I removed some overgrown ferns from a small patch in my front yard, laid down some SuperSoil, and planted 6 verbena flowering plants in the area.

They seemed to do just fine for a few days, but then they started not looking so good... flower buds fell off. At first I wasn't sure if they were getting too much or too little water, but it's been pretty hot here lately (I live near San Francisco), and the leaves have become 'cruchy' to the touch. I've been watering them every morning. However, it's been about a week now (and it's still very hot), and they don't look any better.

Also, a few of the plants seem to have 'sticky' stuff on them, as if some snails have been crawling on them. Should I be worried about this?

One more thing - I planted another 4 verbenas into a pretty small container (the 4 plants were leftover from the 2 6-packs I bought), and they seem to be doing great. The container is right next to the verbenas in the ground, so I'm guessing they're getting the same amount of sun, but container is doing much better than the planted ones.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Good to know I'm not the only one experiencing this... :-)

Yes, the sticky stuff resembles slug/snail trails...

Doing some more reading... perhaps I should add some mulch? Particularly because it's been so hot lately - the mulch may help to keep moisture in?

too much water.

the container plants should dry out faster, having limited soil. since they are doing better, the in-ground plants must be too wet.

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Thanks for your input, RugbyHukr. I will stop watering the plants for a bit to see how they're doing. I did notice that the soil in the container is much more moist than the ones in the ground, though. Oh well, we'll see.

I also did some online research on caring for verbenas. One site said, "Add organic matter to the soil and pinch out the tips of young plants."

Does the 'organic matter' refer to organic mulch, or something else that I need to mix into the soil?

And what does 'pinch out the tips' mean?

Obviously, I'm new to gardening! Trying to find out if I have a green or black thumb... so far it's not looking too good...