tomorrow the upper 70s and then on to the mid 80s

What do I do? If I remove the tops, they will quickly dry out due to the very low humidity. If I don't, they might cook. The things that seem the safest are the 6" pots that I placed in zipper locked bags. They have plenty of depth to them.

Open the vents some more (permanently), or take off the tops and set them in a tray with some water. That's what I do, anyway.

I have mine underneath the built in bench on my deck where they get some shade for most of the day. Once the tops come off the containers, I generally have to water every day or every other day.... maybe less often this year for the containers where I've used 4 inches of potting mix.

I saw lots of new sprouts today with the heat (80 degrees here)! Nothing from any of the 16 containers of columbines, though...

Thanks. I will be out early to open the containers; they get less than a half day sun here. I can water even two or three times a day. The weather report says it will be back in the 50s daytime and 40s night time early next week. I can always put remay over them. That does protect them from the sun too.

gloriag: Just make your vents larger. Fairly soon, you'll have more plants and less & less vents because you constantly enlarging them.

I just watered all my jugs today with the hose. They needed a good long soaking.

LOVED this weather!!! I've been cleaning up the yard all weekend and planting out Clematis vines. Boy do I ache!!! But it's a good kind of ache!!!

Thanks, Shirley,
I did that just today. In fact I took the coverings off because it will be in the 60s during the day and 40s to 50s during the night as soon as this heatwave is over. I turned on the outside water so that I could easily water them several times a day if need be.

I've got a few more weeks yet in my zone - but if it's nice this weekend I would like to plant out my poppies

Anita: I planted out 1 container of Poppies & even though they looked kind of big in the bottle, they didn't once I planted them out. I hope I don't loose them all! I also planted out my Agrostemma, "Mila's Queen" and they looked fine. Much better than my Poppies did. Even my Violas, "Bambini Mix" were small. I think I'm going to wait a bit longer before planting out my next container of Poppies or Violas. Even if I loose some, it won't matter because I've got a gazillion more to plant!

Shirley, what about cloching them? You are also a zone ahead of me, so I might wait before planting them out.