Julia the soil where they live the longest is in a bed that was a gravel bed that eventually became soil covered because of leaf mold breakdown. I did not realize it was once a gravel patio area until I started digging to plant my Hostas. So they are growing in pure compost over gravel.
I think I have bad results because we have flooding Fall rain until it freezes and go right into winter snow and ice. They are not strong enough to survive the block of ice two month. Then we have constant freeze and thaw the rest of the winter. Going from 60 to -10 in a day. I just do not have good Herc growing weather.
