I'm watching as much tv as I can so I don't have to think abou it.

Omar

I haven't lived in Texas very long and I am still trying to get the basics established, in additon to adding some color.

I'm writing down everything I planted this year that can't take the heat so I won't buy it again next year. I'm also writing down all of the plants that are holding up well right now. Under "Maybe/Probably Not" list are plants that tried their best but may do better in part shade, including blooms and foilage that bleached in the Texas sun.

I also do neighborhood drive-arounds from time to time to see what the neighbors' plants are doing and make note of things that are holding up exceptionally well, or things that are burning up. I try to deep water every evening.

If this happens again next year, I'm taking Omar's advice.

Here are a couple Never Agains:

New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax): totally losing steam, not 'all that' anyway, slow growing, and after I bought five of them, I read they may not be frost hardy here. Shame on me, I know.

Nasturtium: I love the foilage and the flowers but they like it cooler, much cooler. Weren't worth the effort compared to other plants much better suited to Texas.

I'm ripping out things that are struggling, rather than wasting water on them. Looks like it's going to be a lonnngg hot summer and I'd rather look at mulched soil than wilted plants any day. In the fall I'll replace them with more drought resistant stuff.

I pruned my Henry Duelberg salvia down to a couple of inches about a month ago and it's grown back better than ever. May try that on some other things.

Don't forget to put out some water dishes/basins for the birds--and keep them filled! In this heat I have to refill mine just about every day.

I'm with you, watering is to much for me right now. What lives can stay and what doesn't make it oh well to bad. I am trying to keep our grass a live :(

Even some of the natives are complaining of not being watered enough.
100 plus temps is to much for everyone and everything.

I probably screwed up - I cut down my white rain lilies yesterday cause they were laying over and bleaching out badly, and are right in front of my sidewalk garden. After I did it I got to wondering if they will bloom. They looked ugly before I cut them, and they look pretty ugly now. Last year they looked great!
Everything in the sun garden (which in my yard is quite small) looks awful. Even the rudbeckia and mexican mint marigolds are wilting in the middle of the day. The black and blue salvia aren't blooming worth a flip, and I can usually always count on them. Even the blackfoot daisies have stopped blooming. Grrrr!!

A great topic, Roselee.

Gardening in San Antonio is different than gardening in colder climates because you have to plan for two dormant gardens each year, one in heat of summer and another in January. The reward is that the rest of the year, something is growing and blooming.

When we moved here last year we found a yard that had been neglected for more than 10 years and viewed it as an opportunity to create a landscape that looks good, but requires little maintenance and supplemental water. Salvia greggii, lantana, rosemary, liriope, and sage were already growing here so we have kept those. I really want to avoid the desert look and have more flowers, so I'm filling in with plumbago and would like to identify other prolific bloomers.

In addition to online research, I look at landscapes around my neighborhood for ideas and have made a number of trips to the shops at La Cantera (for research purposes only, of course) LOL.

Rock oak deer: Take a look at Dicliptera suberecta, Mexican firespike (blooms in autumn), Turk's cap, Katie ruellia, and lavender (only if you have good drainage). All but the lavender either need or will tolerate shade.

I'm like Omar. I've been staying inside a lot - DH keeps asking me why I'm not working outside!!!! lol Anyway, I've just let my hanging baskets go crispy and try to water only the plants I really want saved when I think they will not make it one more day. Fortunately, a lot of my plants are well established and they seem to still be doing alright with minimum care. What gets me - the weeds don't seem to mind the heat!

Thanks, treelover. Mexican firespike looks like a good one I hadn't considered before and it's evergreen.

I do have some of the plants you mentioned, mostly from the March swap (thanks all) and Lowe's clearance. They are in a small test bed and will get moved as they spread out and we build more planting beds.

Of course, we're not outside much right now except to water and check for deer damage.

I wish I could say that I'm helping the environment but I water every day in this heat since my landscape is new. I have mulched and we're planning drip irrigation, just have to get out there and do it.

Pam

I'm cutting some things back, but mainly because they have out grown their allotted space, or to promote more blooms. The petunias, that are usually toast by August, are already gone, so I replaced them with annual vinca, which takes the heat a lot better. I deadheaded the esparanzas, and that's getting to be quite a job. They will be in full bloom again soon.

I am so thankful, everyday, that I put in the irrigation in early spring. Except for one bed, that I still have to hand water, my watering is all done by the time I go outside at daylight. Since installing the irrigation, I haven't found the hydrangeas wilted even once.
Jim

Actually, Mexican firespike does die down to the ground at the first frost, but sends up new shoots in the spring. The past couple of winters mine hasn't done that since it hasn't been cold enough here, so I've just trimmed off anything that looks scraggly before the new growth starts.

BTW, it's very easy to get new plants, which I learned by chance when I used the stalks as part of a new lasagna bed one fall. The next year I got a huge new clump of them growing up from the clippings I'd buried.

Not exactly cutting back, more like hunkering down. We save rain water and have three 300 gallon tanks in back of the garage that we save it in. So far we have emptied one of them keeping things watered. A few plants have succumbed to the heat, but I have mostly shade, so it hasn't been as bad as in some places.

The rose garden, which takes up a lot of the sunny area of my three acres, looks terrible and I can't be sure right now, but all of them are hanging on except Nancy Reagan. She was small anyway and unwell when the heat wave hit, and as of yesterday looked like she was on her last leg, er, root. Many of the roses have absolutely no leaves at all-my Queen Elizabeth is still blooming but has no leaves, so pitiful. The only rose that is flourishing is Rugosa Alba, I never saw her looking so good, deep green leaves, lush growth and covered with blooms. Go figure, when everyone else is looking fine, Alba gets chlorotic and looks like she's about to bite the big one.

The veggie garden is flourishing, so much so that I can't even get between rows to pick. And how can the mosquitoes be this bad when the temps are so high? There's something very wrong about that.

Well, since I'm at work all day in a room with no windows when the heat is the worst, I only have to contend with it on weekends. And I'm so desperate for sunshine by Saturday, not only do I get up early so I don't miss a drop of it, when I'm not out there in it, I'm sitting on the porch in the swing just looking at it. Two more years of this, Friends, two more years then I'm pullin' chocks and getting the blazes out of here. Cheryl

Cheryl, where are you going in two years?

Pam

I still water everything deeply once every week during hot weather. The only reason my lawn looks good is because I care more about trees so I water them deeply to promote more growth. I suppose it is easy to keep lawn looking great when you have 12 trees on .199 acres lot to water and grass happens to get water anyway.

treelover - Thanks for the additional info on Mexican firespike. This is why I depend on this site for real experiences from local gardeners. The Magnolia Gardens website I checked said it is evergreen, but they are likely in zone 9 and have fewer frosts.

It still looks like a good, heat tolerant, plant so I will look into getting a few.

Thanks everybody for letting us in on some of your strategies for getting yourself (Omar's way is one way :-) and your yard through this blast furnace summer.

Today and yesterday I spread about 20 large wheelbarrow loads of the chipped wood mulch. I am in a rush to get things under better control since I'll be gone a few days and Bob will be watering. Scary!

When I first considered using the city's wood chips I hesitated thinking they weren't very 'pretty' but if it keeps the roots cool and ALIVE who cares about pretty at this point? I can already tell that just by having the extra insulation the plants aren't wilting as quickly even though they had a pretty good layer of oak leaves covering the soil. It seems the wilting is not all about lack of water. Sometimes it is from the hot ground.

Cheryl, is it the confines of an office that you're getting out of in two years? That's how I read it -- hope so. Retirement is wonderful!

Cupcake, good idea to write down what plants are doing well when you are cruising the neighborhood!

Treelover, yes -- the water evaporates very quickly from the bird bath and from the mud puddle I fixed for the muddaubers. Didn't take them long to find it!

Pam, drip irrigation is easy to install. If I can do it anybody can. And you can install it in hot weather. I stay fairly comfortable with a old pillowcase containing chipped ice around my neck. Just wish my system was on a timer like I assume Jim's is!

Lou, I don't know how you manage to water only ever two weeks. BTW, the soy bean meal was used on the lawn this spring as per your instructions and it is really helping the grass.

Holly, you are so right in that established plants take the heat so much better. Pam, some of my plants are new too and need to be babied to get through their first year.

Rock, a friend gave me a start of a pink firespike. Glad to hear it is easy to propagate. I'll get some started for the SAPS. They are great shade plants, but wilt in the sun.

Deb, I just got a start of black and blue salvia from Jolana. I have a cardboard box propped up beside it until it gets acclimated to the heat. Does it like some shade?

Barb, your stategy was mine last year when the knee was bad. Lost some things -- mostly roses from not enough water, but oh well ...

Someone should start a thread on what some happy surprises have been this year in this heat. I am impressed that newly planted this year Angelonea and Bat Faced cuphea are not wilting no matter what!

Again -- many thanks to everyone who replied! We'll get through it one way or another :-)

Happy Texas gardening!

Pam, I'm going to retire and stay in Springtown. When I said I was going to get out of here, I was at work and that's where I want to get out of. Cheryl

Is it time to consider changing the zones yet? I don't think the weather in my zone 8 is going to hold much longer.
I might start considering this as more of a zone 9 when choosing plants. Just going to have to watch the winter frost date changes. I've gotten used to going out during the early morning and evening hours and don't even try to do anything during the day unless I see something in distress that needs immediate attention.

I can't believe we are only now heading into the 'real' heat of summer. Two or three more months of this is almost
impossible to fathom. I too am concentrating mostly on my gorgeous and beloved live oaks that provide so much in the way of beauty, mulch, shade, habitat, etc. that I can't imagine my yard without them. It would be a travesty if they succumbed to these extreme temps.

Again this year I'm fighting nature on two fronts...drought and grasshoppers. I do think the Nolo Bait has helped a lot with the grasshopper problem this year...so far, but I've also had to put it out every two weeks because they just keep on coming. I live in a rural area surrounded by fields so I'm sure the grasshoppers are much worse here than in the suburbs and cities. Their shear numbers and persistence can wear me down (kind of like the drought itself), but at least they aren't as bad as last year when they stripped EVERYTHING bare, even the shrubs.

All I can say is, thank goodness for those tough native plants (visit the Lady Bird Wildlife Center to see which natives are holding their own). And I know people may be tired of plants like Nandina, but they are tough, tough, tough. I tore out many of them around the house a few years back to create space for flower beds, leaving just a few groupings as more of a specimen plant and they are awesome. Their leaves are so colorful and graceful year round. In fact it would be futile to try and kill them short of yanking them out of the ground!

So true about those NZ flax. I love the way they look, but they couldn't even take the dappled shade, so they are OUT. The California grower who shipped them to me tried to warn me.

My established African butterfly iris's are doing well. Not too many blooms right now, but they look nice as a tall high grassy look and do well in a variety of locations/sun exposures. Maybe African plant varieties are now more appropriate to our climate than NZ or even California varieties (outside of Tx. natives of course).

Hurray for drip systems and mulch. They really do help so much. Even my new brugs and cannas are doing okay.
BTW my brugs have not grown enough to flower, but I hope they are getting established for future blooming.

I have luck with northern Mexican varieties. The South African plants are good, but one has to be careful about which region of South Africa they are from. A lot of the gorgeous cape region plants are used to a cool summer. Even those from the inner deserts like to be put in the afternoon shade (aloes) here in Texas. I like the Mediterranean plants in my area of Texas. I have great drainage and the humidity is a bit less than Austin, so Lavenders and some Califorian sages (blooming now) seem to grow well if I add a lot of decomposed granite to the soil. I am experimenting with some eastern Med. (israeli) salvias. What a year to experiment. Baptism by fire. I am thinking that some moroccan salvias might be a good thing. My Salvia Darcyi is doing great and my salvia regla is to die for this year.

I'm in the Austin area, and here's my list of what has and hasn't performed with minimal care in regard to flowering shrubs and perennials:

GREAT:
Cenizo
Oleander
Lantana
Dwarf Pomegranate
Cherry Sage
Flame Acanthus
Bulbine
Society Garlic
Red Yucca
Four Nerve Daisy
Canna

GOOD
African Iris
Spider Lily
Bottlebrush (standard and Little John)
Lily of the Nile
Gold Columbine
Duranta
Golden Thryallis
Katie Ruella
Coreopsis
Rock Rose
Blue Plumbago

Fair:
Oxalis (green leaved)
Shell Ginger
Rose of Sharon
Balloon Flower
Pineapple Guava

Poor:
Camellia
Gardenia
Hydrangea
Coral Bells
Oxalis (Red Leaved)

Needless to say, with the relentless drought and heat, everything's struggling to a point right now. This is how my plants have stacked up though, given what they have to work with.

Nice list, bjb! I'm also in zone 8b and I'd add these:

GREAT:
Firecracker plant (Russelia equisetiformis)
Copper Canyon daisy (Compositae Tagetes lemmonii)
Lavender -- with good drainage
Rosemary
Turk's cap (Malvaviscus arboreus) -- part shade
John Fanick phlox
Artemisia 'Powis Castle'
American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) -- part shade
Texas mountain laurel (Sophora secundiflora)
Purple-leaf vitex (V. trifolia purpurea)
Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima)
Mexican mint marigold (Tagetes lucida)
Coral vine (Antigonon leptopus)
Henry Deulberg salvia
Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)
Aloe vera -- shade, in containers
Confederate jasmine vine (Trachelospermum jasminoides)
Germander (Teucrium chamaedrys)

GOOD:
Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha)
Oakleaf hydrangea (H. quercifolia) -- shade
Gaura (G. lindheimeri)
Scented pelargoniums -- part shade
Lemon grass (Cymbopogon)
Foxtail fern (Asparagus meyeri)
Knock Out rose
Purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum')
Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Blue daze (Evolvulus glomeratus)

Also excellent is this little daisy that's been blooming nicely for the past couple of months (Can anyone ID it?):

bjb and treelover - Thanks for the lists, I plan to refer to them as I plan out my new yard.

My rock roses just up and died last week after doing great for a year. They have not been neglected and even get some shade in the hottest part of the day. Can't figure this out. The websites say they live for about three years and then reseed.

treelover, I think that plant is a type of gazania. It comes in many colors.

Omar

Here is a link that might be useful: Gazania

That's it, Omar! Thank you. -- Carol

This is our first summer back in TX after being in Montana for two years! We keep asking ourselves -- was it always this hot??? :-)

We've finally settled into our house enough that I feel like really digging in the dirt, but it's so hot no one wants to be outside. I've been going out from about 6:30 AM - 8 AM and 7:45 PM - 9 PM and spending every other minute as air conditioned as possible. It is better than the snow, though, because you couldn't escape that for months! At least the heat dissipates at night.

Driving around and walking around Houston, I've been keeping notes on what I see actually surviving the heat. A lot of them are on your lists! I'm compiling them for "seeds/plants to acquire for the fall".

I also see a lot of cone flowers, mealy blue sage, verbena and portulaca. Oh and trumpet creeper.

I saw a great planting with butterfly bush, mealy blue sage and purple cone flower down by the bayou trail.

This heat is miserable, and the looks of my various beds is deflating at best. Like veganruthie, I can't stay out past 8am or so, and won't go out again until 8pm.

Mulch: rather than the mulch guys some of you posted in conversations, I'd rather have a mulch fairy to deliver a 1/2 ton on my driveway each March and November.

Great:
blackfoot daisy *
white tall ruellia *
Katie ruellia *%
"May Night" salvia *%
purple conefower *
various lantana *
bulbine *%
copper canyon daisy @
milkweed @#
"Lady in Red" salvia *
Turk's cap *%
dwarf cenizo
various daylilies
lamb's ear

* well established
% thriving and will need thinning in the fall
# needs supplemental watering
@ new, from butterfly plant sale in May

Not so well: in general, if I didn't get it planted immediately & long before the oppressive heat set in, it's in jeopardy.
flame acanthus @
hummingbird mint @
mountain sage @ (but much better than other "not so wells")
pentas @
"Snow Hill" salvia @
my baby rusty blackhaw viburnum @ :-(
"Black & Blue" salvia *#
"Black Knight" buddleias * (not bad, but not great)
firebush * (was doing well until I moved it for more breathing room - now it looks horrible)

~ freshair

I planted gomphrena (bachelor buttons) because I read that it is a C4(Special type of photosynthesis unique to some heat loving plants).
It's a member of the amaranth family.

It has not let me down. It's not as showy as some annuals, but it has been very heat tolerant. Planted early June in full, hot sun. Then, last week, I transplanted it. It wilted for a day and it's back to it's happy self. It's done better than my portulaca. And much better than my vinca.

Many of the warm season bunch grasses such a purple fountain grass are C4 plants. (Sounds almost futuristic)

I planted something called Ruby Glass Grass and it is also doing well.

pricklypear - thanks for the tip. I was literally trying to find an annual or substitute that would work in this heat to add to my plantings next year when I read your post.

I hope my yard survives. Live in middle of DFW. Got started in spring, front yard cleaned, weeded. Then my son died day after Easter and I havenm't been able to do squat. inside or outside. Is there any hope some of my perenials will survive unattended- can't even make it out to water.

petals...I don't know about your perennials, but just wanted to say how sorry I am about your son. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Petals, I too am saddened to hear when anyone loses one of their children. It is something that I've never experienced. Hopefully your tuning into the Texas GW is a good sign that the heart is beginning it's healing. Maybe you will feel like getting out and working some in the yard soon. Come to think of it (I had forgotten until just this moment) my serious gardening began during a deep grieving period of only a slightly different kind.

I have a sign in my garden that says "For every flower that blooms a wound in the heart is healed."

Some of your plants have no doubt survived and perhaps those that haven't you can replace with some from the great lists above. Blessings to your heart from ours ...

Oh Petals I am so sorry to hear about your son. Don't worry about the perennials, they are tough and we'll all be happy to help you when you feel like gardening again. If you need anything please let me know. Even if it's just someone to vent to.
Tally Ho

Hi Petals,

I'm very sorry to hear of your heavy heart. I live north of you, in Frisco, and I, too, would be happy to come and weed and water your flowers or help out somehow.

Don't be shy; you're among friends at Gardenweb Texas.

-cake

I just planted three Mexican sycamores back at our house in Central Texas a week ago. I decided to sacrifice some of my light for future SHADE even if it means I'll be limited in what I can plant! Shade seems very valuable right now.

Petals - I am so sorry for your loss. I would be more than happy to come and help you. I live in Dallas. If your open to help from a Gardener . . . I am available. Please email. Be well. LC

So grateful for the rain we had a few days ago - in this searing heat it seems almost as if it were a dream. I agree about being cautious with South African plants. When I moved here I immediately planted all my favourites from home, and they rewarded me by promptly dying in the winter - who knew a climate could have such extremes? Now almost all my Saffers are in pots and get to live in the garage in winter.

Most of my plants are Texas natives and they are doing well, my daylilies are of course troopers, and even the hydrangeas are making it with a little water every few days. I'm a bit confounded by my Phlox - my white and the blue have completely disappeared, and I am left with pink. I don't know if I inadvertently dug it all up in exchanges, the gopher got it, it just died - none of its there any more.

So sorry for your loss, Petals.

Hello R ! I don't remember seeing that sign in your yard about the flowers healing wounds in the heart. But it is a great sentiment, and perfect for Petals since the loss of her son. I've spent many sad days in my garden. You're on your knees anyway...the perfect position for prayer !

I wish I could live in Dallas for a little while, just to help Petals get her garden taken care of.

patty