I think Dr. Byrne, a Texas AgriLife Research rose breeder according to the article, is developing some new roses that he hopes will be beautiful and healthy as well as take the heat. The articles says he produces, plants and evaluates about 20,000 rose seeds every year. It's just nice to know that a few people are trying to develop good roses for hot climates. Until then we'll just have to keep each other apprised on what's working well in our hot gardens as well as watching to see what "Earth Kind" rose tests reveal. One of the problems with my area of Texas is that it stays so hot at night (the low 90s) as well as having triple digit summer temperatures in the daytime.

Althea, bird of paradise, butterfly weed, turks cap, cone flowers, cestrum orange peel, sunflowers, salvia, giant bird of paradise, coral vine, passionvines, crinums, hibiscus, penta, elephant ears, duranta, rhipsalis, brugmansia, datura, shrimp plant, esperanza, American germander, canna, African blue basil, gourds, bitter melon, vinca, bulbine, bouganvilla, a stray crocosmia, cacti and succulents, jatrophas, potato vine, begonia, plumbago, vitex, pride of barbados, roses, clerodendrums, frogbit, water lilies, plumeria, rockrose, poinsetta, haemelia, butterfly bush, butterfly vine, gloriosa lily,gardenia... there is some other stuff out there blooming but can't think off hand. We just got a lot of rain and of course we like to water!! Tally HO!

Up north, you can place LL in full sun but further South, like down here, you cannot; have mine in full bright shade although morning sun and afternoon shade will also work. But hey, adding a drip system is a good idea... although it can be expensive for some so, adding that system depends on how much rain your LL's location gets and needs. If your location cannot supply enough rain water via rain or your soil is sandy and drains too well during the driest part of the year then water by hand, use a soaker hose, a drip system or a regular system to water it. In my area, where it is very hot and dry in the Summer, I use drip irrigation on my LL. But not only that, once temps hit 100 daily in July-Sept, I have to manually water because drip twice a week does not soak the soil of water-intensive shrubs as well as watering by hand. So, I manually water those hydrangeas and camellias once a week too, until temps moderate below 100 in September. Non-water intensive plants do not need this extra hand watering and seem ok with just drip and mulch. LL and even regular Limelight are good shrubs. You should be happy with that selection. By the way, you did not say so where are you at?

There are so many varieties of panicle hydrangea now, in addition to limelight and little lime. These are an unnamed variety from a grower here in east Texas - they only get about 6 hours of full sun, but they really responded to this cold winter. The flowers age kind of pinkish then dry nicely for arrangments. We've also had good luck with the smooth hydrangeas (h. arborescens) such as Annabelle in similar condition, actually in the same bed - these might be 'Incrediball' - I have to wait till fall to climb in to see the tags. We did plant them on the east side of some taller shrubs (viburnum 'Opening Day' and 'Rosalinda' Indian hawthorn, which is recovering from last winter's freeze) to provide some afternoon relief from the hot sun.