You might have been better off by incorporating your top dressings into the entire planting area months before planting. By just doing the top dressings, it could take some years for the soil to improve. Try hoeing some of your amendments into the upper soil, taking care to not disturb roots. The only way to accurately gauge watering is to probe a few inches into the soil to see how well it is taking up moisture. Blackberries don't care if they get their trunks wet; water the ground right up to the canes.

Thanks for all those photos Silvia. I really appreciate the input. The violas are really so very sweet and you can't help but smile when you see them (a quote from my 4 yr old daughter) As far as the SunHosta, just by weird chance, I linked up to a local grower in Naples "American Farms" on Facebook. Holy moly they have some beautiful plants and a CROP of hosta growing. All their pics are amazing. Crenda, those stones will give off a lot of heat. I had luck with them around my palms where they get a tiny amount of shade but lots of air flow. The ones labeled "SunPatiens" did much better than the New Guinea Impatiens (which actually did say part shade). I got my 10 Amazon Dianthus in this morning and I LOVE THEM! :) Back to surf the American Farms photos and see what to look for next :) Oh and they have that Lady Phlox I mentioned above too, stating Phlox for florida! :) Here's their crop of SunHosta

I just want to grow it in this container and I will stick it in the garden at the end of the year. It will be growing on a shady deck all day (and yes, I'm aware that allysum likes full sun.) Do you think it will be okay? I was just concerned because when I looked it up it sounded like it grows more similar to oregano, however, the tag on it says it only gets 3-6 inches tall. My oregano grows very fast and very tall and would take over this planter before the end of the summer, which I do not want. I would like it to drape over the edge with the alyssum, but perhaps a little farther. (and I'm living in southern Michigan, zone 5 I believe, if that makes any difference)

Straw wrote: "Khalid: Your roses look very good in high heat, nice colors and healthy foliage. My Just Joey looks really bad, blooms bleached out to beige, so I don't even post pics. I might move it to partial shade for better color. We are in hot & dry phase, up to 90 F, or 32 C." Straw: 90*F is not high heat for roses in my view. I mean in this temperature, my roses were performing very well. Could there be other (primary) reason for your Just Joey or any other rose not performing that well. I am not sure if 90*F alone is enough to cause deterioration in performance of a particular cultivar. I mean some mineral deficiency / excess or some issue with the soil that gets amplified due to rise in temp? Or could it be that my roses have slowly been acclimatized to perform better in heat? Just trying to understand what could be the reason for my Just Joey being quite yellow in 105*F and your's turning beige in 90*F. best regards PS: Sam, did you see the photos of Rose Biomes posted above? Jess: Alec's Red hasn't impressed me much. It is almost completely non fragrant since the temps rose above 100*F and is blooming sparsely. When I compare it's performance with many other roses, I would rate it quite low with regards to performance in summers though it performs much better when it is cooler. Sorry no experience of growing Christopher Columbus. I haven't actually seen it here.