Fortunately I have only one pot and the rest of the roses are going to get more mulch. The heat is going to be crazy this week. I wonder if it will break another record. Whoever heard of 96 degrees in April?

Ingrid

Yes, the frizz factor is setting in. So far, though, some of my Austins (Queen of Sweden, Molineux, Carding Mill, Tamora) appear unaffected. My lone OGR Marie Van Houtte is doing fine,(Zepherine still hasn't bloomed -- just fought off a near-fatal case of mildew), but Darcey Bussell dries out fast. My HTs and floribundas, however, are another matter. Shrivelville.
The wind is another story -- here at the east end of the Valley we don't usually get big wind, but the past three days it's been so bad, I had to take down the wind chimes. They were keeping us awake!

I was just contemplating how to tend my garden this year. What a crazy time! Arctic blasts in Feb. Maybe the wettest spring on record. Even established plants were drowning out there! Now, breaking heat records in the 80's today and tomorrow. What will summer hold for Portland? I think I'd need a crystal ball to predict. Kippy, wish I could send you some of that deluge that hit PDX over that last couple of months. Carol

Carol, speaking for all of my SoCal friends, we would LOVE some of your extra rain. My cousin in Gresham seems to pick the perfect time to get part way in a walk just to have the rain beat her home again and again. She would love to send me some rain. My guy woke up to snow at the ranch the other day too.

And here we are roasting in SoCal. But it will stop and it seems like we regularly have a freak heat wave early, so I suppose I will just call it the usual unexpected spring.

I have a bunch of pots, some because I planned on planting them but only planted the ones in the more cool and shady spots with the forecast. A few are cuttings of what I think are Bonica or Peace from last year, but they have been sloooow growers and I wanted to get a better looking plant and another round of blooms before I gave away. I think those are going to get potted up to 2 or 3g pots so I can "forget" them a bit. I have an own root Don Juan from a bloom that rooted in the vase, a spare Louise Odier. A couple of mystery roses I need to wait to see what they will be....and a bunch of cuttings from Kim that rooted like mad, a good thing. The cuttings are only a few months old so I want them to grow more before I plant them. I have a new spot for all of the smaller potted plants to live, but don't have the water lines run yet and they are small so I will wait til the weekend to move them there.

It probably peaked just under 90 today in Santa Monica, maybe right at 90. It's been warm the last few days! I received a kitten in December and it has no idea what to do with itself in these temps having never experienced them before.

Jay

Kippy, I was hoping for your sake that the title of your post didn't refer to the weather, but was disappointed. Good luck for the spring and summer ahead!
I wish you could have some of our rain, too: we're soaking, with another two days of rain forecast for tomorrow and the day after. Our not being to get out and cut the grass merely means a messy garden, but for our farmer neighbors it's a lost hay crop. This is a bad year for them. In rainless periods during the last couple of days I deadheaded roses and did cut part of our yard, and am hoping for a chance to work outdoors today. It's time to take cuttings of the daphne and collect suckers of kerria and winter jasmine.
Melissa

Jay. Our crazy cat though it was chilly and curled up on my laptop to see if he could get it to over heat......silly cat

Melissa, how sad for the farmers to loose their crops. I felt guilty for the past month with the ridiculous spring flush of roses so I know I had the opportunity to enjoy them and they will bloom again. Besides, guess I will have a reason to prune a tad extra on a couple of plants and test my propagation skills.

85 yesterday. Not too bad, with a big cool down this weekend. Keeping the garden watered this summer will be a challenge. I'm already spending hours of hand watering to conserve. I'm determined not to complain. At least I have some water and my garden will live through this summer.

Hey!!! I'm in line first for the extra rain:)We could surely use it. I often read of people collecting rain water and think⦠what rain???? Does an average of 4.5" annually and sometimes less count?

I believe it hit 85 here today. My plants and roses look un phased, but just waitâ¦. it will become hades here and they will faint unless properly rooted and irrigated.

Lynn

I would gladly trade a little rain for a little warmth here, :) My roses aren't even leafing out yet because it's just been too gray and cold.

The blooms of some are crispy, but the plants look fine. The pots under the oak tree are loving the cool down.

On the other hand, I went to open the empty box for cuttings and discovered it was so hot in the box my plastic solo cups had deformed and will not be usable.

I left when the thermometer was getting close to 100 under the roof of the chicken run. One thing about this part of the coast, we don't have A/C so when it is hot, it is hot.

Wow, it's getting hot over there. These are late June-July temps for us. A very comfortable for both people and most plants high 60s to low 70s over here, dropping to high 50s - low 60s at night. Quite average for the time of year. Still, the watering season has started for good (as if it ever stopped).
Nik

This post was edited by nikthegreek on Fri, May 2, 14 at 1:02

Harvesting rainfall in the desert can be worthwhile. From the Permaculture people I learned you can calculate the number of gallons you can collect from the run off from your roof : about 60 percent times the sq footage of your house per inch of rain. So, for example, if you have a 1000 sq ft house, the runoff from your roof would be 600 gallons per inch of rain. If you collect the runoff ( with rain barrels, berms, etc)' that's a lot of water!

It will be 96 again today but only a tepid 92 degrees tomorrow, so things are looking up. Came home yesterday to fried blooms everywhere; the strong winds haven't helped. Still, I'm determined not to agitate about it. seil would probably trade a little of what we have for what she's got, and what she's put up with during her endless winter.

Ingrid

One picture says it well.

{{gwi:254007}}

Oh, that's so sad, hoov!

I can't bring myself to photograph them, but most of my roses look like HoovB's example.

The biggest bloom ever, here, for R. banksia lutea was dried to tiny yellow crisps. And while poor "Grandmother's Hat" and "De la Vina Mystery" keep pumping out blooms, they turn into potpourri as they open. :-(

Secret Garden Musk Climber has produced a massive blast of white blooms -- but don't look to closely . . . the dry air has crisped the lovely once-yellow stamens.

"Historic Powell House" (?'Baronne Prevost'?) is a rare bright spot, and I sure welcome it.

That's lovely. Those button eyes always charm.

After seeing hoovb's blow-torched rose it was a relief to see Jeri's pretty one. It's the same in my garden; some roses have held up much better than others. Still, the overall effect ain't pretty.

Ingrid

No, it ain't. And I have more "blow-torched" blooms than nice ones. The heat has worn me out. :-(

It's pretty awful here too. Most roses are toast already. (There will be lots of dead heading.) Even those that were lucky enough to be sheltered by a little blessed shade didn't come through unscathed. Still Yves Piaget seems to relish the heat and looks good.

Must get another Yves Piaget and hope the gophers don't find this one. It was a gangly bush but the flowers made me not care. prickles, nice to know it looks this good in your garden right now.

jeri, I hear you about the heat. My body just can't tolerate it any more, but I don't know of a place that isn't too hot, too cold or doesn't have hurricanes, tornadoes, horrible bugs, high humidity or isn't as flat as a pancake. Besides, I do get to go outside after 7 in the evening. I watered by moonlight for the most part last night.

Ingrid

It was getting unbearable and hot while I was watering at 9am. I gave up and came inside the house quickly after about 30 minutes. The temperature already climbed to 86 degrees and I foolishly thought today was going to be a nice break from the heat wave. Sigh!

Ingrid, YP does like the heat and I, too, don't mind his odd shape and mildew as much anymore. In fact the mildew has clear up since I switch to misting him in the morning. And the dry heat helps naturally.

Hi everyone
Does anyone know how long I should leave my carolina reaper chillis on the plant before I pick them ? (they turned red a few days ago)

THANKS

Talulu I do grow some peppers. But you would be better off asking on the pepper forum