The sun hitting the bottom shouldn't really affect them. It's the same with how fish and tadpoles survive in heated water, lower down the water is cooler. Also, soil above tubers would insulate them further. I also have a natural swimming pool, only 30 metres across but enough for me. Waterlilies are growing in it from a depth of about 10 cms to 1.5 metres. They only get filtered sunlight but still flower quite well. Only thing is the leaves and flowers are small due to the lack of direct sunlight most of the day. The same species of waterlily in ponds out in full sun all day are larger. Waterlilies have evolved to live in wetlands with little or no tree canopy above them. As they're floating in water high air temperatures don't have much effect, what's more important is the intensity of the sun. And, as I mentioned before, tubers are well insulated.

Thanks for the great comments! I really didn't think I was going to like Miami Heat, but then it started to bloom! Now, I had to put it way far away from all other daylilies, so it would look good, and no clashing! Julia - I have no idea about the spots, just thought they looked like freckles and were cool. John, NO, geesh... I am waiting for those seedling to bloom! They are all busy putting on new fans, and no blooms... grrr... guess that is good though. I'll post photos when they do, I am so ready! I don't bother to disable the right click, because of screen capture. The watermarks are there so poachers know I don't want them used for them to make money off my work. If all the photos I post are originally watermarked and copywrighted, then I have a case, if I ever needed to go that route - in fact, if they go so far as to remove the watermark and use it anyway, more evidence for me. I don't mind people using them for personal use, but once you make money off my picture, some of that $ is mine! (via IPR - Intellectual Property Rights) :o) Nothing is ever safe from the serious bad guys... hence attorneys - ack.

I like JAY and the NO ID. Hard to say which would be my favorite of the two. I really think they are both lovely. 95 never feels bad to me if the humidity is down. Its the humidity that really makes things feel really awefull. Its way over 95 here already today so we will see how hot it gets. The daylilies have just been melting in this heat and loose their color quickly. Have to get those pictures earlier while they still look good !!

There's a lot of things involved with laundry. There's no perfect solution for all situations. These websites that claim to tell you what things cost are seldom accurate for more than the one or two instances they show. You CANNOT say it will cost you $___ to do a load of clothes since there's all the variables. Let's start with water temperatures. How much heating will depend on the temperature of the water in the first place. Anyone who lives in a northern climate knows that the water temperature from the tap is far different on Christmas Eve than on the 4th of July! Then comes the issue of terminology. "Hot", "warm" and "cold" are relative terms. Some laundry is fine to wash in "cold" water, but not in nearly ice water! "Cold" water in laundry terms (check your detergent specs) should be 70 - 80° so many times to get "cold" water, you would need to heat it! Plus keep in mind that detergents do work anywhere near as well in temperatures below 60°. Powders especially, don't dissolve as well in truly cold water and even liquids don't dissolve as well. If they don't dissolve, they don't do the job as well. And then there's the issue of cost of heating. If you use steam, natural gas, propane, electric, wood or your mother-in-law's flaming breath, it'll have a different cost to heat it and many of them will vary from time of year. So be careful getting sucked in by these websites. They can be used as a guideline for educating yourself but don't take everything as gospel. Some other things here that are interesting: I'm always amused with people using bluing. Why? Do you know what bluing is? It's not "whiting"! Bluing dyes your clothes blue and it's an optical illusion to make you think your clothes are more white. Similar in concept to different lighting making things look different. Bluing washes out and has to be replaced to continue the illusion. As far as hot water shrinking clothes, well, that's seldom true. "Hot" water to many people in laundry is only 95°-120°! Your dryer gets much hotter than that so how can body-temperatures shrink clothes? Now if you boil your clothes, that's different but I doubt many here use near-boiling water temperatures. I think most would be surprised how cold their water temps are. I haven't even addressed heat losses in the pipes and the machines yet. Many people have their water heaters set too low. Only some washers have built-in heaters. So if you use a frontload, have your water heater set at only 120° or less, and factor in the pipe losses, then the loss in the machine since the colder machine tub will cool the water and since FLs use less water it'll cool more than a toploader, you can have some really cold washing temps. Take a thermometer and measure the water in the drum sometime. Some washers have a warm rinse option but they're fewer and fewer with the regulations now mandating energy efficiency. Mine doesn't have a warm rinse option. Occasionally I run a short wash cycle to fill the tub, then switch to rinse and spin. And my machine does a spin drain. I'm skeptical about the debate over neutral drain vs spin drain allegedly putting dirt back into clothes. After all, in a spin drain (like front loaders) you're essentially forcing the dirty water back through or into the clothes again too, instead of letting it settle on them. This is part of rinsing clothes IMO. And part of the detergent's job to lift and suspend the dirt. I'm also skeptical when people say they use so much less detergent in a front load. Look at any HE detergent and you get the same number of loads from a bottle or box. And by the comments of the laundramaniacs in the laundry forums, you need to use enough detergent to get the maximum effect from a front loader. Insufficient detergent, too much softener (which I don't use anyway), too cold a water are all contributing factors to smelly washers and mold buildup. Warmer water cleans better. That's been proven. Now there's an issue of how dirty do your clothes get as to how much cleaning do they need. Some people don't get their clothes dirty and really a rinse would "clean" the clothes sufficiently. I used to use cold water washes under the theory of saving money but after reading the science in laundry, the truth about temps and realizing hot, warm and cold are ambiguous and undefined terms, I was most things now in 130°-140° water and use a tap cold rinse (since I don't have another option) most of the time and occasionally will warm rinse things if I feel it necessary. Saving money? I laugh when I see people spend upward of $1.50 per load on imported detergents and then quibble about a few pennies to heat some water. I tend to save money on detergent and not feel bad about spending a few cents to clean bacteria out of the clothes a little better. I use Tide Free & Sensitive detergent and pay only a few cents per load for detergent. I refuse to use softener, another saving and no dryer sheets, savings again. Plus the reality is I can't really see a difference since going to warmer wash temps in my bills, but I see an improvement in my laundry.