But Shiva said the bed drains, so I was taking her word for it. And..
I'm still surprised that she didn't see signs of stress in the
established plants in the ground.

I can explain this one. Some times the roots die but there
is so much moisture that the canes seem to be able to directly
absorb it and use there stored nutrients to keep growing.

Then it gets dry and death occurs quickly usually over night.

Talking about rain we had an incredible 16 inches fall in my backyard
over this soggy labor day in a 36 hour period.

I was driving back from Wichita in I-35 Saturday night, visibility was 10
feet
and we were stopped on the free way when the 10 ft wall of water washed over
the road
1/4 mile in front of us. It was about about 2 ft deep where I was. You
should have seen the panic, first time I drove 50 MPH wrong way on
the freeway. Found out next morning that this poor guy in front lost his
4 kids & wife.


--
Theo in Zone 5
Kansas City