Hot here too in NJ, is to be 100+ today, and the nights are 83+. The cattleyas outside get some morning sun then shade for the rest of the day. Must water them daily in this constant 90+ heat, but they seem to be handling it well, even the blooms.

Welcome to my world, you pack of sissies! Yes, we like to barbecue in shorts on Thanksgiving, and turn on the heat when it gets below 60F, but we are used to summer heat (all 9 months of it).
From experience, intermediate-growing species linger into the third year before they expire, though many orchids can suffer from the heat. If your leaf-tips get brown and crunchy, it is a sign of heat stress; you might also see some bud drop (heartbreaker).
As long as the air has some motion, most orchids can tolerate pretty high heat for weeks at a time.
And the vandas just love it, as long as you hose them off once or twice a day. In fact, I hose all the mounted orchids on the days it doesn't rain (my mounts never, ever involve sphagnum, aka 'satan').
This, too, shall pass.
Stay cool - Nancy

Nancy,

Hey, we'll see who the wimps are when LA goes through a sub-zero freezing spell like we do every year, we also have to deal with temps of -20 actual with -40 wind chills at times :-)

That 120 degree (over 150 if you consider wind chill vs. heat index) swing makes things very challenging to provide the orchids with favorable environments year-round.

Bob

We've had relatively cool temps here in the Florida panhandle. That's a surprise! We usually have summer days in the low 90s and nights in the mid 70s. Instead, this whole week our daytime high has only been in the low 80s, if that. Right now, at 4:30 PM, it is only 78F. I like this very much, and so do my orchids. Wish it would last.

My sympathy to those of you who are suffering in this heatwave. I know what that feels like.

Being a wimp is a matter of degree. Once outside weather is unsuitable, they have to come inside. My mother used to grow in Calgary which routinely goes down to -40F every January. I know a grower who ships to Anchorage Alaska every summer. For some reason he does not ship there in the winter. Once they are inside, you create a artificial environment.

The real curve ball comes when you live in a climate which is usually suitable outside and then mother nature lets you know that she is a b---. I remember getting my morning newspaper 6 or 7 years ago, seeing ice covering the car windows and walking over crunchy frozen grass with temps around 20F. I'm moving to California I announced, then I realized that I had already moved to California. What is a routine event in most of the country becomes a catastrophe when you are not prepared and have no provisions in place to deal with it. We all lost plants during that cold spell, Santa Barbara Orchid Estates lost 20% of their stock.

Carry on campers, your present troubles will make you thankful for the normal state of affairs.

Nick

Hello from Minneapolis, where last week, we had record heat indices for days - 115+ F. Also a record dewpoint of 86. Whoa. My orchids are inside all year. The combo of the fan, the AC vent open, the windows cracked about an inch, and the door closed has given'em an RH range between 40-60% - about as good as it gets inside in summer.

Because natural light for the plants is E/SE, I thought *I* didn't have to worry about hot leaves, esp. because daytime temps were in the mid-80s, max, which are lower so far than previous summers.

Well, the other day, I happened to feel some leaves. They were hot! Unbelievable. Guilt. For the first time in 4 years, I pulled the sheer curtain over the window. Maybe I shoulda touched those leaves 4 years ago. :)

Poor things may have done an amazing job of adjusting - leaf edges rarely get reddish, and the only Phal w/ krinkly leaves got that way from underwatering.

Strange weather.

Hi WC8,

You wrote,

"Hello from Minneapolis, where last week, we had record heat indices for days - 115+ F"

What was the temperature, please? :)

--Stitz--

the temp in Baltimore hit 106F !
yee-ouch!!

--Stitz--

97 here yesterday (actual temperture) and according to this morning's paper, 1.39" of rain for the month. The lawns are a little crunchy to say the least.

Monday it only got to 88, seemed delightful :-(

Bob

Stitz, as for the actual temps, none was 100 or above. Eight days have been between 90 and 99. If you had an actual temp of 104, your heat index coulda been way, way higher.

I like objective measurements :)

It's been hotter than holy heck here too!!!It did hit 100 here maybe a time or two, the sucky thing is the hot wet comforter that goes alone with it. You feel smothery-ish when you go outside. I hate grooming in this kind of weather because the A/C can never keep up. So you're sweaty you have dog hair sticking to you. You feel like you have sweaty swamp boobs and porcupines stuck all over you.

Bob My dear hubbie will be @ Mid-Ohio next week working on Porsches. I HOPE the weather cools down for that because racetracks only get hotter in weather like this, not cooler.
gb

gb,

Calling for mid to upper 80's for the weekend, and less humid. If things stay as predicted, your hubby should have a good weekend.

Got over 1" of rain on Friday night, woohoo!!!, grass was greener by Sunday. And at least yesterday the humidity was low, so those low 90's seemed almost refreshing.

It's kind of like $3.50/gal gas, I'm starting to get used to it and I don't like that fact.

Bob

Nancy, I'm in souther LA as well... i've had a couple of phals that got too hot outside last year, one put out a baby so that's doin well... the other is alive, but not flourishing.
Last couple of weeks it's been rainy and overcast (and cooler) so they all went outside, and i've since brought all back in except for my two cattleyas and a phil. ground orchid...

One of my cattleyas is putting out a big ole bud right now... (which i wasn't expecting!!!)
i'd love to have it inside while it's in bloom... how do you guys think should i go about bringing it in my 72-78 degree house? or should i just leave it outside? only time i go out there now is o water plants... :(