Well, at least it loves moisture by nature :) They grow along streams and creeks here.
I have Ruby Spice just starting to bloom and absolutely adore the plant for it's bloom period/fragrance.

This is my first one...and is now 4th year in the ground. The oldest growth (original stems) are now kinda ugly and really need a trim job this spring, newer growth looks good.

When you unpot it to plant it, if the roots are spiralled in a death spiral, cut them a bit to prevent it from choking it's own crown, but otherwise just try to spread them out and make the best of it. It's really too hot to do serious surgery now :(

Thanks...it was just starting to spiral. Not as bad as I had expected.

Ugh...ANTS! the entire rootball has a colony of ants. I took a video of it to show the nursery if the thing does die. And also a mental note to not buy from there again. Not our normal nursery...husband thought to take me some place that would offer something other than what I had seen so far this year. It's over an hour away...to get to. So the husband said he would see how it fares. Letting the nursery know this is an issue.

Our neighbor suggested sevens dust for around the base...would ones agree?

Ants and a continually wet rootball are mutually exclusive problems.

Personally, I would drown the little dears. Put the whole thing in a bucket of water for a while. End of problem

I drown them also. Usually it needs a good soaking before up potting or planting anyway.
Mike

Sadly it is planted already...so would the seven dust be the next step? Noticed the blooms are opening on one. You can see a bit of red showing through. So...I take that as a good sign. It looks healthy...so far.

You can see...it's thinking of showing me some color soon. (Ick...two insects were on the bloom...you can sort of see them. But, I am getting better. Left them alone.)

The leaves seem healthy as well...if the ants were to cause issues...I would imagine I will see signs of it with foliage changing...and becoming stressed.

not clear to me what damage ants would do. I've never known of ants to damage container stock. Why the paranoia over ants? Sounds like a mountain out of an ant hill.

Thanks Sam...never came across so many ants in a nursery pot...they seemed to be moving eggs or something about. So no worries...phew! Thanks...good to know nothing to worry about.