Is too much wet always difficult for rock garden plants? I've absorbed the idea that winter wet isn't good, but what about 5 days straight of spring rain? Should I wait to plant out, or is day after day of spring rain okay?

oh what I would give for just a day of rain!

Novice answer--
Too much wet is always a problem and it is really a question about drainage ...if the area is well drained and moist but not soggy with day after day of spring rains then it would probably be just fine--especially if the plants are actively growing and not dormant, which presumably they are, right?
Torrential rains, on the other hand, can wash away new plantings, so if you are having that kind of rain, it may be best to wait rather than risk trying to find your babies in the washout and putting everything back together (been there-done that).

Funny thing I've learned:
I was so freaked out about the whole winter-wet thing and wrongly assumed that some plants which will croak if wet in winter could tolerate summer dryness in their sand and gravel beds--hahahaha--I've created some very well drained areas that can withstand whatever winter and spring moisture comes our way only to fry my precious babies to death by August too much dry is a problem too

Thank you!

The plants I have to set out right now are mature plants, but two of them are ones I've had trouble with in the past. They're also much more mature than they would otherwise be for this time of year here, so I'm trying to weigh-in that consideration as well.

Yeah...I'm not so sure that my gravel beds will provide enough water holding ability come summer, but we're usually so very wet and cold the rest of the year that I'm going as free-draining as possible. We shall see. My seedling test plants of Stachys lavandulifolia and Lewisia rediviva survived the winter at least, now to see if they'll survive the (spring and) summer! If those two in particular can survive, I'm thinking that my winter drainage and year-round air movement should be good enough for most.

Hope you get rain soon!

Yes, it's all about moisture at the right time of growth, and for particular plants, too, of course. Remember, too, that frozen water doesn't count as winter wet. I think Lori can attest in her many mountain hikes, that lots of alpines bloom in the wet areas just below where snow is melting.

In general, though, I'd still rather go with too dry in the hot season, than too moist. Those roots go way way down:
Erigeron compositus Mt. Adam's Dwarf - one month old seedlings. The lavender shows where the 6-8mm of granite grit was.


One week after transplanting

That's a great photo of roots!

Since you say so, maybe you'd like these, too:

Erigeron compositus Mt. Adam's Dwarf - 4.5 months old in the same size pot


Erigeron compositus - straight species


Allium meteoricum


Allium triccocum


[Angelica gigas[/i]


Asclepias tuberosa and Amorpha canescens


Helleborus purpurascens


Penstemon canescens


Phemeranthus calycinus


Phemeranthus parviflorus - dormant plant


Ruellia humilis


Thalictrum coreanum


Thalictrum thalictroides


Polyganatum verticillatum


And don't get me started on bulbs!

And I do!
¡Ay, caramba! How come you don't have these in the database? (or, have I not seen them?)
Really cool and potentially useful, I would think...
Do you catalog all of your seedlings like this? for personal reference or ? writing a book or ?
Anyway, nice job.

I pulled my dead, crispy, dried up Petrophyton out of its rock today--its roots broke off at about 18 inches, who knows how far they went into that cracked rock beyond that.
Sad story--we've had a warm, dry winter (after a hot, dry summer and fall) and I didn't water. Bad news for a few plants, predictably--that one surprised me, actually, but my Agave sailed thru just fine this time.

Thank you, Dirt! No I don't catalog "everything", but when the opportunity arises and I have the time....

However, I do catalog my plant pics differently than most people, I think. With digital cameras, I take a series of photos of almost everything with plants. When I view them, I don't rename the files, but I pick the one or few to edit and resize for emailing, Rock Garden newsletters and such or forums like this, or when I want to refind them for myself. This way, they are always ready, johnny-on-the-spot, when a relevant opportunity arises, and I don't need to spend time searching raw camera files for the pics I want. (Plus, who can remember all those great photos taken over many years?) These get renamed and saved with the botanical latin, the date and a code I devised to aid in searching my "catalog" (seed, sdlg=seedling, plt=plant, hab=flowering plant, habbud=plant in bud, habitat, fr=fruit, habfr=plant in fruit, etc.). Occasionally, I will add other info directly in the file name so I won't forget. These edited photos get saved and organized in a separate folders on my computer. I always retain the original, camera produced file name so I can always easily find the original unreduced file and its companion photos. So the file name for that last pic is:
Polyganatum verticillatum rhizomes4Nov14 DSC07832.jpg

I've done this from my beginning of digitized plant photos when I used a computer that ran on windows 98, in anticipation of a continual growing photo cache. I thank my lucky stars that I decided back then on a very useful cataloging method. Haha, no book in the future, but I refer back to them constantly myself. Some of the photos I post here might be ten years old, but they are just as easy to find as yesterday's camera shots. I am such a plant geek that I all parts of a plant interest me, not just the "pretty flowers", and including how they grow (or don't grow).

You've prompted me to wonder how many of these edited plant photos I have on file: categorized in 302 folders, I have about 6800 photo files. It seems like a lot, but comparatively speaking, I don't think so. I'm just more obsessive with organization, and I can refind each one of them pretty easily.

I rarely add to the ATP data base. Dave and I have some disagreements on ATP image copyrights. You may have noticed that my forum posted photos are “ineligible” if you tried to import them to the data base. This is at my request, and Dave is happy to make such an exception for anyone who wishes it. I am very grateful to him for that, since the sites he builds are so useful and enjoyable, and foster a community of enthusiastic positive people.

I love the pictures of roots.... so artistic .. like botanical prints

That's cool Rick--
Your plant geek knowledge and contributions are immensely valuable whenever and however you opt to share!
I should really figure out some workable catalog method for myself too. I am obsessive about taking too many photos for sure, but sadly, not with organization...

I am curious, are there some copyright concerns that either I don't understand or that I am unaware of?

Regarding image copyrights, I don't think it's of concern, just a sticking point for me. When I brought them to attention on the Site forum, I was booed out. I presented several reasons why this is not good policy, and most had to do with accuracy of plant and photo identification, rather than copyright. One was: the ATP Terms of Agreement affords the right of admins to move my images. That's fine. But no where does it say that regular members have the right to move my images (as if they were their own) to the data base and without my prior permission. Yet they can. I can request that they be removed, after the fact, but that members are allowed to treat copyrights with such disregard really aggravates me. But I am happy that I can opt out, and most members don't see this as a problem. And Dave will have your back if any of your ATP images are stolen from here and used elsewhere on the internet.

Interesting. I have my own database with information and pics. Until I get pictures of my own of a plant I 'save as' from online to remind me what it looks like. Then as soon as I get a flower or plant of my own I replace it and note the date it is from 'my garden' so I can tell them apart. Plus I have started to put the source of the photo under it until it is replaced. No one sees my database but me so I figured no harm no foul. And my intent is to replace them ASAP.