Hi Danielle, The Incarnata doesn't have a huge taproot (someone please correct me if I am wrong); last year I dug up my 6 1.5-year old clumps and they were just that - clumpy! Mine did not have a taproot, very easy to move. I don't see why they wouldn't do well in a 1-gal pot... although they get a little tall so floppage *might* be an issue. I started some Curassavica a year ago from seed and transplanted some to 1-gal pots that I kept inside to feed monarch cats I brought in. They took well to the pots - and even bloomed (sort of!) this winter! I just chopped them back a bit as they got a bit floppy, but now they look pretty lush. Just keep 'em watered well, as you probably know from your other container plantings. Hope that helps. Great photos btw! Love the kittens. :) Sandy

Too hot (about 104F) here also - some of clematis are looking quite fried. On some of them I have been experimenting with sprinkling down the entire plant when I water which is every 2-3 days. With the ones I have treated that way I have less crispy damage and have had no powdery mildew or spider mite damage. Somehow I think this only works in drier areas - it may not work in high humidy areas. The results have been great on the ones I treated this way. Another thing about drier, hotter areas - I believe the clematis need more shade especially during the middle of the day. I am rethinking the design of my garden with this mind in terms of adding some small trees that let some filtered light through.

My family has 2 over there. My sister's oldest son is in the Marines in Afghanistan and my nieces DH (in the National Guard)in Kuwait. I feel for them all! That is unreal heat!

Good question. Using pot size to manage heat sounds inherently more problematic. It will be harder to keep deeper pots evenly moist or evenly dry or whatever. I don't want to have to keep track of such things, which will defeat the purpose of shifting almost everything into various formulations of the soil-free gritty mix. So I pot my plants based on the size of their rootballs, erring towards under-potting rather than over-potting, even in gritty mix which I instead tweak depending on what's going in them. For example, I no longer add granite to the substrate I use for haworthias and gasterias since they can get really hot and they have done better without it especially in summer. Often, elevating pots so that there is air circulation underneath is enough to allow pots to cool (prop them up on a bunch of bottle caps, for example; or use wire shower racks instead of wooden shelves). Also, not using glazed pots at all. I use mugs, true, but I drill holes large enough for them to be almost bottomless. Topdressing is also a heat and moisture management tool. I use them on adeniums which need a lot of water in summer (I don't like watering too often) and they like heat so I use granite both to heat up the plant and to lock in the moisture. I use them on my dorstenias and adromischus as well, except the last two are in part shade. Caudiciforms that hate wet roots are all in open substrate, i.e. no top dressing. The bottom line, though is that nothing beats researching individual plants and then finding the middle between adapting them to your growing conditions and adapting your growing conditions to their needs. One size never fits all. When I first started on succulents, I once worked on an Aeonium glandulosum for three years (research, CPU fans, substrate experiments, special light setups in winter). When it finally died, I celebrated lol I'll probably try again someday, after I buy Tenerife and Madeira. Pagan