We have not had rain here for over three months, since May 8. We have a water well, and I would not be surprised if it goes dry tomorrow. My heart is breaking, losing all my plants because I can't water them enough. I started spring with 96 named hostas, not counting all the multiples. They were so beautiful. So far I've lost at least half and I fully expect to lose them all before this drought is over. I started with over 60 banana trees, 40-50 varieties of elephant ears, cannas, hibiscus, etc. and they are slowly dying off too. It is so hot and dry that I can't keep them watered enough. My tropical bed is 30 X 50', so there is no way I can keep all these plants deeply watered, not counting dozens of other beds. So far I have lost a 15 year old crape myrtle, a 19 year old redbud tree, my roses, lots of asparagus plants, all my daylilies, and on and on. Did I say my heart is breaking? I'm sorry for the whine...

So, back to your post, yes I am planning for next summer's heat wave/drought. I have had drought here for four of the past ten years, not to mention three years of severe grasshopper plague caused from droughts. So as much as I love my tropical plants, I am being forced to faze out the tropicals and hostas and go to desert and drought tolerant plants. It's very difficult for me, but it's either that or give up gardening altogether. My land has truly turned into a desert. Next spring I'm planting cactus, agaves, yuccas, and other drought tolerant plants.

Barton, you might want to reconsider the redbuds if you're planning a drought garden. I live near Chickasaw National Park, and all the redbuds in the park and around the lake are dead or dying. I planted mine as a 6" seedling 19 years ago, and it's been hard to see it die. I have a feeling it's going to get a lot worse here before it gets any better...

Wolflover, the reason I said redbuds is that we planted 50 each bareroot redbuds, lacebark elm, shumard oak and american plum two years ago. Almost all were where they don't get supplemental water. The lacebark elms and redbuds have survived for the most part. We haven't gone quite as long as you without rain. We did get a good rain maybe early July which helped, but it's been dry since.

I'm a little nervous about the non-native lacebark elms and I had thought I should cut them down before they start spreading. The redbuds are native and seemed tough. Sorry to hear about the state of the ones at Chickasaw National Park. You're right, I may have to reconsider. Next spring we will see what truly survived.

My gardens aren't as extensive as yours so I have managed to keep most of the perennials and shrubs alive. I am so sorry you have lost so much. I will be happy to share cannas next spring.

Here's an interesting accidental experiment in water conservation: I have one patch of unnamed cannas that I have completely neglected and they don't look too bad. I think I may know why. Last summer I started digging a new water garden and did not finish. I have a pit in the ground which catches runoff. I have been tossing weeds and things in there as a sort of compost pit, until I can finish the water garden. The neglected cannas are just downhill from that. I believe that the pit catches water and releases it slowly, partly because of the clay soil and partly because the organic matter holds moisture.

I decided to try this on a mini-scale around a couple of shrubs that I was losing despite watering. I dug a narrow trench maybe a foot and a half deep just past the root zone and filled it with straw and wood chips and then filled it with water. I did this two weeks ago then gave no supplemental water. When I did water again yesterday, all the runoff was caught by the trench instead of being wasted. The shrubs are doing much better. You don't see the trench because mulch covers everything. I am thinking that something like this might be feasible on a larger scale. The trenches would be strategically placed so they could catch rainwater during good times, and make more efficient use of supplemental water during drought. Too labor intensive to do it all at once but I think it has promise.

Wolflover - yes, I am going to have to sell or dispose of my beloved elephant ears. I just cannot justify keeping them and watering them so much. It costs too much money on my limited income. Anybody want some?

I am going to go native! Since I butterfly garden, it's the perfect thing for me. Native plants have to survive where they are on whatever conditions they get. My backyard is a desert now. I have lost my hostas and many of my shade/water loving plants, too. Does homeowner's cover drought situations and landscaping?

Anyway, I've only been watering the front yard, which is much smaller. Anyway, it's just been too sad. I don't remember it being this bad in 2000, but they say it was.

Susan

Wolflover-trade your hostas for drought tolerant plants while they are still alive. Maybe keep a few "prize ones", but salvage what you can, so the expense won't be outrageous next year!

Susan-I want your EE's! What kind do you have? I keep mine in a low-lying shady area.

I was "lucky" enough to move to this house last spring, and it had nothing in it. I was "lucky" enough to plant according to the drought. I've got my hostas and EE's under the eaves of the house, up by the front. It catches all the run-off of the spigot when I water other areas, so I don't need to water them. I've got a lot of echinaceas, zinnias, marigolds, coreopsis, morning glories, passionflowers, etc. Even my gingers seem to be doing ok. My lilies are not good, and neither is my parsely. Go for the Asclepias! They are doing incredible! So is the basil and rosemary. If you plant natives or Mediterraneans they will survive.

One thing I'm surprised about, my cosmos. They are all dying except the c. sulphureous. I guess it's drought resistant. My gaura is now on it's 3rd bloom cycle, too. The large redbuds around here are all dying. It almost looks like fall here.

Susan, I'm emailing you.

HW

Wolfover make sure you put a lot of mulch down and it will help in keeping the ground wet I have lost a lot of plants this year too and I had read about mulching so off I went and laid down a 2" layer of mulch and now I am only having to water every other day or so in the full sun and every 3 days in the shadier parts I have also put up piece of fabric so the sun isn't on them at the hottest part of the day and it seems to be helping It may not look that great but can't stand to lose any more plants

Hope this helps
Bessie
In Lawton

I'm going to get more soaker hoses and put them around the hydrangeas, which are very sulky and demanding. More soaker hoses everywhere else, too. And I'm going to move all the hostas along the creek to the shade bed in front. They can't compete with all the trees out there. I'm going to try columbine out there instead. It has held its own. Oh, and purslane in the window boxes on the south side of the house. Everything else shrivels up if I don't water it every day.

Tough shrubs:
- flowering quince. Tolerates some shade and tolerates drought.
- spirea (the old fashioned white kind). Once they get established they are survivors.
- crape myrtle (although I hear folks have lost them, they're pretty tough)
- fragrant sumac. It grows wild here, grows under oaks, and survives neglect. It gets maybe 18 inches tall and has good fall color. There are commercial cultivars, but the wild kind is pretty nice.
- I read somewhere about a cutleaf sumac that looks almost like a japanese maple. I need to check into it more.
- plain old roadside sumac provides bird food, fall color. I let it grow toward the back of some of my beds, and in some spots it's the only thing alive.
- not a shrub, but partridge pea has volunteered in several beds. With just a little extra water it gets very lush-looking.

I want to hear of the "success stories" from this summer!

Another native that I planted this summer in the senna family is senna hebecarpa (native). Very drought tolerant and pretty to boot. I am growing it for the sulphur butterflies (host plant). I had a plant in a 4" pot and it is now about 3' tall.

Other drought tolerant plants:

Cassia (candlestick) (A)
Cassia (bicapsularis) (A)
Asclepias curassavica (bloodflower and Silky Gold) (A)
Tetrapanax
Zinnias (A)
Cosmos (A)
Hyacinth Bean vine (white flowering) (A)
Catmint (nepeta)
Lavendar
Rosemary
Indigofera kirilowii
Jasminum x stephanense (vine)
Amaranth (love lies bleeding) (A)
Asclepias verticillata (native to Oklahoma)
Epimedium wushanense hybrid (dry shade)
Northern Sea Oats
Hairy Indigo
Summer Snapdragon (angelonia) (A)
Crape Myrtle (purple)
Sunflowers (helianthus, red and yellow) (A)
Verbena bonariensis (A)
Artemesia
Wild eupatorium
Ricinus (New Zealand Purple) (A)
Salvia (pink/white) (A)
Gaillardia
Honeyvine (milkweed family)
Aster tartaricus 'Jindai' (new one got last year; blue blooms with yellow centers; AHS winner; 1st year for bloom; very large leaves; really, really nice plant)
Cleome (A)

So you see, a lot of the good plants are annuals, most of which will reseed.

Susan

Nice list, Susan!

I have zinnias in the same bed as cleome, and the zinnias are much more tolerant of drought. I have been using the cleomes as the "canary". When the cleomes droop, it is time to water. Despite that bad treatment, they are setting seed.

My northern sea oats wilt and look wimpy during the heat.

I've never tried lavender.

I have a cute little "wild petunia" ruellia, that comes up all over the place. I've moved a few to a bed with sedums, which gets occasional supplemental water, and they have never quit blooming. The ones that have to fend for themselves will wilt and quit blooming, but bounce back after a rain.

I also like bearded iris. Yes they look awful most of the year. I am planning a bed with native grasses of various heights which I hope will camoflage the ratty foliage, and have similar low water and fertilizer requirements. Weird combination; I may hate it. I haven't started it yet.

Gayle

I'm for sure the odd man out here. I have always been a big fan of container grown tropicals and will be to the day I die.

My many different types of hibiscus, bougainvillea, palms, adeniums, ficus, crassula, and a few others thrive and love this weather. I have Adeniums sitting on pavement right now where soil temps are well over a 110 everyday. The soil hit 122 yesterday. They love it and are setting blooms.

The great thing about containers is if the plant doesn't like where it's at, it's a easy fix. If we have company and I want some color or something aesthetically pleasing in the living room, it's an easy fix.

If the sun is just too brutal for something that's struggling or not in the best of health, it's an easy fix, Move it to more shade. I should have done that with my bananas, they are the one thing that hasn't thrived. probably because I haven't kept them wet.

I don't need soakers and know ex actually how much water everything needs without having to shotgun the whole area with sprinklers. What it comes down to is I'm a lot lazier than you guys. It's too much work to keep up with nice looking beds:-). I had grand plans for 2 new areas and now I'm not going to do them.

I never like to hear of someone loosing all of their plants because of things out of their control like Dawna is going through. My heart goes out to you. I lost everything about 5 winters ago because of a mechanical failure to both my main and backup heaters. I cried for a month and lost interest in a lot of things for a year.

randy

I realize the red bud is our state tree, but I have not cared for it much. It's just a short lived trash tree that looks nice a few weeks out of the year. I had some nice ones die a few years back and my parents on Arbuckle lake have to. Once they get up to about 10 to 12 inches in diameter, they start dieing back and then just don't come back the next spring.

randy

Sweet potatoes! When even our Okra is wilting, the sweet potatoes look so very happy in this heat! I'm hoping to grow a couple bushels of them next year. The only challenge is that I REALLY have to work that soil, where I plant them, and our garden is where no garden has been before. It's a lot of work!

I'm also considering Porter's Pride or Sioux for tomatoes which will set fruit in the heat. Our heirlooms are doing okay. But they stop setting fruit when it gets really hot. The best heirloom tomato this year has been Baker Family Heirloom, a bushy, tall beefsteak, which is great for fresh eating and canning: very similar to Rutgers, only taller.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Ooh, Gayle, I really want to grow some of the ruellia now. #1 - it is a host plant for butterflies - I forget which one right now. But, also if drought tolerant, that's great! I'll put that on my want list for sure! Thanks for the heads up.

Randy, my allamanda does fine in the heat, too! Some of the tropicals are indeed heat tolerant. They would have to be in order to be tropicals! My daturas are needing watering a lot, but it's only because they are in pots and rootbound. If I potted them into larger pots they'd probably be fine.

Susan

Randy, I agree about the pots. I have been moving things around, at least the pots that are small enough to move. This is the first year I've got a tuberose to bloom. I started three last year in a pot, got foliage and no flowers, and last fall stuck the pot in the garage and forgot about it. I noticed it sprouting some time this spring and put it out in the sun. Last week the blooms were wilting before I could enjoy them and the pot kept blowing over so I moved it out of the wind. I rearranged pots and planters last weekend; threw out some moldy zinnias and planted some fresh ones. I have a couple of cannas in pots too. I have whiskey barrels with water hyacinth in full sun.. talk about easy maintenance heat lovers!

I don't have a greenhouse so whatever doesn't like to go dormant has to survive normal house temps all winter. I have lipstick vine, goldfish plant, and some others that spend the summer on the front porch (north and east exposure so they are out of the wind and get up to 1/2 day sun depending on where I put them)and they bloom all winter in the house.

BUT.. I have lots of area around that I want to keep looking nice. Way too much for containers. So I need something that can survive with maybe watering every week or so, instead of every couple of days. I love the prairie grass and woods but it gets to be a fire hazard in weather like this, especially the tall prairie grass.

George, I'll try sweet potatoes!

Susan, if you want to dig ruellia next spring let me know.. you're in the OKC area right? I'm 20 mi west of Tulsa.

Gayle

Don't think I'll be driving to Tulsa soon, Gayle. I need to get some seeds from Prairie Moon. As I'm really getting into butterfly and moth gardening, native plants are the best, plus most of them are drought tolerant. The problem is finding those that are "dry shade" tolerant.

Do you know that even my sunken aluminum tub bog dried out? It has never done that. I had a gorgeous mimulus ringens (host plant for buckeyes) in it, and it is deader than a doornail. In just a week's time, it was gone. I had watered it last Sunday. This week it completely dried out.

My daughter is preparing to move, so I may have room indoors after all, to winter over some of my outdoor plants inside. I have a back room, which gets lots of sun, since it faces south, has sliding glass doors, and a very large window on the east. I had it redone 2 years ago, with ceramic tile flooring because I intended to use it for plants. Then my daughter moved back in so she could go school (she has a 4 year old). So I've never gotten to use it yet.

This has all come about in the last few days.

My little pear tomatoes are growing pretty well, but they're not turning yellow - anyone know why? I've never grown them before.

So, please, does anyone have ideas for dry shade tolerant plants?

Susan

Susan, just from my experience this summer, the fragrant sumac are doing fine under oaks without supplemental water. Also the helianthus hirsutus that you helped me identify are going OK too, same habitat. They may not be good larva host plants because I don't see anything eating on them right now. Both seem to do OK as long as they get about 1/2 day sun. Some get more shade than that and are hanging in there. Some low growing plants, butterfly pea, make it down in the woods, part sun to open shade, with no care. Very pretty blossom. The goldenrod is blooming at the edges of the woods, part sun. The native "beautyberry" (callicarpa) patch is making it so far. They are related to honeysuckle but not invasive and don't twine around the other plants. There are some nursery cultivars that are prettier but I don't know if they would have the same tolerance for adverse conditions. Again, I don't know if butterflies like them.

Gayle

I have one of the callicarpa cultivars and it does not like the drought AT ALL. It wimps along, and has just about lost all of its foliage. It is a water guzzler. Actually, the itea stands up better than it does.
So apparently the newer cultivars are not as sturdy as the native.

I tried to plant calycanthus, but it didn't do well for me. Could have been the location, but it should have been fine. The west side of my shady back yard just does not seem to provide a good environment for plants, even though I amend, amend, amend. It gets some late afternoon sun, but not enough to call it sunny at all. Probably about 1 hour. But things just absolutely wilt in this location, except for the vinca (ugh!) and the northern sea oats, liriope, and a few coneflowers. I've tried to grow several things there, but they always die out. It's almost like there's a black walnut or something, but there's not. Too many trees along that fence line for sure (neighbors).

The clumping shade grass will grow there, but that's about it, too. I suppose because the roots are shallow.

I am growing a passion vine that takes shade, P. lutea, in the back yard, but it's taking a while for it to get established. I also have a couple of aristolocheas that I am trying to get established, A. serpentaria, and A. clematitis. A. macrophylla is on the East side. Doesn't seem to demand too much water.

I will plant much more Rue next year, which can take the shade in Oklahoma. Up North it needs more sun. Also, am starting some Zizia aptera from seed (food for black swallowtails), which are shade plants. Much more substantial foliage than fennel or dill. And they are native to Oklahoma.

I may go to using a lot of pots back there. They need to be watered more often, but it's more of a "controlled" watering than "in-ground". I will be planting a few trees that I intend to keep small - sassafras, pawpaw, and perhaps something in the prunus family, for the butterflies and moths. Rhus sounds really good to me. It's a host plant for butterflies AND moths.

Right now I'm raising eumorpha achemon sphinx moths - they use Virginia Creeper as a host plant. They are beautiful cats - right now in brown form with white sphericals along their body. They are the one group of sphingidae that lose their horns in the 3rd to 5th instar of growth. Fascinating moths.

I think I could have grown some of my senna (cassia) in the back yard, but I didn't realize it. Also, the boehmeria (false nettle). It took some water to establish it, but it's doing fine w/o a whole lot now.

Thanks for all of your suggestions. If you think of some more, please let me know.

Susan

Hi all! Sorry to hear of so many losing well-loved plants. I have been watering about once a week (on a well and also worried about it) and have lots very few plants. But most of my plants get some shade during the day, which is going to be my strategy for the future. I have found that even full sun plants will do fine in some shade when it's this hot and dry. (I have crepe myrtle, purple and yellow coneflower, forsythia, daisies, tall phlox, mock orange, roses, dahlias, lilacs (old fashioned), rose of sharon, ornamental grasses, flowering almond, day lillies, gladiolas, common annuals). I have an acre with probably 30 trees, but I'm planting more trees so each of my flower beds gets some shade, especially in the hotest parts of the day. I started three new flower beds three years ago in full sun and they are the ones that are stuggling. The ones that get a few hours of shade - even full sun plants - are doing much better. Some of these are inland sea oats, tall phlox, mock orange, mums, lilac, crepe myrtle, nandina, forsythia.

I really liked the idea of the trenches with compost. I think I'll try that, and also more mulch. I'm giving up my veggie garden and am switching to a wildflower plot instead. I lost my berry bushes early in the summer (blackberry, blueberry, raspberry) and that's it for me.

The plants that are doing the best with the least attention in my yard are lavender, yucca, spiraea (white and pink kinds), burford holly, nandina (tall and dwarf), crepe myrtle (well-established ones), and viburnum (it's in total shade), and annual periwinkle. All my ornamental grasses are doing well both in part shade and full sun. Also native and domesticated hummingbird vines (which I really wouldn't mind losing some of!). My columbines are surviving with modest water, but often die back this time of year anyway.

I started splashing water on the leaves when I water the roots and have seen good response from the plants. I think they get so dusty they can't "breathe" and do much better with a good washing off when I water. I often water by hand so I don't waste it and can inspect my plants more closely - and I splash myself at the same time so I can tolerate being out there with them!

Okiegardener,

Glad to hear things are doing well for you. I could use more shade.
What kinds of trees do you have? I have lived with some that were impossible to grow anything under (silver maple, may it rest in peace, I danced on its three-foot diameter stump) and oaks which to take some of the water but not like the maple.

I think the blackjacks are worse water hogs than the post oaks, just my impression. I don't have any hickories close to the house so I don't know about them.

Gayle

This weekend I piled more wood chips on my hydrangeas and then soaked them good. No more sulking since then.

What's done well for me in the heat:

Russian sage is a miracle plant, blooming when nothing else does.

My gaura is also on its third bloom. Someone up there mentioned that.

The daisies were weird this year. It took them forever to finally bloom, but they're still hanging in there.

Crepe myrtle, caladium in the shade

I planted toad lily for the first time, and it's OK so far. Even looks like it's putting on buds. Also planted Northern sea oats, and they look fine in the same bed (west side, between the house and the pecan tree in a very dense clay bed. BTW, I recommend clay for drought, as long as you keep the mulch piled on.)

The one plant I truly love that doesn't need a lot of water, and I know a lot of you are going to say, "what the heck does she want that plant for?", is Tetrapanax, rice paper plant. The leaves are about 1.5-2' across on it. It stays a beautiful green shade, and it does shade the plants beneath it. Mine is now about 5' tall. It does sucker, but it's in a location that gets mowed around it, so the suckering does not bother me. It's very ornamental looking and unusual. I love it! It dies back to the ground every year, but is quick to rebound in spring.

Last year was my first year with it. Bought it at the herb sale for $2. Well worth the price. I had also bought one from Plant Delights - it died. Don't ask.

My cassia alatas are about 5.5' tall. They are also beautiful foliage plants. I really hope they bloom. No sign yet. This is also called Candlestick tree. I want to have seed so I can grow it again. I love to just watch it because the leaves fold up at night and open up in the morning. A lot of dispute on the hardiness of this plant. USDA says it is hardy in Oklahoma. We'll see.

My garden in the front is just wild, wild, wild looking this year. Crabgrass got into it and has taken over a lot of it. I don't know how. I mulched it about 4" deep. Still didn't help. So among the zinnias, cosmos, white hyacinth bean, passion flower and Scarlett O'Hara MG, lavendar, rosemary, cassia, and tropical milkweed, I have tufts of crabgrass flowers sticking up all over the place. I'm trying to pull it out, but geez, it's a chore.

The butterflies do love the wildness of it all, though. I have gulf fritillaries all over the place. They love the passion vine (host plant). I have little suckers of passiflora coming up in different locales now. I need to pot them up and put them in different places.

My jasmine vine really grew this year. No bloom yet, but perhaps next year, which will be it's 3rd year.

Has anyone grown duranta from seed?

Susan

More lantana, cherry laurels, tall purple phlox, hot peppers, sedums, and yaupon hollies.

New to forum. Been in Chickasha since 2001- came from Seattle. Been doing massive plantings since 2001. Have been checking in and reading OK and Texas forums from time to time.

This spring I planted 6 REDBUDS along the front of the house and 4 in shadier back yard-- I think the blue green heart shaped leaves and the soft open appearance are very attractive. All but 2 are holding up - with lots of water. I hope they don't all up and die about the time I get to retire! PLEASE tell me this isn't going to happen!

Crepe myrtles are definitely doing great- but they look like dead sticks most of the year! Have 6 or 7- Don't want more!

Yaupon hollies doing well, have lost 3 other species even though they were 6 ft tall and in ground 4 years.

I LOVE Lantana and tall phlox- the purple ones have never stopped blooming.

Canna foliage looks good even without flowers - so they stay.

Going to remove 5 buddleia- they look sad most of the summer- every year since I planted them.

My rosemaries and lavenders are huge and showing no signs of distress.

Coreopis also loves the heat- flowered all summer.

More Russian Sage! Drifts of it--everywhere. Penstemon is good, but for one that just died--the theme of this year, things just died. Even lost a couple of false indigos. The prickly pear is great--I wonder more people don't grow it as an ornamental. Rose The Fairy also faring well. Still enough zinnias to provide the altar at church with flowers, but they are close to being done. And the other sun lovers--rudbeckia, echinachea, gaillardia healthy as well, but have to water some of them at least a bit.

Happily, we mulched everything using either bark mulch for ornamentals or ground cottonseed hulls for fruits and berries. My husband did trojan work on 8 raised beds, using two railroad ties depth, and mixed one esp. for blueberries--knock on wood, doing well, but I put about 5 gallons of water a day (in a plastic bucket with a hole in it) on each of the two, plus have them covered with weed mat and heavy mulch.

My new strawberries were going great--and the heat seems to have snuffed them out. Raised beds as well, but not mulched as heavily, though I water them everyday.

Does anyone know if I can order strawberries for fall planting? Given how beastly hot the summer was, I've noticed the plants I put in in the fall are doing better than those in the spring. My hardy hibiscus, fall planted, is at least twice as large as the spring planted. The hard part is remembering to water in the winter.

And now I'm fighting those giant green beatles on the white peach--are those Japanese beatles? I would love to be organic, which I was, mostly, in Seattle, but being in the country in Oklahoma kicks my butt.

Final question: If any other country dwellers are reading this, did you have more grasshoppers this year?

On a positive note, I brought back my Reine des Violettes (sp?) old rose from near extinction and the french, name forgotten, of course, rose is doing well.

And 5 grapes are doing great (freshly planted) and one just up and died.

Between the drought of this year and last, and the record temps, this year is a real bear. Things just die, no matter what you do, some just die--it's so frustrating.

I'm just so happy we weed matted and mulched everything--we have a head start on next year, at least. And more Russian sage! :-) (Perovskia)

Bakedbeans,

"Final question: If any other country dwellers are reading this, did you have more grasshoppers this year? "

Though we have only lived in OK for a year, I'd say, yes, there are more than last year. This is probably because of the continuing drought. I understand that dry weather brings more grass hoppers.

George
Tahlequah, OK

We had fewer grasshoppers. Very early it looked like it would be a plague with them. When I walked to the greenhouse, the noise they make when flying would drown everything else out. But then we had a wet period that probably broke the hatching cycle and the bird population cleaned them up. I've probably only picked 5 or 6 off plants this year.

Just from my experience, but I would think going organic would be much easier in the country. You don't have neighbors using chemicals and killing all your predator insects and birds.

If a infestation gets started, usually predators will show up on their own and take care of it. Sometimes I will go gather some lady beetles from another area and leave them on the infested plant.

rjjl or Norman: I'm organic as much as I can be, which is to say I spray when needed, rather than dousing routinely. I keep a gardening notebook and now am developing a record of when to use what. The beatles are actually Green June Beatles and unbelievable. Sevin is the only thing that will kill them.

I hate using it, but the alternative is to buy peaches at the store--where I have no control over how they are sprayed.

Cedar apple rust was awful this year--I had used Rescue for dormant spary and switched to Mancozeb and have had better luck. At least it's under control.

In my orchard, that white peach, China Pearl, is very late and, for the firs time, it got ripe enough to get brown rot. It's never lasted that long before because it's the largest of the trees and, after losing my crop to deer three years running, and investing big cash into non-toxic deer spray and predator urine, I discovered the real culprits one morning--Oppossums, munching happily on the peaches right down to the pits.

Now I put chicken wire, all crumpled up, under the trees and the predators won't walk on it. It's extra wire we had sitting around, so it's free--non toxic, cruelty free, etc.

By the way--The China Pearls are the sweetest of all the peaches of the four varieties in my little orchard. (One of each) Those possums aren't stupid. :-)

I bought some of those soaker hoses for next year.
I'll be using them everywhere no matter what the weather's doing in Shawnee.
Connie

Well, August has been a very productive month, and we've had some rain, so some things are looking better. Can you believe it, my hosta aurea-marginata that burned to the ground has put up new stalks? Never seen that before.

Anyway, the Monarchs have been abundant, and I have about 40 chrysalids, with more coming all the time. Had to go get some more milkweed to feed them.

Put out a rotten banana and drew in the Hackberry Emperors and Question Marks like crazy today!

Had to get another passion vine to supply the Gulf Fritillaries as well as more Rue for the Black Swallowtails. But, all in all, everything is looking much, much better.

Still wanting to give these elephant ears away to someone if you want them:

Black Ruffles (ruffled edge)
Rhubarb (red stems)
Lime Zinger (xanthosoma, leaves point upwards)
Mickey Mouse (xanthosoma, leaves white/green mottled with a drip tip)
Fontanesii (purplish colored foliage)
Chicago Harlequin (stems are green/white striped)
Portodora (green, unusual looking when larger)

Susan

I am planning on having a mild summer next year.

Denial or dreaming?

Susan

My plans for next summer's heat wave?
Well...since I ran the well almost dry this summer I have promised to only have vegies that are finished by July 4th, flowers that can fend for themselves, and have given my 60 some pots to friends. We are traveling to a cooler part of the country all of next July and nobody will be home to water so I'm giving up what I can so it won't die. If I put soaker hoses on a timer I might consider saving the roses and dahlias. I'm taking a break.

Aunt Net

Aunt Net - I am not going to be gone during July (that I know of), but I gave away a lot of my water guzzlers. I plan to GO NATIVE, with those plants that are drought tolerant. I thought dahlias were more drought tolerant because of their tuberous roots.

Susan

Ah Ha! I moved in to my house two Summers ago and have a backyard that backs up to a creek and is a little over .80 acres....I was thrilled at the prospects of beautiful beds and trees. I thought I was just an idiot when no matter what I couldn't keep my beautiful yard in shape in August. I'm glad to see it was as much the drought's fault as my own! I couldn't keep enough water going and had a $120 water bill which blew me away. Next Summer I will plant more native!
Thanks!

My yard is smaller (only 2 small lots in mid-OKC). My water bill was $180. Be careful with your natives, some actually are moisture lovers.

I finally had to give up watering my back yard because I couldn't keep anything watered enough. I'd water, and a few hours later, it would be dry.

I'm really hoping with this reversal of the original prediction of an "el nino" winter, we will have a much better summer. We are already 1" over the average rainfall for this month alone. Let's hope!

Susan

I hope Susan is right and that El Nino will give us all some drought relief. Sometimes El Nino brings us a really wet summer....does anyone remember the summer of 2004? It wouldn't quit raining here at our house. Other times, though, El Nino peters out in April or May, so I guess we'll have to keep our fingers crossed.

What worked for me in the summer of '06:

Lots of mulching. Mulching early and often.

Watering very early or very late in the day to minimize evaporation.

Using soaker hoses and drip irrigation.

Grouping plants together with similar needs, that is....put all your "thirstiest" plants in one bed and give them more water if they need it.

Growing more stuff in containers.

Water gardening is great, but I did have to keep adding water to the smallest pond so it wouldn't dry up completely. I moved all my water plants to that one pond and let the big ponds dry up.

Planting mostly native plants and a few very well adapted non-native plants.

One of the most important things I have done these last few years is to observe how all the native plants on our acreage react to the weather. I watch to see which ones are the hardiest, which ones come back even after going dormant and losing all their leaves. I try to learn from the native plants, and it guides me in making decisions about what to plant and what not to plant too.

In the veggie garden, I always try to have plants in the ground as early as possible in the spring so they can produce before the hot weather and lack of rain kill them. I evaluate the veg. garden in mid-June and decide whether it is worth it financially to continue to water, or whether to turn off the hose and finish out the summer with 'dry-land' gardening. I do always put a few tomato plants and pepper plants in containers so I keep them going by watering them even if I let the rest of the veg garden go dry.

I select varieties carefully. Vegetables that have been grown for many years in the southwest do better for me than many of the modern-day hybrids that guzzle water. The same is true of many flowers.

And, I'm hoping for a grasshopper year this year EXACTLY like we had last year. It was our best year ever as we had hardly any grasshoppers at all. Our county had lots of grasshoppers, but they weren't at our house. I think the guineas had a lot to do with that. Also, I've put out semasphore every other year or so, so it is probably well established on our land and is doing its job in keeping the grasshopper population down.

My poor guineas had to range far and wide to find the grasshoppers they wanted to eat. Luckily my neighbors are very tolerant and didn't mind having the guineas coming over to eat their ticks and grasshoppers.

As far as I know, except for the vegetable garden which mostly died after I quit watering it in late June, I didn't lose many plants. I did lose some of the common big green elephant ears that were in dry shade. And I lost my banana shrub.

Plants that survived the drought of 06:

Native redbuds (I watered them once a month, just when they seemed about to die. I usually don't water them at all.)

Native oaks, hackberries, pecans, willows, walnuts, hickories, ashes, some sumac, wild blackberries, wild grapes, trumpet vine and elms all survived (unirrigated).

The native roughleaf dogwoods and persimmons suffered greatly and had lots of leaf scorching and lost some but not all leaves. They didn't die though.

The wild plums that grow along all the fence lines here in southern Oklahoma all died, or at least went dormant. We're waiting to see if they green up in the spring.

The Mexican plums handled the heat well.

Native cottonwoods had a little dieback near the top of the crown, but were otherwise unscathed.

Understory plants in the woods did better than prairie plants in the meadows in full sun. Guess the shade helped them. These included black cherries, American beautyberries, indian currants, redbuds, black haw viburnums, virginia creeper, greenbrier and poison ivy (in the shade they lived, in the sun they died), possom haw hollies, `and many others I can't identify. The river oats grasses went dormant exceptionally early.

All the prairie grasses went dormant early and many wildflowers did the same. However, the native sunflowers hung in there all summer as did the milkweeds and a few other flowers like the greenthread daisies.

Some of the plants we've planted in the yard around our house that did well: desert willow, chaste tree, four o'clocks, American cross vine, sweet autumn clematis, Burford hollies, southern wax myrtle, cannas, verbena bonariensis, purple wintercreeper, the low, spreading ground-cover type junipers and Madam Galens trumpet creepers.

Most sumacs along the roadside went totally dormant (we thought they were dead) and then revived in the fall.

Some Eastern Red Cedars turned brown and died but some didn't. As far as the ones that survived...they'll be dying soon as we continue to cut them down and remove them. With our large wooded area, this is an ongoing job.

We had a small amount of rain at the end of July and then again at the end of August. This caused many of the wildflowers that normally bloom in spring/early summer to suddently sprout and bloom. Maybe they were there all along, but were dormant and so we hadn't noticed them.

The fall bloomers like liatris amd goldenrod and helnium and the little fall asters started a little late but put on a great show. Of course, it doesn't take much water to keep them happy.

The plants that surprised me the most? Eggplants and my sweet peppers and hot peppers. Long after I stopped watering the veg garden, they were flowering and fruiting and carrying on, business as usual, in spite of the drought. They were still fruiting when they froze in late November.

Okra, sweet potatoes and back-eyed peas fared better than most of the other veggies.

On the edge of the garden, the white-flowered daturas (aka jimsonweed) hung on through the heat. The devil's claw did not. The black-eyed susan vines got really sad looking after I stopped watering the veg. garden (they grow on the fence that surrounds it), but stayed alive and put on new leaves and new flowers in the fall after small amounts of rain began to fall. They were tougher than I expected them to be.

Sadly, despite my best efforts, the bermuda grass DID NOT die.

Hoping for a better year, courtesy of El Nino, in 2007.

Dawn

Dad gum bermuda! Maybe overwatering would "die it", as my granddaughter says. Hee Hee.

Milkweed is tuberous and that's why it probably survived. Anything tuberous that can store water and nutrients will survive better than fibrous-rooted plants. What a great list - thanks, Dawn!

Daturas love, love, love heat, so I'm not surprised they did well. I've seen many a dry summer, revive plants thought otherwise dead, to refoliate and produce blooms. Remember the year that the Bradford pears and other ornamental fruit trees did that in the fall after we had a rainy August?

My Virginia Creeper loses all of its foliage in fall before it has a chance to turn red! Does it every year despite watering it. Don't know why. I love my VC because of the caterpillars it attracts (many sphinx and other beautiful moths).

Question - does your chaste tree (Vitex), attract butterflies. We've had an ongoing discussion about that on the Butterfly Forum, and many say it does not. Just wondered what your opinion is.

Back to winter sowing.....

Susan

Susan,

No, the chaste tree does not seem to attract butterflies that I've ever particularly noticed. I'll watch it when it is blooming this summer and see if they are around.

The plants I have that attract butterflies like mad are the zinnias and verbena bonariensis. And, my verbena is beginning to naturalize itself here and there in some really sorry clay soil between the road and the garden. Not a lot...just one here and one there. I like that it is tough enough to do that without overdoing it and becoming invasive.

Dawn

Yes, my zinnias (especially the single blooms) and verbena bonariensis (planted 1st time last year) really did attract the butterflies. Another popular nectaring plant was my lavendar. Butterflies just love the stuff. Salvias, my tropical milkweed, duranta repens, cassia alata, Gregg's mistflower (eupatorium) and Joe Pye Weed were also big draws, as well as speedwell, cleome, catmint (nepeta), garlic chives (hairstreaks were all over this), and Aster tartaricus 'Jindai', a new aster I purchased the year before. I have some kind of wild aster (very low growing; hugs the ground) with little white-pinkish-lavendarish flowers that the Dainty Yellows just loved, too. Always thought it was a weed, but now know it is a lovely little nectar plant for the DYs and also the Silvery Checkerspots. I had several weeds I let grow and flower this year, that the butterflies just loved. Of course, I also put out a plate of rotting bananas for the Question Marks, Mourning Cloaks, Hackberry Emperors, and Tawny Emperors to nectar on (they don't nectar on flowers).

I hope some of the seeds I am planting this winter will provide more nectar. A lot are natives, like New England Asters, gaillardia, coreopsis, buttonbush, verbena hastata, agastache cana, Huisache Daisies, arabis, epilobiums, liatris, Purple Prairie Clover, silphium laciatum, solidago, and verbesinas.

Since the chaste tree does not really attract butterflies, I decided to just go with the two butterfly bushes, 'Pink Delight', and 'White Profusion', which many have said the butterflies love, especially swallowtails.

Thanks for the tip, Dawn.

Susan