" just this morning. All the plants you named need good drainage and they prefer to dry out between waterings and these daily rains are not allowing that right now. Can you move the pots under cover for a few days? Maybe drill some more drain holes in your pots? One more thought, did you by any chance put a layer of broken pots or stones in the bottom of your pots? It has now been proven that can actually retard drainage when you are using a potting mix. It is called perched water table. Good luck.

I must say no! All of my plants, potted, and otherwise have been very happy!
They so much prefer the rainwater...

The miracle gro that contains the moisture "Retentive" or what ever they call it... is something that I wouldn't use.
And yes, moving the pots is definitely an option! I also use blocks, or bricks to lift them.
And yeah I agree on the shards in the bottom of pots...

I could move them under the house before the afternoon, but doing it everyday may give me achy arms. Also beneath the house there is a lot of storage, but not so sure how good the air circulation is there. I am using the regular potting mix. To see so many plants being affected bothers me.

Miamiu said:Since the end of May I have lost two agastaches. Now it keeps raining in the afternoon and I am losing two penstemon. Also I have three gallardias not looking so well either. Also three Mexican sunflower plants looking bad. All my plants are in pots so I can't figure out why they are dieing and not drying out enough to prevent root rot. Anyone else's plants looking bad from too much water? What type of plants?

I've never had luck with agastaches in FL, they always die out when the summer rains come. As far as Gaillardia, the pretty store hybrids never last too long, you need to plant the FL native Gaillardia pulchella in a nice sunny sandy soil spot, preferably no irrigation and it will spread like wildfire. I also have lost every Tithonia (Mexican sunflower) I"ve ever tried, but for me I think I have too much shade, some have great luck with them. The box stores sell some pretty hybrids that do great in the spring, but once the heat, humidity and rains come, they will die out.
This is a good website to help with plants that do well in your zone and your type of soil.... http://floridayards.org/fyplan...

Thank you that is an interesting website. Just bookmarked it.

Someone recently mentioned using an old beach umbrella to provide shelter for their plants from all the rain. Just a thought.

As an experiment i moved the gaillardias to another spot. I trimmed and removed all the bad leaves from the mexican sunflower. The penstemon im just going to leave under the house so they dry out. They get a few hours of morning sun there.