I'm just a little bit farther north of you, in the Tulsa area. We were around 102 on Saturday and have been hovering around 100 for the better part of a week now. I'm not an expert, but I don't think the warm temps are what is bothering your taro. Here's a picture of mine, 3 feet high and happy as a lark in the 100 + temperatures: Have you added any fertilizer tabs to your pot? Are they growing bareroot in gravel? For me, taro does better in a pot with garden soil and two or three fertilizer tabs. Plant food spikes are okay too. Being rootbound does not seem to bother them -- mine is rootbound and will probably need to be divided and repotted next year. It gets about three or four hours of direct sunlight each day, but seems to perk up better when in the shade. I've never seen it bothered by bugs.

Might you have any idea which roses you're growing in the desert? Perhaps they still have the metal tags identifying them? It's possible they are more miniature or smaller floribunda types and aren't ones which produce the larger flower types you might be expecting. Usually, the soil in that area is quite sandy. Are the roses mulched or simply planted in the sandy soil? Are they potted or in the ground? How close are they to a fence, wall, house wall, side walk, driveway? As you are well aware, there is tremendous heat reflection/radiation from masonary surfaces, particulalry in the low desert and that cooks the plants VERY efficiently. Anything which prevents them from maintaining a steady water supply or takes that supply away from them is going to stress the growth and ability to flower. Higher temperatures commonly reduce the flower size. Combine that with any increased heat from a wall or other concrete surface; reduced water retention due to sandy soil; wind; etc. and you may be lucky you have flowers at all. What you might consider trying is don't let them flower for a few months. You're approaching the hot weather there and flowering in that weather isn't great in the first place. Instead of cutting them, removing leaves, pinch off the flower buds as they develop, leaving every leaf on the plants. Force them to produce wood and leaves, saving that energy they are going to push into flowers to make the plants fuller, stronger and potentially more productive. That tremendous heat and intense sun require more shade protection. A huskier, fuller plant is going to naturally provide its wood more shade from increased foliage canopy. Cut back on the Miracle Gro, or any fertilizer and let the excess salts in the soil begin to flush out. It isn't a good idea to use any kind of fertilizer in extreme heat. Fertilizer is salt. Your soil and water are salty. Salt pulls water out of the plant and replaces it with salt. So, keep the leaves and wood, but pinch off the new flower buds to make the plants grow larger until fall (at least), then let them begin flowering in the cooler weather. Stop fertilizing them. Keep the water flowing, the plants growing, but stop the flowering and maintain them with the water to push growth and keep them feeding themselves. Only fertilize during the cooler months when your roses are flowering more normally and naturally. High heat stresses the plants tremendously and any native in your area which doesn't receive irrigation during the intense heat, shuts down, goes summer dormant. Your rose flowers are going to fry in a few hours anyway. Save the resources and don't let them waste them. Wash the salts through the soil and help the plants shed excess salt by keeping them watered as normal. When you prune, prune lightly. You want full, large plants where their leaves shade the wood. The denser foliage will also help to keep the plant cooler, better hydrated by their transipration of water (sweating). More leaves equals more food through photosynthesis. That should translate to larger flowers when heat is lower and they are more able to produce them. In florist research back in the eighties, one 'discovery' was that on average, it took 35 perfect leaves to make one perfect bloom. Contrast that with what you are trying to force your roses to do. They want to grow and are genetically programmed to flower (ovulate) in an effort to reproduce (set seed) to perpetuate the species. The extreme heat stresses the plants, inhibiting their ability to grow at all. The salts from the fertilizer stresses them further. Insufficient foliage cover permits the wood to overheat, inhibiting them from doing their "job" efficiently. Try what I've suggested and see if you don't start having the type of blooms you desire. Good luck! Kim

I doubt you killed your clematis, but you may have cracked the fragile stems at the base. Keep treating the roots like they are alive and you will probably get new shoots coming up. Best practice is to prune the clematis back hard before you plant leaving only about 6 inches of growth or taller so you have a few sets of leaves. There isn't a leader vine. Sweet Autumn grows fast, so keep watching it so you can try to guide the stems. I add bone meal the way Chalk Hill recommends, but it isn't required. I don't take out the supports that came in the nursery pot unless they fall off. I try to cause as little disruption to the roots as possible. I do take off the twist ties though and use my own. Tightly tying the vine to your support isn't good. I use velcro straps to hold the vines in place. It doesn't take long for the tendrils to grab on, so as soon as it does, the straps can be removed. What I try to do when planting a new clematis is plant it at an angle towards the support. That way the vines will already be growing in the right direction. To help it along, I might add a couple of lengths of thin bamboo on either side of the root mass and use these to help guide the vine. It also serves to protect the vine (somewhat) from dog feet. Where practical, I will use the velcro pieces to hold the bamboo to the support, but most of the time it can just rest on the support because the soil holds it in place.

Aristolochia littoralis also (formerly) known as A. elegans. Easy but more delicate and not as vigorous as bigger A. gigantea or A. ringens which are other great Aristolochia. butterfly people had to admit it but you gotta control the amount of caterpillars on these and most passiflora or the plant will not get established with any vigor. I use BT which is a safer way to only target caterpillars but it isn't systemic so after a rain you gotta reaply. Bayer advanced markets some excellent pesticides that are systemic but even those only last a couple weeks. I like Conserve SE but I don't know if its available to the retail consumer. It's a systemic and esaier on non targeted insects such as bees. In any case even once established well I still spray portions of the vine to control a million caterpillars. Plucking off the cats and crushing eggs on leaf tip tendrils are a good way too. Don't get me wrong I love the butterflies and hate to hinder their family rates. Aristolochia doesn't like much fertilizer in fact too much and it will hamper blooming but it will grow a lot of leaves.