There's a thread on Mons tiller fries in the sun, see below: "Mine fried after an hour or two in the sun, more so than my other tea roses so it's no longer with me in my hot garden. Clementina Carbonieri did the same thing. A pity, since both are beautiful roses. Ingrid." ***** From Straw: I'm adding own-root Yves Piaget on my rose-order for next year, along with Young Lycidas and Romantica "The McCartney" rose. I researched again on Yves Piaget: the person who grows Yves both as own-root vs. grafted reported wimpiness for both. Someone from PNW (rainy & cool) climate also reported Yves being wimpy. Robert Rippetoe in his Rancho Mirage climate of exreme heat, drought, and alkaline sandy soil .... grows Yves Piaget and uses it in his breeding program ... so it must be very good for him. I figured out what makes Romanticas works: fluffy potting soil for the roots to get big, then transfer to fertile clay. I have Yves Piaget's children bred by Robert Neil, I put gypsum in the pots, and they went beserk with growth. Ingrid in this forum once grew Yves, but it didn't do well in the heat ... she has loose de-composed granite soil high in potassium. That's different from Ingrid in Thousand Oaks, who has clay. According to Wikipedia, high potassium or high nitrogen drives down calcium. The Romanticas have a higher demand for calcium than other roses, they are very sensitive to salt, so saline soil is not suitable. Calcium in gypsum is used to de-salt saline soil. That explains why Mons.Tillier works for Jaspermplants in Arizona, but didn't work for Ingrid with high-potassium soil. Arizona is alkaline clay high in calcium like my Chicagoland clay ... I'm next to a limestone quarry. Calcium is known to firm up tissue of plants, and helps with drought-tolerance, which explains for the success of Romanticas in my limestone clay. Here's an excerpt on calcium from the site http://www.oxyfertil.com/royaume-uni/role-ca-mg-plante.html · increases the plant tissues' resistance and allows for more erect stems · contributes to normal root system development · increases resistance to outside attack Here is a link that might be useful: Does your Mons. Tillier fry in the sun? This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Fri, Jul 12, 13 at 10:58

I stayed the Phoenix area for about 10 days during late July and into early August, so I have experienced your weather. You have about another 10-15 degrees on us both day and night here in east-central Georgia, and that will make a difference. But the biggest difference is the humidity, not the temperature. Your climate was well described in an earlier post - - arid. So you will have to keep the daylily root zone moist. I noticed during my visit that people soak their lawns and gardens rather than use sprinklers because water that is shot into the air as droplets does not come back down to the earth. It evaporates. My suggestion would be to have a thick layer of mulch in your beds, but with the layer thinning out about 1-2 inches around the plant itself. The mulch will help to keep the ground somewhat cooler. Also, underneath the mulch you will need either soaker hoses or a drip irrigation system to keep the ground moist. You will have to determine how much water how often because daylilies love to be moist, but some can be prone to rot if they are too wet. I also agree with the post above that says to use lighter colored daylilies as they are more likely to hold up in the heat that darker ones like purples, reds, deep orange. Instead, consider light yellows, light pinks, melon, near-whites. I doubt that you can find a dark colored daylily that can stand up to your heat for more than a couple of hours. Finally (in addition to getting your soil right as mentioned above), see if you can plant them where they will get some relief from the sun, particularly the afternoon sun. Do you have any areas where you get shade in the afternoon? It can be filtered or full shade, but your sun will wilt just about anything that is left out in it all day including "full sun" plants! You might want to start with some of the less expensive ones, and you can judge your next step forward based on your success - - or lack of it. Good luck! Larry

As usual you have ALL come through with great ideas. I will show the area as it used to be and then I planted it and now all these years later it looks the same...sigh...nature is telling me something and I am not listening :) But I am going to start listening. Ianna,prariemoon,lavender,serenae,new, irene and thyme,,,you are all equally wonderful for taking the time to help. The over all view is : don't fight mother nature...use pots and decorative features and droughty plants when possible. I am more and more agreed that it is the way to go. We had someone on here that used to post about " staring"...that is what I have been doing as I clean and trim and sweep and think. The funny thing is that I thought or hoped that I was done with that when I added lots of soil and amendments and planted all these things. sigh....quite a humbling experience. A gardener is NEVER done learning.They looked so good for 2 years. Ah well on to new and better ideas. It does no good to lament what will never be. I can't and really don't want to get rid of any more trees. I can't add anymore soil as it only encourages the adventitious roots. At first you think , OK I have conquered the roots....but they come on up and through and mat worse than ever. So other than " pocket planting" , adding lots of soil to the hole and not bothering to amend around the area, I am done with topsoil additions. I used to have a small pond , ianna, when we first moved here. It had koi and was wonderful. They knew me and came right up to feed. One Labor day a neighbor sprayed for mosquitoes and my fish all died. He never admitted it but you could smell it. I took out the pond. Also with the leaves it is almost impossible to keep it cleaned out. I have a fountain in the pool area it is wonderful and I am going to add another out here too as I think your idea of water and a feature is perfect. I don't know what kind of tree the " big one " is. Irene I had lamiums but they only lasted one hard freeze here...funny that they do for you and not here. prarie: there is enough hot sun in areas as the tree is very very tall so here in the SOUTH the sedums are happy. lavender I have lots of pots so that is no problem. Ok I hope I have covered all you have suggested. Here are some pics...this is how it looked when I first built the rock wall and started out...2-3 yrs ago . big tree ( second tree behind little house is gone too ) ....there is more in this area now than is showing but this gives an idea: this is how it looks with pots and my purple table and chairs that I salvaged a couple years ago: this is when it looked wonderful...sigh: other direction toward the small maple, there are only 3 trees in the back now ( I forgot the wonderful fragrant pineapple smelling tree by back porch) ...when it looked so good... another nice view: OK ,,,it was nice to see this and I am GOING to get it back to this. The rose campion still looks good and there are some grasses that are still OK. The salvias are so so...iffy. The sedums are OK. The pots are easy and some have roses that are OK as the whole bricked are is HOT sun for hours. There is nothing at all under the little maple now. 2 heucheras look sad and that is all. I had stone walks and took them out. Will see about putting them back... THANK YOU ....you have all helped me " get a grip". c

Hi, fellow new-ish gardener! Just wanted to offer a little reassurance since we seem to have quite a bit in common. I am also relatively new to gardening, and many of these kind gardenweb folks can tell you they have offered me plenty of advice and answers over the past couple of years. I live just a tiny bit west of you, also 6b in Southeastern Pennsylvania. We had the same wretchedly cold and snowy winter, 108 degree heat indexes all this week, and are currently getting your same thunderstorm and flash flood watch. I have a bit of a plant collecting disease, so I have a huge range of plants, shrubs, and trees in my yard, even after just a few years of gardening. Many started life on the clearance rack because I don't have an unlimited budget. However, we do seem to have a different approach in terms of plant care. My plants get amended soil, mulch, deadheading and weeding. They get divided when I want more. And this week, I watered them, which was the first watering the ones not in hanging baskets got all year. They are absolutely thriving, even with my benign neglect. Plants mostly want to survive, and my thought process is that any plant that needs such specialized care that it doesn't thrive under my natural conditions was not going to do well in my yard anyway. I can't control the weather, so there is no sense in overstressing it. And I embrace our very cold and very hot temps - I need the cold for spring bulbs and the heat for summer flowers. If my flowers are rewarding me with a yard full of blooms and pollinators, yours will be fine with your much more attentive care. Lose the tarp and let them do their thing!