And if you need encouragement -- I think you see where to come. :-)

I am so sorry that you are dealing with such a dissapointing summer.

All I can say is that I have been around many many years and my plants have come and gone. Lots of things just don't do well for me. So , I try new things and sometimes they do well, sometimes not. It can be trial and error and then Mother Nature always has the last word.

Please don't let it effect your happiness.

When I was in architecture school, I got a bad grade on my first studio assignment. It was a great project, and my solution was innovative, beautiful and functional. So I asked my instructor why the low grade? She said it was because I didn't show "process." In architecture school, that means showing all the steps you went through to get to your final solution. In other words, I didn't show all the things that didn't work, and that gave me the bad grade, no matter how good my final solution was. She said that I had to learn process in order to learn good design. I fumed about it for weeks ("I mean it was a great solution! Why did have to show the stuff that didn't work!) and from then on, I showed off all the crappy ideas.

So now, when I do something that fails, no matter how expensive or emotionally attached I am to it, it gets chalked up to "process." My spouse reminds me of this all the time when I throw yet another $50 dead thing that I was once obsessed by, into the trash. He says "It's an opportunity to plant something else." So I'm learning bit by bit, that things don't grow here in the high altitude desert like they do in California. I'm trying tons of unusual things, many of which die, some are too successful and I spend lots of time weeding out the seedlings or root growths.

Rob Procter, in his book with Lauren Springer Ogden, "Passionate Gardening" titles the first chapter "The Killing Fields." The book shows their gorgeous gardens but in that first chapter Rob talks about how many plants he's killed in the process. Lauren Springer also mentions this in her book "The Undaunted Garden." These are the books that I read when I moved to where I live now, which is kind of a black hole for gardening.

So celebrate your successes. Don't take the failures personally. Keep trying and in a few years you will find some things that work for you and what doesn't. Then it keeps getting better.

My neighbor has a group of small perle d or in full sun a d she waters only once a week. Roses in part sun can also get by on less water. Heavy mulching has been extremely helpful to me and I put flagstones over it around the plants to keep it even cooler. You might have to wait for summer heat to end before you see flowers. most of mine have slowed growth and are working on ripening hips. I saw a pretty good rose garden in morning sun only with blooms. Some full sun spots I now consider undesirable for roses so i planted crepe myrtles, penstemon and thyme. Bright shade under a tree hasn't kept potted gourmet popcorn from blooming.

Amen to all that's been written here. Here's my two cents' worth of reinforcement:

I think your situation is that you're a fairly young gardener who have hitherto been quite successful and who are now experiencing your first Bad Year. Bad Years come along now and then, and anybody who gardens long enough experiences them. This is perhaps my fourth Bad Year in about thirty years of gardening, though 2003 doesn't really count as we had just moved here and had very little in the ground. Bad Years are inevitable, and inevitably unpleasant; but you learn things from them. Your plants are tested for flood resistance, drought resistance, heat resistance, cold resistance, pest resistance--whatever it is that makes the year Bad. You're adapting and learning, considering getting rid of plants that are doing particularly poorly, and thinking about how to have a garden that's manageable with your resources, and one that looks good as much of the time as possible...or how to pass the time when you can't stand to look at the garden.

You may be comforted to hear that I've seen areas of my garden that in August looked like a war had passed through, and yet the following May were green and laughing. Also take note that a lot of plants have considerable drought tolerance; per force, because otherwise after a year like this all of Nature would be dead. I wonder if your lavender didn't die because it was young and not yet established: mine have survived unwatered, and we've been at least as dry as you.

I have to go now. This is truly a difficult year.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful replies, advice and encouragement. Jeri, yes I do know where to come :)

These are some of the things you've encouraged me to do: 1- not freak out, this happens, especially in August, 2- use it as an opportunity (noseometer's DH) to rethink things, improve the garden, make it more resistent and subsequently more HAPPY - yes, bart, watching "nature suffer" right outside the house where I see it every day (and where I put it myself with my own two hands) is not nice, although as Melissa said, it will most likely recover. Except for the trees and my new lavenders. Those were stone dead.

About August........ I know there won't be the blooms of spring on my August garden in this weather, but I also don't want it to look PAINED the entire month, so when the FEVER :) returns in Spring I hope I remember this lesson and plan for a "comfortable" August garden. And I think that's going to mean changing a few things, as many of you mentioned, planting more tolerant plants. Once-blooming roses replacing more demanding ones?

In my dreams I'd like to overhaul the garden entirely, getting rid of the lawn and planting up a "grandmother's garden" full of fruit trees, olive trees and mediterranean subshrubs interspersed with roses but I'm not alone here and right now all I'm allowed to do is dabble in borders and do the best I can with those.

For those asking where I am, I'm in Tuscany. Our temps this summer have been around 100 degrees, some days reaching about 115 which is HOT. Also quite dry this year. We get winds from Africa. Right now it's also quite cool at night. The sun is very very hot.

During the winter it's in the low 20s/30s and very humid and dark, so it's like you're planning a garden for two different climates (not really 4 seasons).

Thanks for giving me the little push I needed. I think today I'll ask for help and tackle the wild thicket of Lamarque and R. banksiae on the side of the garage which needs tying in. The drought somehow hasn't put a crimp in their plans to take over the world.....!

Anna Lyssa, have you ever heard of Maurizio Usai? Here's a link to his site : https://www.lapietrarossastudio.com/home

he used to sometimes post on some rose forums. If memory serves me, he started out wanting to make an "English garden"-type garden in Sardegna !!! but over the course of time, learning and growing (as he clearly has done),he adjusted his ideas more in accordance with the reality of the difficult Italian climate. I seem to remember that he, too, figured out a way to have things look decent even in August ,relying on stuff like ornamental grasses, etc.

Melissa is so right: your garden is very, very young, and getting hit by a Bad Year will kind of help "seperate the men from the boys", as it were. It's a drag to wind up losing plants that actually COULD do well in your climate ONCE ESTABLISHED,but couldn't make it through the bad summer. Kristine is right: don't let it affect your happiness! Gardening is about life, about learning,not about performing."I attribute a chunk of my emotional growth and increased coping skills
to lessons learned in the garden. It's been a steep and arduous learning
curve, but I may become a serene and rational human being in a few more
lifetimes.",says portlandmystery : that's me, too! Well said! Noseometer's comments are so good, too...as are all of the ones in this thread.

Thank you bart for the link! The garden is new, sure, but it's been 4 years now and it would be nice if at least ONE area of the garden looked decent right now.

Anyway, I think one of the big frustrations is the feeling of impotence when really, you can't do very much to help and you just have to wait it out (lesson: patience?). So I worked on things I COULD do something about today: tied in the roses on the garage and the false jasmine on the fence separating us from the neighbours, cut back the browning irises, and tried to tidy up some of the anemones. It's not like I did much, but just the feeling of having done SOMETHING helps. And although I think the faded iris foliage was shading the ground and acting as a live mulch, I don't care. The feeling getting rid of a brown patch in the garden is worth it! At least to get me over this slump.

And to celebrate: R. primula has been outstanding. I planted it this spring, and it's done so well and its tiny foliage seems to be just the thing in the heat. / the fruit trees we planted this year (crab apple aside) have all done fine, the dog hasn't had problems with his herniated disc (usually hot weather means a trip to the vet and some cortisone), and it's been so hot and dry there is barely a weed in sight!

As for my visions of a grandmother's garden, today I noticed my cutting of R. banksiae which I stuck in the ground at the back of the garage is now climbing the fig tree back there. Perhaps I'll let it and perhaps it will be beautiful!

Oh and kittymoonbeam, yes Perle d'Or is wonderful! I only have it in pots right now but imagine it would do so well in the ground.

This is nature all around me. If nature can produce such exquisite beauty in August, in a bad year, dried things and all.... then surely somehow, in some way, my garden and I can find this kind of harmony..... we have a looooong way to go and a lot to learn... fortunately I have you to encourage me to get out there, to keep learning, to keep working.... are not let this bad moment get me down.

Roselady, you crack me up and you have just described me perfectly. By Oct. I breath a sigh of relief. I don't have to spend my mornings and evenings watering. I can get back to doing other things . I rest and so does my garden. But by January I'm already starting to think about it starting to put in orders . By February I too am I'm stalking the nurseries and there's very little in Oregon available. So back to online ordering.

It is an obsession for sure. My excitement over buying more roses just makes my co-workers eyes glaze over not everybody has this Obsession but I am glad that I do.

It's a lot of work sometimes very frustrating and sometimes very fulfilling but that's a Gardener's life for sure.

This resonates so well with many of us right now Anna-Lyssa. We have no drought here but every August I feel like a gardening failure. Experiments planted with lots of hope on spring aren't working out, weeds are getting the best of me, I herniated a disk in my back. I look around the garden right now and notice all the things that just aren't working. I'm going to mulch with shredded oak leaves this fall and I'm looking forward to covering all my mistakes with a nice thick blanket of them.

I have so much enjoyed reading everyone's comments on this thread. There is much wisdom here.

The August garden has always been for me the most elusive. The PNW is similar to the Mediterranean in that we have virtually no rain from July sometimes through October (in a bad year). Fortunately we have somewhat cooler temps, but what makes it difficult here is the "soil" and the fact that the enormous trees suck every bit of moisture out of the soil.

This is the first year of my gardening life I have ever had a decent garden in August and that is because of one thing: an irrigation system. I finally broke down and put one in. This has changed everything for me.

I too long for a "Grandmother's Garden". It's funny that you use that phrase because I use it all the time to describe the "look" I'm going for. I'm realizing now that Grandmother must have spent all her free time watering (and they used watering cans back then, not hoses!!)

This morning I went out and noticed that my lovingly watered Pearly Gates rose had all the buds eaten off by deer.

My lovingly watered flower baskets have aphids and are wilting (I think I watered and fertilized TOO MUCH and there's too much soft growth...arghhh!)

My Zepherine Zrouhin rose looks like a collection of dead sticks despite watering (by hand) and amending with manure.

To persist despite constant and sometimes epic failures.....that is gardening (and many other things...like marriage? :) For sure, I have learned so much from all the failures. But the process sure is painful!

Yesterday, while I was fixing dog dinners, DH remarked that sunset is coming earlier, these days . . . And that when he runs the dogs in the morning darkness, sunrise comes later. We're well-past the Solstice, and so the "worst" of summer is at least nominally behind us. (Though there will be more hot days, to be sure.)

Still, as we move toward Fall (officially Sept. 22) I can breathe a bit more easily, about the garden. In Mediterranean climates, I've always thought -- hope returns with Fall.

Now -- off to pot up my new Aloe . . .

Anna-Lyssa, from long and hard-won experience, may I just say one thing? Please install drip watering. The difference it has made in my garden has been huge. I would have gone through our five-year drought much more happily if I had listened to my husband and the wise people here who suggested I install it. It all seemed too difficult to contemplate and in the end was actually fairly easy to do. We didn't bother with emitters at the end of the little hoses and it didn't matter. I was told that in Australia they call it spaghetti drip watering. That seems perfectly appropriate for your garden in Italy.

I have to say that in this thread, beginning with you, I've seen some of the most heartfelt, perfectly beautiful writing ever. The members here seem to write as well as they garden. I'm not one of them but every word resonates so deeply. Your garden as you showed it earlier this year was the sort of garden I once had, not by skill or experience, but by the fact that the weather was still normal and the bugs and diseases had not yet found me in this previously ungardened space. It all fell into my lap until the day came when it didn't, and my whole world changed. The adjustment was not pretty, and I'm afraid I moaned and whined excessively on this forum.

Even with the drip watering the honeymoon is over at this time of the year. I don't think I've ever seen so much ugly foliage, mottled, desiccated, yellow, brown, and chewed up by insects I mostly can't even see except for the hated grasshoppers, and we haven't had nearly as hot a summer as you describe. Everything is crying out for rain to save them, not the hard, chlorinated water that the plants are forced to drink, but the real thing that makes them want to put out beautiful new growth and blooms. I find myself wondering for how much longer I can enjoy growing roses or will even be able to, especially given my ever-diminishing energy. However, as others have said so well, you accept and adapt. You find new plants, and you plant as many roses as you can in the precious areas that have morning sun and afternoon shade. You buy fewer roses and take out the ones you didn't love so much, and breathe a sigh of relief because that's one less to worry about.

We're facing unprecedented conditions and, for the first time ever, the thought that we might have irretrievably damaged this beautiful world, to the point of no return. My garden, and the creatures that live in it, are more precious to me than ever, and I will use whatever resources I have inside me to make it last as long as I possibly can. It will not be August forever, it will cool down and it will rain, sooner or later, and your garden will renew itself and you. I applaud your courage to put into words your feelings, and I hope you can see that many of us have experienced the same, and that as Jeri said, we are all in this together.

I came across this excerpted letter last night, and thought of this thread. It's a letter written on March 26th, 1860 by a Mr. G. Pentland of Baltimore to a famous English rosarian, the Rev. W. F. Radclyffe:

"You say truly, roses are "fickle things." I could, perhaps, show you more of their fickleness here than with you; and I have no doubt, as you say, that our ground makes wood, but yet our hot, dry summer scorches everything up, and then there are about two months that vegetation is at a stand. Nothing will then grow. I have had most of the leaves taken off the roses grown in pots in August, by the extreme heat. You would think at times that a sirocco blast had swept over them. Such are the inconveniences of our irregular climate; and yet it is but transitory, for in the cool evenings they soon recover. Then there is another difficulty- the hot days in the fall and the cool evenings cause roses to grow most luxuriantly, and leaves them with soft, unripened wood; and about the time that you find them in their glory, there comes a killing frost and blasts their beauty and their hardiness at the same time. The wood being unripened, is unable to withstand the frost. When the mercury gets lower down than 6°, they perish." [from The Midland Florist, "A few words from the other side of the Atlantic, in a letter addressed to the Rev. W. F. Radclyffe", pp.125-6].

Since many of my roses are now leafless or nearly so, I found some comfort that my plight was shared by Mr. Pentland more than 100 years before I was born, and before anyone was talking about Global Warming or Ozone Depletion. Perhaps others can also relate?

Virginia

Yeah, lol, talk to me about discouraged, girl. Dragged me body out to garden to get water and apply it to plants, in spite of severe fatigue and malessere due to virus,plus hip hurting like mad. "Do it today because DS comes back from the beach tommorrow, and i wanna be home to recieve him!..." Turns out DS returns Sat on Sun (change of plans) but just as well that I followed the original plan, since I found that a daçé°ned badger had gotten in...AnnaLyssa, rejoice in the fact that you don't have at least THAT pressure! Those dam? turkenlouises! ? hate 'em!

I had noticed that few flowers bloomed in my garden in August so I began to think of it as a green garden, one in which structure became more important than flower color just as it does in Winter. Though with drought, disease and insect damage I am not suggesting a lush green garden. Last January we were driving through the country and I was struck by the incredible greenish gold of the grass and how beautiful it was with the Winter green of the Arborvitae volunteers. Some of the beauty was due to a different way of looking at what was there. Most people would not consider bare Winter ground in Ohio gorgeous.

Secondly, removing dead leaves, creating crisp edges and general tidying, as you have done, go a long way in making a garden beautiful.

Then, in my garden I began to focus on plants that would flower in August. Most flower color here in August is due to the brilliant gold sunflower/daisy type flowers but these have never appealed to me. I have begun to explore the genera Lycoris, Colchicum and Cyclamen. Because these have been underground until they begin to bloom, they miss the drought, disease and insects and emerge fresh and clean. Many of the Lycoris are tender here but L. squamigera, L. longituba and L. chinensis are exceptions that work here. Colchicums are hardy and Cyclamen purpurea, C. hederafolia and C. coum are cold hardy here in that order.

Finally, it is important to remember that the best rose blooms of the whole year occur in Fall...which is just around the corner.

Cath

.

I wish I could think of fall with any kind of pleasure, but in my area October is a time of dangerous Santa Ana winds and sometimes terrible wildfires, although this year there have already been very serious and huge fires in various parts of the world and in various parts of the U.S. Gardeners like you who have cold winters especially deserve to have some spectacular blooms in fall.

I second Cath's observations on design: in periods when flowers are unsatisfactory, you need green, shade, and architecture: not structures, but form and volumes. There are a number of shrubs and subshrubs for shade or part shade that are highly drought tolerant, welcome in summer dryland and equally soul-satisfying in the depths of sodden winter. Also Cath is right that you need cyclamen, if you don't already have them. My first two flowers have popped up already, in spite of the drought. When all is dry and weary the late summer appearance of these fresh and spritely little blooms is the most heartening sight imaginable. They bloom for weeks and weeks, and when the flowering tails off and the seed capsules begin to form, the elegant leaves appear, lasting all through the fall and winter. The best kind to begin with is C. hederifolium, which is easy to find (from a bulb specialist), inexpensive, and totally charming. I've had this under the persimmon tree in front of the house for years. It seeds, too. C. purpurescens is native to Italy, fragrant, which C. hederifolium is not, but it's an iffier plant as I understand it, and more expensive. If you want to branch out, C. cilicium has been hardy in my garden, has the same bloom period as C. hederifolium, and also seeds. I planted C. coum last fall, but the drought happened, so probably I'll have to try again. There's a very handsome white-flowered form of C. hederifolium, with marvelous foliage. Delightful as the flowers of cyclamen are, the leaves are just as ornamental and important for garden value. Three or six tubers would be fine to start: the tubers grow over time, and the plants seed and colonize the area.

I might as well add a note on cyclamen growing conditions. Luckily for us Italian residents, cyclamen are native to the Mediterranean area, so they're right at home here. They like to live under a deciduous tree or large deciduous shrub(s), with shade in summer, sun in winter, lots of organic matter in the soil (organic detritus from said tree or shrub(s)), and clay below that, soil probably tending to neutral or somewhat basic, and with good drainage, so on a slope with loose soil, or in root-netted clay. This last I've noted with wonder: my C. cilicium down in the woods has grown for years in very dense clay and through some extremely wet winters, but apparently the dense web of tree roots absorbs all the extra water, and the cyclamen do just fine.

P.S. Cross post with Anna-Lyssa. Yes, we too are looking forward to another heat wave! I wanted to add, I agree silver-foliaged plants for the sunnier areas of the garden are an excellent idea. Have you looked into Lavendula lanata? This may be somewhat more drought tolerant even than the regular hybrid lavender, and with good drainage has been hardy here. Also, are pinks a possibility for you?

I'm feeling sorry for 'Lady Emma Hamilton'. Does she really have to come out? It sounds like she's been working hard getting established.

Here's a design trick for you: design a section of the garden intentionally for the worst time of the year, an area that you will use the most. Then you will have a beautiful garden all year round. You can use those die hard plants that remain good looking through that time period, or those that go dormant and still look good. You will also make sure that the hardscape has good structure so that the garden doesn't rely on plants to look good and be functional. You can then add seasonal splashes of color. Then when you get more comfortable with this space, extend what you've learned to the rest of the garden. You will then have an attractive framework to show off your "fun" plants, and when those plants aren't at their best you can still enjoy your garden.

Our temps going back to triple numbers again the weekend. So many fires right now. We have been living with fire and smoke all summer. Air quality is in the un healthy level. There are so many outside projects that I would love to work on , but in this smoke it just isn't healthy to exert yourself.

Looking forward to rain to clear it out thr smoke and stop the fires.

I sure understand about the fall Santa Anna Winds

It's why I'm gaining a little collection of fun succulents. When nothing else looks good, THEY do.

But my best garden ornaments don't worry about drought . . .

And that's a huge comfort.

As soon as I saw these lovely and loving animals my whole body relaxed. Whatever would we do without them? As I write this our kitty Jason is lying down between my husband and me on the couch, a spot he occupies for hours every day. Sometimes when I'm typing he reaches out a paw and wraps it around my wrist, pulling my hand toward him.

I'm just looking at hurricane Harvey on TV and they're predicting 36 inches of rain, a number that doesn't even begin to penetrate my brain. How about if they used the military and even a part of the bloated military budget to build pipelines across the country to shunt excessive water to the dry areas that need it desperately?

Anna-Lyssa, I too have noticed your absence, and missed you. I'm glad to see you're feeling better than when you started this post. The photos you've posted of your garden are some of the most memorable I've seen.

I used to think I could garden, but this garden has taught me otherwise. I have felt very discouraged at times, but I still persist in buying more plants and sending them to an untimely death! I listed a few I have managed to kill on another post some time ago, and the responses were mostly 'How did you manage to kill that?!!'

I hope you get some cooler weather before too long - and RAIN.

Trish

Anna-Lyssa you have so much support and wonderful information here from others!

I'm with Jeri, enjoying some beautiful succulents lately. I discovered a few sedums that look great as cut flowers, need almost no water and even seem to be impervious to my dogs peeing on them! Mr. Goodbud, Purple Emperor and Autumn Fire. Are sedums available there?

I made an area of late summer color with CA natives too. I'm curious what Italian natives are garden options there? I don't know anything at all about Italian native plants. The landscape photos you posted were all gorgeous!

My summer fun plants are some succulents (agaves are possibly the favorites), my modest Sansevieria collection, and a couple of angelwing begonias. Oh, and some other potted lovelies: my variegated aspidistra, for example and the air plants. I'd probably have a good deal more if I were better with potted plants and if overwintering them weren't such a hassle. Think: ginger lilies! Brugmansias!

Ooo...those badgers! They've been too much of a torment to me these past two years or so, I can't even think of them as cute anymore! (she screeched, stamping her pointy little feet in a mad rage ) LOL!!!

No, but seriously, this has turned into a really good thread. We all love our roses so, but it is good to be reminded that there is more to a garden than just roses. Basically,here in Italy, I think there is a main "rose season", which is limited to end of April/beginning of May when the earliest start blooming,and which ends mid-to-late June. Now, this is pretty much the bottom line for my un-irrigated garden,whilst those who can irrigate can possibly hope for a bit more,but still,once it gets so friggin' hot a lot of blooms are just going to fry or be of poor quality, etc. So to have a really good garden it's important to go beyond roses, methinks. I have started to do this myself. Basically I'm thinking in terms of not really getting many more roses in the future; I want to focus on companion plants,living-mulch-type evergreen groundcovers. I want to continue adding trees and shrubs,including LOTS of evergreens. Fact is, it's much, much more pleasant and enjoyable here in Italy outdoors during late fall and winter than it is in part of spring and all of summer,so I want my garden to be interesting in winter. I've been focusing on extending my flower season mainly in the sense of adding stuff that will flower before the roses, but eventually I want to also try for some kind of beauty even in this, the ugliest time of the year.

Bart have you tried Sarcococca? If you have an area of shade for it, it will give you extremely fragrant winter blooms! It's evergreen and the flowers are tiny, but winter fragrance in the shade is a delight!

Can you do winter blooming heathers there? I have always admired those since I can't grow them here.

In the late summer, crepe myrtles and oleanders seem to be the two that bloom the most around here with no irrigation. They're even all along the freeways. I'm not much for oleanders, but love crepe myrtles. I have to admit the oleanders do provide shade, privacy, pretty blooms and thrive on neglect though, so they are useful.

Those sedums I listed above have big bold flower heads in the late summer and fall too.

I've seen a huge plant of MAC locally and personally was not that impressed. The flowers of Lamarque seem to me to be more beautiful and intricate, although I have not seen it in person for many years.

I've lately come to appreciate large bushes and trees such as crape myrtle (with leaves down to the ground), grewia occidentalis and a variety of vitex with bluish leaves that I don't know the name of, i.e. fast-growing shrubs that don't need huge amounts of water and which provide shade and cool the temperature around them.

As time goes on they will supercede the roses, leaving only those varieties that I can't live without and that do well for me. If I'm left with 20 to 30 roses I will be content. I'm not at all a fan of cacti and succulents, which is a pity, but you have to follow where your heart leads you.

Anna-Lyssa and bart, I have a fair idea of what kind of soil Melissa has, but not what you have to work with. Is your soil alkaline, neutral or somewhat acidic?

http://www.livinginitaly.com/plants-for-italian-gardens-the-right-plant-for-an-italian-garden/

And I absolutely agree with anyone who says that trees and shrubs that provide shade should be welcome plants for a Mediterranean climate garden. Actually, I think there should be trees in just about all gardens... It's too bad that Desert Willow doesn't seem to be available in Europe; it's a beautiful small flowering tree native to California and the SW. but there are other good possibilities.

I'm a fan of using natives, because- hello!- they are already adapted to your conditions, but non-invasive plants from other Med. climate areas such as in Oz and the western U.S. can also be good choices.

Herbs may not always be showy ornamentals, but can provide fragrance, and can be useful plants for cooking and healing.

Good luck, and keep us posted with your adaptations, progress, etc.

Virginia

Anna-Lyssa, many of the plants I have managed not to kill have become thugs. Perovskia was one of these, and almost every form of salvia I have tried. They spread by underground runners. As your winters are cold, you may not have this problem, but I thought I should warn you. I have removed perovskia entirely and several salvia. One salvia (Phyllis Fancy) took over a bed 10' by 9' in 4 years. Perovskia seemed well-behaved at first, but after 2 or 3 years started popping up all over the place, and the roots were massive.

Trish

Many exciting ideas here. I definitely want to add a lot of Lagerstroemias (crepe myrtles) and oleanders. I agree with you, CoriAnn, they aren't a particular favourite of mine, either,but they use'em on median strips here and in Greece, so you know that they can get by with no summer water -at least once established, which is of course the big stumbling block ,because as Anna-Lyssa has seen with her lavenders, if you get hit by a really bad summer you can lose young plants even of the most drought-resistant types. Perovkia is definitely on my list as well; a friend gave me some plants a couple years ago but I didn't know where to put them-was still in "full rose mode", lol- then tried to move them and they wound up dying. Salvia is thuggish, true, but some areas of my garden need thugs-places where I can't water at all, places that are so hot and dry that very little can survive there, and salvias could be great fillers.I think the idea of talking to the gardeners at Villa La Petraia is great, and if you do get around to it please share the info here on the forum, Anna-Lyssa! That is sort of the thing I want to achieve: "The structure of the garden is so strong it doesn't even matter there, but I was struck by it! " that is, to have other plants "cover" for the roses after they are basically done for the season. I think you are wise, Ingrid, to start thinking in terms of adding more of the uber-drought tolerant plants to your garden.Then you can enjoy those during the times when the roses aren't looking their best My climate is not as bad as yours-at least for now- but I, too, will be thinning the rose herd in the future. To be honest, some of them just don't totally float my boat ,and I really could do without them. A garden should make you happy,not make you feel anguished!!! I don't think cactus are the only alternative,either...I know I'll be adding many perennials that have tap-roots, like salvias, for example, and gypsofilia. They can really handle dry conditions.

Virginia, I suspect that my soil is basically neutral ; it is very poor, in general. In some areas it's clay. It tends to be "thin";i.e., in many spots bedrock is quite close to the surface,It's very rocky, too. When I started out it was kind of desertified, due to erosion. It needs SO much organic matter!!! I love the name chosen by one of our forum members"needmoremulch" ...that's where I'm at, too!

One of the benefits of no summer water is that it's much harder for plants to become thugs. Heavy soil helps, too. Most of my wannabe heavies move slowly.

I have a mature ownroot plant of 'Mme. Alfred Carriere' growing in a terraced bed below the paved balcony. She's half huge shrub, half climber. She has gotten no extra water this very dry year (perhaps one extra bucket during our hour or so of rain on August 8th), and is green with no dieback and no defoliation. MAC is in part shade, which helps, but she looks mighty good. I've written this before, but MAC is an excellent rose, deservedly popular. She's tough, gets big, has limber trainable growth, with few thorns; her blooms are very pretty and exceptionally fragrant, particularly when cut. The main shortcoming is that she gets a bit more disease than some varieties, but this is an aesthetic flaw at worst, and a minor problem.

Take 'Lady Emma'? Sure!

I like sarcococca, too, and have quite a bit of it, but this summer has shown me that while it's drought resistant in a normal summer, this exceptionally hot and dry summer has been too much for it. My conclusions are that it will do best in soil with a good deal of clay and organic matter in it, but on a slope for drainage, and in at least part shade. I've been watering mine--a little; I have to carry the water by hand--and I think they'll pull through. But for them to survive without coddling in a really bad summer, they need optimum growing conditions.

I couldn't more wholeheartedly agree with bart that a garden in Italy intended for year round enjoyment needs a whole lot more than roses. It needs structure, because that, to me, is what is really moving, what I find most fundamentally beautiful. It needs trees, for shade, for height, to improve the immediate surroundings, for COOLNESS. (I've been experimenting the last couple of days leaving a thermometer on the paved terrace of the second house but in shade. A check just now, at noon, reveals a temperature of 100F. This is in late August. It was hotter before!) Hedges, walks, changes of elevation, movement from one area to a different one; different plants suited to varying conditions, the beauties of branching and foliage, green and autumnal, and fallen leaves and hips, as well as flowers. My experience has been that the low points of my garden are in December, perhaps not coincidentally the month of the winter solstice, and August, when everything gives up. There are native Italian late summer flowers, but they tend to be meadow plants, weedy but gay, and for the most part not well suited to most gardens. As always when I speak of my garden I'm talking about growing plants without irrigation. Most of the year, most years, there's something in bloom, or that I can look forward to seeing in bloom shortly.

This year has convinced me that every garden in Italy needs a shady spot. If there's no shade tree, then a pergola, clothed in wisteria or a massive leafy rose like one of the Lady Banks roses. I've thought about hops, and have heard praise for ornamental grapes, and then there's Virginia creeper, tough as nails and coloring brilliantly in the fall. There are other possibilities, but the point is, you need to be able to get out of the sun. Our wisteria pergola in front of the house always gets taken over by potted plants, but even though there's no particular place to sit there, I spend quite a bit of time admiring my sansevierias and begonias, and this is where I do my potting and repotting. So it's always something of a mess. But no one has to follow my bad example in this respect. When summer is so very hostile, as it has been this year, it's important to feel that the outdoors isn't the enemy, and a leafy breezy pergola helps.

Is anybody interested in a list of plants suitable to a temperate-Mediterranean garden, with description of plant, cultural requirements, period of bloom or ornamental display? We could swap information. I put some of this in a recent post about the drought and its effects in my garden.

P.S. Cross post with bart. I suspect our climate is too chilly and wet in winter for cactus in any case, and for most succulents. Sedums will last in the ground here.

How wonderful that the gardeners in Italy have found each other here and can swap information!

How does naked lady amaryllis do in Italy? It's always makes me smile when I see it in the late summer heat. It was one of my grandmothers favorite, I think she honestly just liked saying "naked ladies," because she would say it and wink and smile.

It pops up all over unirrigated areas here.

Jacaranda trees are really pretty and bloom twice a year sometimes here in CA. Sticky and messy, but great as long as they're not too close to parked cars.

Roseseek recommend creeping booblia for an unirrigated area in my yard and I'm so glad he did! It's a lush looking little creeping groundcover. Even though I haven't watered at all, it's in full sun and near the radiant heat of pavement.

Like others mentioned, ceanothus and manzanita like no (or very little) summer water here. Another CA native I discovered recently is silver carpet CA aster. I love the texture of the dusty silver foliage. Seems to be a great groundcover that I think looks nice with ceanothus, manzanita, pacific coast iris, native penstemons and sages. I will try not to butcher the Latin name of silver carpet aster.... Lessingia filaginifolia.

It seems like some CA natives that may do well in your conditions are available in Italy?

When I went to rural areas of Mexico recently I saw how some families gardened with no running water (for the home or the garden). They had "soil" that looked to me like almost all sand. I didn't expect anything at all to grow there. They created little canals around the plants in rows, much like the Egyptians did I think. The plants were mostly food, not ornamental, but I was impressed with the ingenuity. The canals directed every last drop of dew into the root zone. So simple and smart! They are just beginning to increase awareness about composting there. I'm sure that as that catches on more, they will be able to do even more with very, very little.

I have crape myrtles, junipers and vitex growing along house walls that have a sunny orientation and do think they also keep the house cooler. The vitex just keeps growing and is now bending toward a window that receives a lot of sun until noon, and I look forward to it covering more of the window to deflect the rays. This plant is so vigorous that I have to keep cutting it back so it won't take over too much of the walkway, and its soft leaves are a very good source of mulch.

I've extolled the virtues of marjoram before which makes a large silvery bush with time and is a complete magnet for bees. It doesn't need excessive water and is quite ornamental. Cutting it back once or twice a year is all the care I give it. It's a beautiful silver foil in front of darker shrubs such as rosemary. It makes babies that you can transplant to other areas but is not at all invasive. bart, this is a plant that you might want to investigate. I started with a little pot from the nursery and it just kept growing and growing; I had no idea what it was capable of and how useful it could be.

Cori Ann yes it is wonderful we have a little "mini support group" here and can swap info and try to encourage each other!! I think many of you in other locations know what we're going through though! We're all in it together!

Melissa, I noddded my head at everything you wrote, am SO with you about shade and pergolas, and was just thinking about how different tree shade is from man-made shelter shade, and how it's like the difference between rainwater and tap water. We need more tree shade! More trees!!! More! And I've got two "uva fragola" (toughest and most undemanding yet delicious grape) someone generously gave me, in pots waiting for a pergola to be built.

I've been eyeing local gardens from the street this year and the plants that consistently look GREAT across the board in everyone's gardens are wisteria and oleander. I haven't seen one suffering oleander or one raggedy looking wisteria anywhere. Even in gardens where things look rough. Oleanders have been on my "no" list since I moved to Italy, but I think I might find space in my heart for a pale pink blush almost peach-y coloured one.

Right now just outside the kitchen door is a tiny "vignette" of a flowerbed in bloom: Salvia x superba "Caradonna" reblooming after I cut it back, some white ornamental garlic, a volunteer euphorbia oblongata, a low nepeta with just a few flowers, and in a pot just beyond it, one pretty bloom on my most tortured, barely surviving rose: 'Persian Mystery' (bought at the fair in Lucca a couple years ago on impulse). This little glimpse from the kitchen gives me hope for the August garden. Improving the structure, adding more evergreen shrubs and trees, installing irrigation, replacing struggling plants with tested survivors, trying out some of these suggested plants (what is booblia??, also crepe myrtle has been mentioned many times... ). Cori Ann dianthus do really well but I think it depends on the variety (because of our clay soil and very wet winters). The rose nursery I go to use a lot of the creeping dianthus as a sort of transition from the lawn or gravel to the flowerbed, it's really great, like an intro/prelude made from a green cushion. I should go visit them at this time of the year to see how their inspirational flowerbeds look. I bet they look great. They use a lot of salvia Caradonna, other salvias, dianthus, euphorbia wulfenii (which looks so lovely with pale pink), what else? I need to go see how they're doing. Perhaps I can make it out next weekend and I'll take photos and report back.

One great thing this year? No box moth! The boxwood has all been safe and sound and we have one good year's growth back on it.

PS thanks for the (conflicting though it is) feedback on MAC.... We'll see what happens in the fall....

Be very careful about Wisteria. It can be a thug in the garden.

Cori Ann, that is how we traditionally garden in NM and still do. I always called it 'moat" gardening, but I'm sure there's a proper name.

Here's the creeping boobialla. I may have spelled it wrong before. Isn't it a funny name? From Australia I think. I think the Latin name is myoporum... not sure of that.

No irrigation here. At all. Look how green it is! I planted it in the fall so it got rain water to get established in fall/winter and that's it. It's supposed to have little flowers sometimes. I haven't really paid attention enough to notice them to be honest. The nepeta and carpet roses above the slope do have a simple line of drip irrigation going to them... but that's about 10 -15 ft away from the furthest creeping booblia.... and it's just one simple line, no loops or snaking drip lines. The water here isn't on long enough for it to travel way down there. Even so, the creeping boobialla is all green. I want more of it for all around my riverrocks and around the curb and walkways. It's amazing stuff.

I almost posted this illustration yesterday, but after the conversation turned to pergolas, how can I not share it? From The Garden, May 5, 1888, p.405:

Italian pergola, or creeper-clad covered way in the old Capuchin Convent at Amalfi, in Southern Italy. Engraved for THE GARDEN.

And here's one "in the flesh" at the Huntington Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA.

Recently rehabbed, and complete with Rosarians:

It's amazing how similar those two look! They're gorgeous!

I realized when summer started that I went waaaayyy overboard with roses with my yard remodel. I decided that I'm not replacing any that don't make it.

Papa Meilland was eaten by gophers and I'm not getting a new one. So far that's the only one that didn't make it. I won't be getting any more roses though. I realized I really have too many.

I added to my native garden, added a couple of fragrant olive trees, and annual veggies/herbs that make me happy in the summer like basil, cucumber, peppers, etc.

My basil has never been so healthy as this year. This year I did basil in my raised beds instead of in the ground. Thank you to nanadoll for the recommendation! Basil is one that LOVES heat and if you don't mind letting it flower, the bees love it.

The shade structure we are building is a life saver. I'm tempted to build more.

It is 105F here today so far. That's without the radiant heat. It feels like my skin is melting off. I'm staying inside until the sun sets.

The rosarians really do "make the look", as they say...

I don't suppose any of you Italian residents live near La Mortola, but I wonder if any of you (or other forum members) have visited the gardens there?

I've heard of the garden and seen pictures of it. The English who wintered in Italy built beautiful houses and gardens in Italy to escape to when the English weather was at its most inclement.

I went there once years ago but don't remember much about it. The grounds had been neglected and gotten very run down, and I think that at that time a group was still in the early stages of rehabilitating it. I do recall seeing R. banksiae 'Lutescens', which as I understand Sir Thomas Hanbury introduced from his Italian garden to England, and a lovely plant of 'General Schablikine'. In addition to his activities relating to gardening and botany, Sir Thomas was apparently a notable local philanthropist. My tremendously thorny 'La Mortola', a form or sport or hybrid of R. brunonii, originated there.

These pergolas in the photos are lovely. Ours, made of rebar and bamboo, aren't, but they're respectable, in my eyes, and they hold up the roses just fine. We're in a period of pergola expansion right now, the effect of the still unrelenting sun. However, today's forecast finally includes a possibility of rain!! for two days! less than a week away! When I see such signs of commitment on the part of the weather service, I begin to hope.

I was down in the big garden early this morning, and it looks like quite a few roses are in a state of extreme suffering. If they get killed in places, I'm not going to try to replace them with more roses, but will look for the kinds of plants that grow in the same condiitons as Italian cypresses and olives. The cypresses are among the very few plants that are happy down there. I'll take a survey once the weather allows me to get down there without my having to worry about heatstroke. I'm taking notes from people's suggestions. Thanks for all the ideas!