We really need rain too. I hope you haven't lost any day lilies, because I know you have been rearranging a good many. I am worried about Heavenly Angel Ice. And the iris I moved into the new bed have some that may not make it.

I am trying to just think okay, more room for new ones, but it isn't easy. I pray for rain for both of us.

It has been raining all around us, but none here for over a month. I have watered, but it isn't like rain.
kay

We got a decent rain last night & more expected tonight. I hope some of it heads your way. We had been dry for the last month, but apparently it has not hit here quite so badly. I was just complaining that my blueberries are getting smaller than the first ones I picked, I assume because of lack of rain. The bushes look ok though, & no shrubs are looking bad. Daylilies were starting to look rough & I was getting ready to start watering. Kept putting it off because the weatherman kept predicting rain that just didn't come.
This is the time of year when I seem to lose daylilies. Some look really rough after blooming & dry weather in July & Aug. Usually it is like they go dormant & they send out new growth when the weather gets cooler. Unfortunately, a few usually croak before I realize it. So far they all seem to be ok. Hope your shrubs recover, nothing really seems to help as much as good old rain.

I feel for you Rita. My patches of daylilies are dying back. I know it's heat dormancy but it does stop the bloom. We did get about a half inch of rain today and hoping for more tonight. I hope both you and Kay get some rain soon. BTW, I can only water the flower bed because I have well water and need the well for necessary things such as drinking , toilets and bathing.....Ellie

The thing is those two of the worst of the heatwave days, I did not water. It was so bad here and I was so hot, I knew if I went out into the sun when it was 103 I would be in the hosital after that for sure. I started watering again on last Thursday I think. I have to stand there and hold the hose, no nozzle up to the roots of each plant and let it run, move to the next and move back again to get them watered well. I tried the sprinkler and it did nothing. Wetted the mulch and half anch in under the top of the mulch it was still dry as a bone.

I had plans to rearrage some daylilies but I didn't do it. The heat came and I did nothing. Not going to rearrange them either in this no rain. Maybe in the fall, if not it will wait until spring. They are too stressed out. But again, some are fine. Just depends on were they are.

I moved afew iris before the heatwave, was going to move more. Haven't done that either. The plants can't take it. My new iris haven't come yet.

I really hope you (and everyone else that needs it) gets rain. And that you don't loose any plants.

Many of my dormant and semievergreen daylilies go dormant as a way to conserve energy when they go through extended heat waves. Then in the fall when temps cool and they get some decent rain, they leaf back out. This summer dormancy happens in the South quite frequently.

Debra

I have never seen it here. My daylilies have never died back. Ok, sometimes they do look ratty after blooming and then I give them a nice shot of liquid seaweed but nothing like this year. They are too stressed out for fertilizer even. Those daylilies look dead. Really dead. There is nothing there. I will wait and see what happens in the fall or when we get some good rains.

Rita, I know what you're going through and I can sympathize. If we didn't have a sprinkler system, everything in my garden would die. Even with a sprinkler system...watering 4 times a week...sometimes it's just not enough. Nothing compares to a good soaking rain. Hope you get some soon!
Kathy

Oh Rita, i hope they come back for you. This drought is bad, i have never seen so many dead lawns in my neighborhood. I have a sprinkler system in the front yard only and I was running it everyday for 40 minutes in each spot. One day (i think it was the 103 day) i ran it 2x in the day, so each spot got 1 1/2 hours of sprinkler. The back yard i have manual sprinklers and i've been keeping it on for about 3 hours per area and then moving it. Anything less and it seems its only on the top of the mulch - and then i move the mulch and see powder like dirt. I think the only way to do it in this hot, dry weather is to water heavy and deeply. I see the areas that the sprinkler didn't reach are dead...but it is really just a little grass along the fence. I'm neurotic about the flowers getting watered because it's been so long since we've had rain. I don't recall having so little rain in many years - what about you.

Let me know how your plants do, i hope they come back.

stay cool:-)
Maureen

Its been a very long time since we have had such heat and no rain. I should have started watering heavily much sooner but it just all caught up to me.

Many things are suffering here too in NJ. 2 of my new clematis died because the sprinkler didn't hit them and I didn't know that (we were away all week). They are crispy brown - kaput. My hydrangea look awful. The astilbe are crispy brown but still some green on them. Even some of my hostas are frying away. My annuals are doing horribly and barely blooming at all.
Last summer it wouldn't stop raining - this summer it won't start raining. bleh.

It's awful to go through a dry spell that starts to tank out your plants. Just wanted to say that I do have plenty of MOONLIT MASQUOERADE, AUTUM WOOD and MYSTICAL RAINBOW. If yours don't make it..... would be happy to send you several fans of each from my garden, if you care to replace them.

Linda

RITA; I am so sorry you are not getting any rain for your gardens.Every time it rains a little here, then the sun comes out and frys every thing.I have at least 6 daylilies the leaves turned brown and crinkly,and then no leaves at all,and I thought sure they are dead,even with me watering every day, but I see a couple sprouting new leaves poking up through the ground,and sticking up about half inch.I have a couple daylilies out there I do not want to lose,so if they start looking any worse then they do right now,I will dig them up and pot them up for a few months.Usually, around here,my potted plants do much better then the planted one.RED EYED GRAVY is still in a 3 gal pot and I seen its got one rebloom scape so far.I hope you get some good rain soon.

Jean

I don't know how you guys way down south manage. Well the heat is one thing but the no rain is much worse. I bet the daylily plants would do fine in the heat if we had plenty of rain. Of course no rain spells of dry weather happen, even around here but it had never been this hot with no rain for so long on at least the past 10-12 years. Not in as long as I have been very seriously gardening and not while I have turned my yard into all these gardens.

Linda- Thank you for your kind offer. Its not that I really need any of those three, I was just upset that I was stupid enough to let them die. I was going to move AUTUMN WOOD to see if it would bloom as it never bloomed for me and I have had it for 4 years. Since it is such a poor performer here, I will not replace it if its gone. MOONLIT MASQUERADE is in the too many purple eyed creams look alikes catagory for me. Again, was planning to either get rid of all of it or most of it, I had an entire row. Then MYSTICAL RAINBOW I can replace with something else. But since that little mini garden in back of the garage is so dry if there is no rain, I have to rethink if I want to put daylilies there if these are really gone. Or go with Sedum, which is never bothered by no rain.

Rita I am with you on this heat, its been horrible now since July 3rd. I was afraid that I had been actually over watering my plants, many have yellowing foliage, extreme yellowing of much of the foliage. Hopefully we will get some rain today or tomorrow as its in the forecast, but sadly the heat is coming back towards the end of the week again. I have also seen many of my flowers only partly open, as if they were aborted during the opening and and never finished, but all in all, my day lilies have been a beautiful sight. I don't post pictures here because mine are all No-ids, stupidly I did not label them as I bought them, :) but I've been enjoying them non the least. Stay as cool as you can in the next few days.

Alberta

I am afraid I am going to lose my butterfly bushes. At least they grow quickly, so If I have to replace them, it should result in bushes just as big next year. But I hate to lose something I have had for several years. They look terrible, and watering isn't helping.

Oddly enough, the new one in the butterfly garden looks fine.
kay
kay

Oh Rita, I know how heartbreaking all of this can be, but I certainly hope and will pray that rain is just around the corner for your area. We got around 2 inches in the last week, but everything was already stressed to the point of looking brownish and lackluster.

It is awful to have to watch such a thing happen. Especially after you realize that they are beyond the point of no return. If only I had done this or that. I hate watering everything so I have a tendency to wait until the plants are already drying up and then try to revive them enough to get them through.

My knock-out roses are just limping along with very little reblooming going on. Daylilies have just put on a fair show between the heat and thrips.

I hope everybody gets some rain soon. Pray hard!

Vickie

IT RAINED :-)) Heavily for about two hours from about 1 to about 3 PM. I am SO HAPPY. I was looking out at the rain thinking to myself that I love it!

Vickie- Knockouts are tough. they should come back with some rain. I am not really upset with the roses. The rose shrubs themsilves look fine, they are just not putting on new growth to make a flush in August as they normally do. They grow and will bloom when they get enough water.

Kay- Most of my butterfly bushes are fine and blooming and doing well. But I do have one in the back near those maybe dead daylilies. That one and the mini chery tree near it are all in really bad shape.

If yours looks like it died, don't yank it. Just cut it way back if that happens to a six inch or slightly larger stump. It comes back from the roots when you get some rain if its not totally gone. I hope its ok for you. I know I would hate to loose mine, I love them and so do the butterflies and hummingbirds.

Jean and Kay- I hope you both get rain soon. And to everyone else that needs it!

Alberta- I don't see how it is possible that you might be overwatering in this heat we have been having lately. Lots of yellow leaves around here also and I certainly have not been overwatering.

As for posting pictures we love pictures here, you know that. Don't be afraid to post because yours are NO IDs. Daylilies are daylilies and some of us might even recognize your no ids.

Did you get rain? I just poured here, and I mean poured nice heavy rain for about two hours. I am so happy :-)) The garden all needed it and the daylilies especially. But I had ben watering and when I walked around this morning I thought the watering and the cooler temps really helped. This morning the daylilies looked better than they mostly have lately.

Yup, my rain gauge (a clear plastic cup) shows it rained a whole 2 inches!!! :) Yay!

We just got maybe an hours worth of rain, heavy for about 20 minutes or so. I was on the phone with a friend who was driving and he said it had poured in Flushing, he was on the LIE. It's always amazed me the difference in weather patterns we have on Long Island, isn't it? Its still cloudy so maybe we will get more. Now to figure out how to post pictures here, ok, I know I have a photobucket account, and somewhere on this desk is the password, LOL. Let me see what I can do to move my pics into the photobucket account. Be back when I do, :)

Alberta

Alberta- The last time we had rain here was about 6 weeks ago when that mini tornado hit Massapeaqua. Thankfully not here, just rain. Since then other parts of Long Island not far from us have had rain, sometimes lots of rain. But not here. It is weird how one place gets so much and another closeby gets nothing.

I was out after the rain stopped. Sprayed ALL the daylilies and some of my roses with the Neptunes Liquid Seawered Fertilizer. I wanted to do it now that the daylilies get hydrated. Plus it might rain some more which would just wash it in so thats all good. It started raining again while I was spraying. I do this with a no mix hose end sprayer so I drag the hose around the yard. I did it this way when I sprayed for thrips and I always spray my roses like this. Doing the fertilizer is actually easier as I don't have to wear socks and long pants and rubber gloves and be careful while I am spraying. Anyway the neightbors that saw me must have thought I was nuts but I knew when I started I would finished ever if it rained on my. The rain was only light rain anyway. Seems to have stopped again.

Rained here too...on and off all day on the south shore of Long Island...everything is looking good!! This time I believe we all are receiving the blessing... Andrea

HOORAY for rain for you Rita, and everyone else who has been suffering! I am so sorry for all of you who have had such heat and drought. At least it sounds like there is a bit of relief here and there now.

It is such a terrible feeling to see your babies wither and die, be it from heat and lack of water, or cool and too much water which has hurt our area significantly this summer. Like Kay mentioned, it is especially hard to see the shrubs and bushes that you have enjoyed for years fail.

I hope things continue to improve for you all!

Julie

RiTA,I am so glad you finally got a good rain.You mentioned your MOONLIT MASQUERADE. I do believe I have lost mine.All I see where it was planted at is the tag I stuck in the ground,No sign of that daylily.

Jean

Jean- Oh oh, That sounds just like mine! Poor Moonlit Masquerade.

It rained again this morning. Not as stong as yesterday but it was a good rain, especially as the ground is already nice and wet. Still very cloudy and overcast although the weather last night said it would clear up this afternoon. As far as I am concerned, it can keep raining!

It's been raining, pouring and then just raining, ALL day today here in NJ and it isn't stopping yet.

Guess what? After months and months of nothing I was just sure they were gone for good. We had a rainey fall so I thought if they were there they would show up long before now. But FINIALLY they are all back. The folliage is nice and green and lush like they would be in the spring. The fans are not too tall either, only about 4 inches. So they only must have started growing not long ago in the fall.

That's good news, Rita. They are tough, arn't they? I'll share a story with you. The first time I saw Elegant Candy growing at a local nursery,[years back]...I bought it home and planted it and fell in love with this blooming machine. Than we had a hot dry spell and the plant literally seemed to dry up and go away. I felt I had killed it by not watering it enough during the dry spell. Later I was cleaning up the garden and dug into the spot and there was the crown and root[this was the first time I had experienced summer dormancy in a plant.] When it happens now, I just wait. They are amazing...cheers, lloyd. Happy Halloween all.

Don't give up on them, Rita. Last year we went for 4 months without any rain, coupled with many days over 100 degrees. The daylilies that were growing along the road could not be watered, as they were too far away. Many of them vanished, and I had given them up for lost. To my amazement, last spring all except one were growing. If they don't have crown rot, then they will probably come back.

Nancy