It was so hot....
Really, 4 days of 100 is not normal here. More unusual was that the sun was bright, not the usual haze we get during heat waves so damage was maximized. Pretty much destroyed my first flush. Crispy Critters.

Many of the HT blooms just turned brown and crisped. Austins fared better. Tamora and Molineux looked OK. The OGR's seemed the least affected.

I have a lot of remedial work to do before hosting the Father's Day picnic on Sunday.

Harry, I'm sorry :( I'm actually beginning to look into OGRs pretty hard these days. From everything I've read and learned on here so far, they're great roses to grow.

I started doing yard work at 6AM today - LOVING the cooler temps. I'm almost done now, but it's warming up pretty quickly again.

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Wendy

Oh Harry and Wendy - the same for me! My roses are holding up okay (way better than I am) but my clematis and peonies were just toast.
It was so depressing after that long cold spring, watching those big fat buds that seemed like they were never going to open. They finally did and for about three days my garden was amazing. Then we got that HEAT. Clematis and peonies don't like that heat.
Well, neither do I!

I've got to say though, that the Austins, especially Golden Celebration, are really taking the heat in stride.

Now I know how our California friends feel with those Santa Ana winds.

I would not know about any heat wave, at least not this year. Our heat is still turned on and during the last week the highest temperature was 58F. Except for a few roses that always bloom early we have nothing but developing buds here.

The weather service has issued a long range prediction of the next three months which shows temps below normal through September. I can say one thing, the roses hat have opened hold on forever at these temperatures.

Lance

I had just started to post here, and still shy :). Austins did well. In fact really well for my first year garden.They are in full sun, and after yesterday's late showers a lot of buds are opened today. Crown Princess which was planted as own root late last October !- thanks to timely delivery from J&P- was loosing petals fast. Today it has a couple of new flowers. HT and floribundas were pretty well baked. The sad part- I was expecting close to 20 blooms from my baby Intrigue, which is even healthy so far? They all opened and lasted close to 6 hours. I need more roots! Hydrangeas and nasturciums have a lot of sun burn.Some OGR baked buds too. Reporting from Delaware/chester counties border in PA. Maria

My roses are virtually babies and, except for Madame Isaac Pereire and Bermuda's Kathleen, their spring flush is over and they're working on new growth. Kiftsgate seems to be the only only who has noticed that it hasn't rained in over two weeks and the temp has been 100. MIP has lost a lot of leaves due to BS, but Bermuda's Kathleen is going strong as usual. Mutabilis put out a few more blossoms a couple of days ago and they look good. I think because it's still kind of early and our humidity is not too dry, my garden soil (well mulched and well amended) has remained moist. I water with saved kitchen water, about 10-15 gal/day. Most of it has gone to the new plants (perennials), but the roses get watered once a week or so, especially they ones planted last fall.

Mike

Wendy

My 3 Austins are babies but they have survied the heat. They are still in pots so I have where they only get morning sun.
I have also been battling thrip and spider mites so all my roses have suffered this year and the heat did not help any of them except for Prairie Princess who is is still strong as ever. The only good thing is, since I agressively fought the grup problem last fall and all spring, I have only seen 3 JBs this year. I am hoping for a good late summer flush.

The heat was 100 or so here too. Can't report on blooms as I only have small buds at this point.

Thanks for sharing the pix, very pretty

Karyn

Thanks so much for all the responses. The Austins that I have whom I consider babies are Portmeirion, Golden Celebration, Eglantyne, Pat Austin, The Prince, and Abraham Darby. All of those are own root, and I received them from Chamblees this year. Some are in pots, others in the ground. I was literally shocked to see the growth spurt they all had during the extreme temperatures. Portmeirion is full of blooms, all others have many, many buds, ready to burst open. The AD picture I posted above is from a 3-year old grafted plant. (Yes, I LOVE Abe :)

I nearly lost my Huntington Rose (second year) due to canker, but she is a trooper and came back quite strong, even though she is behind a bit. Then there's Janet, also in a not so optimal spot, also a second year rose, grafted, and she's sending out basal after basal and is full of big, fat buds.

Jackie, I can completely relate to the peonies. Even though my tree peonies were all done blooming when the heat set in, my herbaceous ones were just beginning to open and are now all toast, as are the clematis blooms.

Maria, all my Hydrangeas (10 of them or so) look outstanding, even though Dooley tended to droop a bit when the sun hit her for a couple of hours each afternoon. They're all beginning to bud for me, too.

I'm drenched right now because I decided to go out and buy some more Nepeta "Walker's Low" to "accent" some of the roses. Just love how it looks.

Rosenpots, I also battled a heavy thrips population about 1 month ago, when I first noticed buds forming on some of my light colored Austins. The moment I diagnosed them, I went spray crazy - literally. It seems I got them under control, for now at least. Fingers are crossed.

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Wendy

Well here in TX 100+ degrees with humidity isn't a heat spell, it's average. All my Austins do lovely in the heat. If there's a lot of rain some tend to ball but I expect that and, sadly, have not had that problem this year. The only thing that does a number on my Austins are the thrips but they are gone by July. Too dang hot for them by then I suppose.

Wendy

Thank you for the words of encouragement. I think I finally have the thrip issues under control as I sprayed heavy but then the heat came and since I use a natural oilbased product I ended up having some leaf burn but I know they will come back from that. One of my baby Austins has a bud so that is a good sign (I hope). I think I am going to have to resort to using a systimic to get rid of the spider mites though Wtih this heat when is the best time to spray? Any suggestions?

Thank you for this thread; I'm fairly new to roses and this has been interesting. My Austins, as well has my other roses, have held up well - Tamora, Pilgrim, Tradescant and Miss Alice. Some of the petals on the mature buds of Comte de Chambord have showed some browning, but not a lot. We're struggling with the blackspot; hope I can get it under control.

Jackie, I had the same experience with my peonies: great for about 3 days! The saddest was the tree peony, which usually has a somewhat extended bloom time, but ALL the blooms opened at once and then were gone in no time. Ah, well ... that's why I'm glad I've developed Adult Onset Attention Deficit Disorder (or maybe it's just a gardener's defense mechanism?) ... attention quickly turns to the next bloomer and there's always next year ;-)

Diane

Diane LOL about the ADOADD! That's the great thing about taking digital photos - you get to enjoy those three days of blooms for years to come!

LOLOL @ Diane about the ADOADD. That was just too funny.

Rosesnpots, even though I was due to spray during the heat wave, I held off until last night. I don't like spraying anything when it's that hot outside other than water in my face. So yesterday morning I watered all my roses very very thoroughly, and then sprayed them last night, just before the sun went down.

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Wendy

One thing that's missing in all of the comments about the unusual weather are the words: Climate Change.

Network news revels in the disasters caused by excessive rain followed by floods whiping out roada and houses or tornados or violent weather. Just the other night we had another scary thunderstorm. Lightning stirkes that were followed immediately by what sounded like bombs.

The odd pattern of our weather seems to have had an affect on how some roses bloom. Some opening poorly with small or distorted blooms.

Sometime ago I posted something about Climate Change and was amazed at how few people even believed in it. It's frightening that the result of our ignoring the warnings of scientists has finally struck and will get worse causing untold consequences.

I'm in Texas too and summer is just gearing up, with temps in the mid to upper nineties during the day and barely getting below 80 at nighttime.

I have one hybrid tea that's a year old (I think it is Chicago Peace) and two baby Austins, Evelyn and Abrahan Darby. Evelyn is in the ground and Abe is in a pot, waiting for me to get his bed ready.

The HT is suffering badly in the heat. I have to water it at least twice a week and make sure the mulch is piled thick around its base. Its last blooms are bedraggled, crisp, and totally bleached.

Evelyn, on the other hand, had been sitting in her new spot for about 2 months doing nothing visible. But once the temps starting hitting 90, she exploded in new growth and has even put out three buds in the last couple weeks. She doesn't get as much sun as I expected her to - I planted her near a tall crape myrtle and forgot how leafy they get - so perhaps she welcomes the break from the scorching temperatures.

Abraham isn't doing much, and that's ok - he's still getting used to his new pot. But since he's so similar to Evelyn, I expect that he'll do just fine this summer.

Our latest heat wave was last year. So far we have had 23 days since March 11th where the temperature was at or above 60F. In the Pacific Northwest there is very little global warming this year.

Wendy

Thanks, I'll water in the morning and spray in the evening when I get home from work. The one bright thing my baby Sophy's Rose has a bud and it looks normal. So I am hoping that is a sign that maybe they are starting to recover alittle from what ever got to them.