Yesterday it hit 90F with very high humidity, and there were some crispy roses out there today. We were SUPPOSED to get a rain storm, but it mostly missed us, giving just a light drizzle for about 30 minutes. Hopefully the rain that's supposed to come late tonight will hit its target. 'Golden Celebration' opened its first flowers yesterday during the heat, but today it seems unfazed. If it continues to arch to the point of flopping, I just may put together a rebar tripod for it. 'Purple Skyliner' was also unfazed by the heat, and continues to grow and grow against the fence. There are two fat new shoots going straight up from the base. You can clearly see the one in the center in this pic. It's hard to believe that this came as a rooted cutting from Kim Rupert just last year. Flashback to when it first arrived a year ago, June 2013: This is a pic of Paul Barden's 'Golden Buddha', with a one-day-old flower on the left, next to a four-days-old flower on the right (and another cut-off in the top edge of the pic). The color fades, especially in the heat, but the form of the flower remains for a long time. The petals won't crumple or look unattractive for another week if I leave the flowers on the plant, and I actually LIKE the faded color. So I don't deadhead this one until the flowers start to fall apart -- which is usually over a week from the day they open. The first flower on 'Georges Vibert' -- one of my two striped Gallicas -- shrunk after yesterday's heat, but still smells very nice. There are many other buds waiting to open, and the next few days will be more mild. 'Charles de Mills' also unfortunately opened its first three blooms yesterday, and today they are looking a bit droopy. I know some people say it's scentless, but I can catch a moderate-to-strong fragrance on it. The scent isn't as sharp as Damask, nor sweet -- it's something like a floral-herbal potpourri smell. 'Honorine de Brabant' still has only baby-canes that have self-pegged under their own weight. I won't cut them back until thick new shoots have come up -- for now, they're feeding the plant. And as you can see, many flowers got fried in yesterday's heat and high-humidity. 'Nouveau Monde' just keeps on blooming -- no fried flowers, though there are some that are fading simply from age. I told myself that I'm not going to deadhead any of the once-bloomers to see if any make hips. Whichever don't I'll know to deadhead next year simply for neatness. And besides that, there are seedlings of Nicotiana 'Bella' coming up in front of 'Nouveau Monde', so I don't want to step there right now. The new brick-lined bed I made against the neighbor's house has only three roses -- "Grandmother's Hat", 'Napoleon' and 'Perle d'Or.' The rest of the plants are Summer-blooming perennials that like the heat, since this bed gets full-sun until mid-afternoon. This is Coreopsis 'Moonlight' beginning to bloom. The rose to the left is 'Napoleon.' Planted in front and to the left of the rose "Grandmother's Hat" is Penstemon 'Mesa' which has also started to bloom. The one long cane on 'Duchesse d'Angouleme' I tied against my front porch railing has started to bloom, just as the flowers on its neighbor-to-the-left 'Souvenir du Docteur Jamain' are beginning to fade. To its right is 'Archduke Charles' which is still rather tiny, and should be blooming soon. :-) ~Christopher

No answers yet? That's fine, no rush. Here are the pictures I promised: ***Meyer Lemon tree*** Here you can see the full plant. It's about 11 and a half inches in height. ***Meyer Lemon Branches*** If you look carefully, you can see what looks like 2 miniature stems coming out of where the first two leaves used to be. Those are the beginning stages of branches. ***Meyer Lemon Trunk*** You can see it turning a tanish color. It's changing into wood. And last but not least: ***Meyer Lemon biggest leaves*** Here you can see the three biggest leaves which happen to be the three most recent leaves. These are the leaves I was talking about. So, it's very healthy, and hopefully these can help (at least a little) with answering the questions. Thanks!

I hear you, Sharon - I've just been out checking the garden thinking nothing could be as bad on the roses as last winter. Sure enough, almost none of the roses beyond the "usual suspects" had any live cane above the leaf line, and many are dead down to the ground. It didn't seem like this was as brutally cold a winter, but we had a very early bitter cold snap with below zero for about a week in November. I think that shocked the canes off most of the roses in the yard never to recover. So far I don't THINK I've lost any more than my usual number of marginally hardy roses, but I don't dare speak too soon. You're of course right that we should only plant roses for a zone colder than we are to be safe, but heck - who wants to be safe? Hey, we specialize in plants that can draw serious blood at a moment's notice, so we're not exactly sensible, are we? Dinglehopp3r, I've had about 5 teas in my zone 5 yard for 6 or 7 years, and with a little extra protection they have done fine. Of course I experimented with around 10 other teas that fainted dead away at the first sign of our winters, so it's anyone's call. I'm trying to add Clementina Carbornieri this spring, and we'll see how she likes cold and ice. Cynthia

Yep, I only water "new implants",and last time I was there I did test the soil with my moisture-reader of a couple of them, and the soil still registered as "moist" ,so I haven't yet started watering. In any case, this year there's only 15 new ones,since I could only start gardening after Christmas, due to the hip operation. What's more, I do have quite a lot of water stored up out there; it's just that, as a principle, I like to always replace the water that I use as much as possible. But these past 2 years have been so hard: last summer, since I was doing chemo, I had to break my rule and use water without replacing it,my water-catching rooflet fell down, and un-wisely, I put off filling up one of my 5 big water tanks-I didn't forsee my car having problems. So, things are far from "desperate", lol-it's just frustrating. For at least this up-coming week, I may have to avoid trying to go out there;the forecast is so bad! extreme heat, no favourable wind (for me, favourable is south-west ; makes it bearble temperature-wise and keeps the mosquitos, flies, etc away). Among my future projects is to build myself a sort of gazebo, so I'll have a place to sit in the shade and just look. Also adding trees, though it's tricky. The view is so beautiful, and I don't want to block it too much, but it is towards the south-west . So I am trying to guess spots in which I can put trees that won't block the view completely, yet will provide some protection from the afternoon sun. But I get so little morning sun, and I don't want to block that. I'm also trying to think of ways to shade the roads that I must use to get down to my garden. For the main one I'm going to try to plant tall -growing climbing roses that I can train over rebar bent to form arches, in the hopes to create a sort of rose tunnel. On another path, within the garden,I've decided to not replace the roses that I removed -they were doing so poorly!-and instead put in a redbud or two. I've got 2 wisterias planted that I'm hoping will help shade the entrance gate as well. Gotta build support structures for these things, though...so much to do! but for now it's best that I just sit tight, and try to be patient.