"icius" wrote in message
oups.com...
Ok, thanks for the replies! Let's see, there were a few questions in
there. I am in Pittsburgh, PA. I thought I saw someone in
Philadelphia say they were in Zone 6?? Not sure what the climate zones
mean or if Pittsburgh is the same. Temperatures have been in the 80s
since I planted and this plant is getting sun all day long. No rain
since planting.

The soil around the hole was absolute solid clay. It was a real bear
to dig. I didn't read about proper drainage until after the planting
so I may have erred there. It is mostly the best soil from the top of
the dig on the bottom now with the Miracle-Gro mix on top to fill the
rest of the hole. Should I try to do anything about it now?

I will see if I can get some vitamin B for the next watering.

As far as the plant goes, it looks worse today. The leaves near the
blooms are starting to turn brown and curl, the flowers themselves
continue to wilt. Just looking at it I would say it is dying of
thirst, but I watered the heck out of it last night so it isn't for
lack of water. I hope the Miracle-Gro didn't burn out the roots.

I nice to hear that I picked a nice breed...it was one of those "I'll
take the pretty red one" situations so it was a lucky grab...hope I
can keep it alive long enough to see it in its glory.

It is supposed to rain tonight so I am going to skip the watering.
Definitely going to put the pruning shears in a drawer. I will let it
go for a few days and see what happens. Thanks for the replies.

Adam

It's probably getting stressed out from the transplanting,
heat and sun. Hard to know what to do at this point
since the browning of leaves is problemmatic. You
might try the soil wetness finger test - just stick your
finger in the soil about 2" and if the soil is still wet
don't water more until it dries out a bit.

I wouldn't do anything about changing the soil it's
in now; that would just stress it more. Hopefully the
watering might dilute the fertilizer in the soil, assuming
the Miracle-Gro soil came with fertilizer (I've never
used it so I don't know).

Here's a link to hardiness zones:
http://www.thegardenhelper.com/hardiness.htm

Gail
near San Antonio TX Zone 8