Mosquitos are already dive bombing us when we step outside. They are so hungry even dryer sheets hanging out of all my pockets are not working as usual to keep them away. I have to wear mosquito repellant. The same people mentioned in the OP is still breeding them. They just don't think the standing water in buckets set along the roof line and left for weeks is a problem. I watched a TV show on building the Panama canal. Literally thousands of workers were dying of yellow fever and work stalled. Finally a doctor suspected it was carried by mosquitos and after the a great deal of persuasion the US gov't alloted money to combat them. A concentrated effort was made to dump all water where they might breed and add a little oil to standing water they couldn't dump. This was before the days of insecticides. Private property all over Panama was inspected and people were fined $5 for every wiggle tail found on their property. The next year they were down to 10 cases of yellow fever and just a few cases after that. The canal was finally able to be completed. So just keeping property clear of standing water in which they breed does work. I'm on my way out to toss mosquito dunks in the standing water along the drainage ditches near the house.

Debra, I have written down that Strope-Ward is the hybridizer. Not familiar with the name, but I like the flower. I am surprised that Annabelle's Blush is a problem for some, it always blooms nicely here, not too many blooms this year though. Maybe it likes to be abused. I moved it last fall because it was totally squooshed between Bill Norris & Juanita's Picotee delight, both much larger plants. Thought it would be happier with more room, but I think it liked the company. Oops, sorry. I was thinking the seedling looked like MM & have been comparing photos. I think I got confused when I posted, that one is MM, here is the seedling, SORRY! The red on this isn't quite ad rich, but it looks quite similar in person. According to my tag, the pod parent is Clown Parade. Saffron & Mocha appreciate the admiration. They are always climbing the trees, although as far as I know they have never caught a bird. Saffron fancies himself a fisher cat, he loves my goldfish pond, & it doesn't bother him to put his paw in. He fell in 2 or 3 times last year as a kitten. Mocha is the hunter, she comes up with moles fairly often. The heat is really bothering her though. She comes running to me mid day, panting & mewing pitifully. She has to come in out of the heat. Saffron pants from the heat too, I've never seen cats pant so much, & it isn't really hot yet. Well, it is really hot today!

Hazel, It isn't common for the chickens to drop dead in the heat. It is just that 2011 was so insanely hot. There are many ways to keep them cool. Some chickens will stand in a flat water pan filled with only a couple of inches of water and will cool off that way. I have used a small cat litter box for a chicken wading pool in this manner. They will dig into cool soil in a shady area, spread out their wings and cool off that way (just like they do when sunning themselves on a cooler, sunny day, but in this case they usally do it in the shade and I think they're cooling themselves. Oh, I did put ice cubes in their waterers that summer. I would put a whole lot of cubes in. Well, actually I made cubes. I froze blocks of ice in my deep freeze, using those freezer containers sold on the canning aisle. They hold 32 ounces. I'd put one block of ice in each waterer before I filled it with clean water in the morning, and I'd refill the freezer boxes to make new blocks of ice for the next day. That kept their water cool, which I think helped them in the tremendous heat. We keep a fan running in the coops, and the coop windows are open because we have quarter-inch hardware cloth nailed over the windows to keep coons and other beasties from breaking through the window screens that came with the windows. They are small windows, but between the windows and the fan, the chicken coop is not, at least, unbearable. I also gave the chickens some sort of melons every day, or Armenian cucumbers. I'd chill the melons or cukes, then slice them in half and put them on the ground. They'd clean out that rind completely, and I'd pick up the rind and toss it on the compost pile. I just did everything I could to help the chickens in the heat. When it became apparent that it was going to be a hot summer, I hurriedly planted more melons and Armenian cukes just so I'd have something wet and cold to give the chickens in July and August. I don't remember if I had anything like that to give them in June. On the day I came home to 3 dead chickens, we were at a wildfire in a Wildlife Management Area that was very hard to access and we were out there for many hours. We had at least one firefighter get a heat-related illness. He had to be treated by paramedics. I remember that Fran and I took coolers and coolers and coolers of bottled water and Gatorade and everyone stayed hydrated, but the heat was overwhelming that day. The ice in our coolers melted ridiculously quickly. I remember sitting down once in the middle of the road to cool off because it was the only shady spot. It was a twisty, winding road and you could hear someone coming from a long ways off, so it wasn't like someone was going to be able to sneak up on me and run over me. A young woman who had family members fighting that fire showed up unexpectedly at the fire and brought us Fire Rehab people soft drinks in very large cups filled with tiny ice cubes. At that point, it was like manna from heaven and I've never forgotten the kindness she showed us that day! We'd already had so much water and Gatorade that we were tired of both, and an ice cold soda was a refreshing relief, and then we got to enjoy eating the ice for as long as it lasted. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that the chickens died, but I felt terrible about it. After that, for the rest of that hot summer, the first thing I did every morning was the whole ice and cold water routine with the chickens. If we were at a fire overnight and came home sometime in the morning or middle of the day, I made it a point to check on the chickens and get them their ice first thing before I even went indoors. We didn't lose another chicken all summer, but I also don't think we hit 115 another day except once. I only remember that day because our big fire of the day was a moving truck on the interstate that had a family's whole accumulation of possessions, including their car, inside the moving truck and the thermometer on our fire rehab vehicle showed 115 about the same time a young firefighter began getting sick out in that heat. Our ice melted fast that day too. The hardest part about the ice jugs wasn't freezing them. It was having to clean them every day before I could put them back in the extra fridge to refreeze them. Being chickens, you know they managed to make the ice jugs dirty, so I had to stand out there in the blazing heat at the water faucet outdoors, sponge and dish soap in hand and wash those jugs. Then, just to be safe and not dirty up the fridge, I dried the jugs and put them in trash bags before putting them in the freezer. Because, you know, I had nothing else to do in that hot weather than stand outside and wash those ice jugs off. I was worried about our chickens yesterday but they seemed to take the heat in stride. Maybe I'll freeze some ice jugs this morning. I do have two banty hens sit setting on eggs in the big coop. I really wasn't ready for it to get this hot this early. Dawn

I just put in an order with Burling - one is National Velvet, a rose I grew years ago and loved. That one is in a 1 gallon pot so maybe it is farther along. A tip I found out by accident years ago, when I got some Heirloom bands [much smaller than they send now]. I couldnt plant them right away, and it was chilly out, so I pulled the little clear baggie they came in up all the way to cover them. A few days later, I noticed there was humidity inside and the roses were really thriving. I let them grow this way awhile as I figured they didnt have a large root system. One of these babies was Peach Silk and it now a huge plant. So when I get these small bands, I either pull up their plastic baggies or put them in a plastic tote where they get moderate light and they are in a humidified atmosphere - it really helps. Another thing I learned from ordering small tropical hibiscus in little pots - the grower's instructions are to not transplant the hibiscus for 6 months and in something no bigger than a gallon pot. Once my plants are settled, I do plant them in a gallon pot - but I cut out the bottom of the little 4" pot they came in - plant this in the gallon pot and be very careful not to overwater. Once it appears the roots have made contact with the soil in the gallon pot and the little plant is growing well, I carefully dig around the 4" pot, cut it and lift it off and put the soil back around the plant. This has worked very well. Vap, I put on a new Walmart thermal shirt this morning - it feels so weird - no stains, no holes! I use the Walmart shoes too - easy to slip off and on when I need to go in the house. For about $12, I can make these last a long time! More money for roses!