Help! We purchased two flats of creeping phloxn for shade (P. stolonifera) at Lowe's last weekend. We had the flats on a table under an umbrella outside to get it to acclimate to the shade/sun conditions and the diet the rest of the garden gets (organic).

Well, despite getting lots of water, it started dying. Yesterday I dumped the phlox out of the flat and cut it up as best I could to rescue parts that were still green. A fellow GW had suggested that I cut it into 3"x3" parts and plant them apart so it would creep together to form a nice groundcover.

However, none of the rescued parts are anywhere near that large. The rhizome was very stubborn to work with and the phlox was planted in, what seemed to be, mostly sand. Now I have lots of little tiny piece that have, say, one to three stems max. Not knowing what to do, I did what I often do with English ivy while its waiting to go into rooting hormone and sand/peat.

Here's what I do: I take cuttings and put them into a weak solution of Maxicrop (nutrients derived from Norwegian seaweed) and use it as a "holding tank" until I have time to work with them further. The ivy does well like this and the liquid solution seems to perk up other things that need emergency care.

Some of these little phlox plantlets have roots I was able to maintain. Some have very few or none. Can the phlox survive in water like this for awhile? I need time to figure out how to create a nursery/hospital bed for them, etc.

Any thoughts on the water-Maxicrop holding tank and what and where I should construct the nursery bed would be greatly appreciated. Also, we will be digging out an area of hard clay to create the phlox hospital and can put in any kind of soil or amendments necessary...we have an arsenol of them.

Thanks in advance for your help!