My experience: My eggplants did not produce a single fruit allllll summer! THey had tons of blossoms but had blossom drop. As soon as it started to cool in late august that thing started setting fruit like crazy and did all the way up until I rippedd it out when it got frost damage at about 30 degrees F. It still had 4 baby fruit on it at the time. So I'd say as far as the eggplant, mine performed best in that temperature range without any protection and even with shortening days.

The answer to your question depends on a few key factors: 1) exposure to sunshine 2) air circulation 3) porosity/ drainage of the soil mix 4) plant's "vigor" This time of year, in my experience, if you can place your plant where it gets unobstructed midday sun outdoors with good air movement, in a potting mix with a high percentage of inert drainage like perlite, and there is a healthy rootball, you should not encounter any problems with rain and cold until you start to get frosty evenings regularly. Those are all important "ifs". I find the SW African plants that in their native habitat receive the majority of their precipitation during the fall season do very well. It is normal in habitat for these plants to have cold nights with the soils drenched from heavy dews and fogs. The difference maker in habitat is that normally it warms up nicely in the day, whereas that doesn't happen for many of us growers. A few consecutive days/ nights of wet and cool weather won't harm healthy plants. Once you get into 3-4+ days of cloudy, cool and wet weather, you need to take action accordingly. I try to plan ahead - for example, if my 10-day forecast shows a week of sun and warmth followed by rain, I let my plants dry out to the point of near-desiccation, then let them recover during soaking rains. Watering is sporadic this way. Sometimes they get too much, sometimes not enough. Every season I worry less and less, and lo and behold these plants don't disappoint. It is a testament to their adaptability. Over the years I have lost far more plants to heat and drought, than to rot - that's for sure. x

Mary, you both deserve a junk food night!! Enjoy every single bite :-) Georgysmom, since I've read through this, my first thought was "Oops!". But looks like you saved the day with the marinara. Good thinking! Angelaid, wow, that's a lot of choices for dinner. What do you do with your huckleberries? Jasdip, you sure are enoying your cooler weather. Dinner sounds delicious. Sure would like even a sniff of that homemade bread. Pam, a nice long ride sounds like fun. I bet your mother enjoyed it. Nice dinner to go with a nice day. Glenda, I really don't like even riding in the car during one of the south's famous pop-up storms. Hope you didn't get caught in it. Glad your fish was good. Raven, the best dinners in this heat are the easy, but tasty ones. I love those rotisserie chickens. What a life-saver they can be!!

Thank you Karen. I am very tough with my roses. I only buy the healthiest plants from good rose nurseries. Anything that do not perform or provide enough olfactory satisfaction will get SP'd and replaced with better specimens. Ebb Tide changes colour depending on sun and heat. In summer it ranges from light to bright pink to light purple. The fragrance is consistently good though. In my Summer it is only fragrant in the morning. In Winter it is fragrant from mid morning till late afternoon.