Heat Wave

Was anyone else subjected to the heat we had during late July? It posted a new record high of 116 degrees here in Perris on one day. It has finally returned to a more reasonable heat of 100 degrees. I was able to hire a helper for a day to help rescue my plants from the weeds which thrived during this heat wave. However, I am still worried about many of my plants...it seems like every plant I have has a little brown on them. I lost a few plants also...some California natives too.

Take care,

Chuck

I think it was over pretty much the whole state--it hit 110-115 where I live which is very unusual. Even by the coast it was much hotter than usual, not in the 100's but still setting records.

My plants mostly did OK--but I have them all in pots right now waiting to be planted this fall so was able to move some of them to shadier places which definitely helped. I can only think of one that died as a result of the heat, although several of them were pretty unhappy for a few days!

Hi, I'm not too far from you in San Bernardino, CA. That heat definitely gave me some scorched plants. I've got a beautiful varigagted hydrangae out front that usually grows to just about take over the world with nothing stopping it. Now, it's got ugly old scorched edges :-( We posted 117 degrees here, probably on the same day! I'm just not a "summer" person ~ red heads don't "do" the heat!

Wasn't that horrible?!! I usually hate anything above 72 degrees anyway and that was a killer! I found myself being really happy the last few days and when I stopped to wonder why, I realized it was because I was so happy to have it back in the 80's. This morning around 5:30 I sensed that we'd just turned the corner, heading into Fall. It was cool, the light had changed, and you just know there's a change acomin'. And they say we don't have seasons here! You just learn to be ultra sensitive to the nuances.
Sherry

Looks like the heat is back to 100+, last heat wave I also lost some plants, seems like they all want to be in shade, and I really don`t have that much shade, the lucky ones in the shade are still thriving and green. I`ve decided to just go with cacti and sucs, for the sunny area , they like sun.

Stay Cool, Mary

I have crispy plants here too. Some of the babies planted out after the RU are toast. That is what I get for being efficient. Now it is supposed to warm up again! I may turn nocturnal. Our marine layer here just makes the heat stay closer to the ground so even the evenings are not pleasant. We will complain when the temps drop below 70 too lol!

I had a knee operation schuled so to be on safe side , I sprayed everything with safer soap . You can see the difference in neighbors yard from over-spray . He said " whatever you are spraying your plants with , I want some "
I have had mites and whiteflys before , so if I am going away for 3 or 4 days , I spray with soap or volek [ This year I switched to Neem . ]
I did that because of operation , but it helped to keep leaves from drying out . I still had damage to Dahlias and brugs and roses .

Had 3 days 112 or higher.. one day hit 120. Lost every fuschia save 2. Lost most of the flax. Ferns fried to the stems (even those in the shade look bad). But most of my plants are cacti, palms and succulents, 99% of seemed OK with it all. Horrible weather is over I hope, though. NOw days in the low 100s seem pleasant in comparison.

It is amazing how a few days under one hundred can feel so good. Can feel the difference in the air here too. AND we've had clouds passing over with a few quick showers now and then too. Not nearly enuff to count as watering the gardens but it cools the air and adds to the fall feeling.
~Blooms ~~waving from here on the high Colorado plateau. ;-))

I didn't lose anything in the heat, but you don't even want to know what my latest water bill is! It worries me a bit that someone on the news was mentioning that the next 3 months could be warmer than usual. Just when I'm hoping we get early rains. And, just so we don't feel bad, I was at Buena Creek Nursery again today (missed a few things last week!), and their water bill was $1,000.00 this month.
Sherry

I'm in Long Beach and we always seem to be 15 or 20 dgrees hotter than LA for some unknown reason. I lost fuchsias, lobelias and have a lot of singed roses. My hydrangeas did zilch...usually they are covered in flowers.

The humidity was/is the worst I ever remember it being. Tuberous begonias...fried........impatiens....fried.........ferns.....fried.......grass, yellow.

Spiders in abundance. Small children trapped in webs.

JasperDale,
Ha! Here it's large adults trapped in webs...but that seems to be the norm at our place. One can only walk outside at night armed with some kind of stick or wand waved before you. I'm really surprised that it would be warmer there....what strange air currents must there be? I gotta say that you must have had a glorious day today, was up your way and watched the boat races at Marine Stadium for awhile and today was absolutely beautiful.
Sherry

Yes...it was great today!!! First time in weeks in fact. !!!
About 5 months ago I put in 9 arbors.....not realizing the spiders would take full advantage!

I wish someone would explain why LB gets so much hotter than the other beach cities.

Last Sunday I had a huge spider on me in church. The lady behind me noticed it. He hitch hiked his way onto me as I was going to the garage.
The little girl sitting next to me practically wet her pants!!! I put a hymnal on top of it and heard it pop!

Lol @ Jasperdale. Good thing my kids are BIG I guess lol. I spent the day hacking and chopping. The poor clivias are fried but i am afraid to cut off the toasty bits incase it heats back up. The passion vines tried to take over my fence and the neighbors yard though. I had to beat them into submission. (Except for the one that the frits ate to the stem.)

Spiders take advantage of anything that is less that 8 feet apart. There is a bumper crop of them here too..... and caterpillars.......and snails...... and any other pest you can think of. Could the heat at least have dessicated the slugs!!!!

Janice,

My passifloras are about half the size of what they were before the heat wave. I guess I am going to wait until after Labor Day before I cut the dead parts of the plants off. I tried it on a Scarlet Hedgenettle and the Scarlet Hedgenettle completely died off. But then again, I tried it on a Swallowtail Columbine and it is coming back nicely. Who can tell?

Jasperdale,

We have spiders also but our bane is ants. I was in church and I discovered one of our ants travelling around my ear. Try taking an ant off your ear and looking like nothing is happening...LOL

Take care,

Chuck

CBernard.....Yes...ants are an enormous issue. When I water, they come out in the millions....an exterminator once told me that their nests can be 10 feet underground...I get them in my bathtub and kitchen sink.....

My ant notes
http://hoeggergoatsupply.com/xcart/home.php?cat=44
http://wolfcreekranch.net/diatomaceous_earth.html
diatomaceous earth will kill ants but there are 2 kinds . One kind is for filters and the other [ heat treated ] will kill insects - ants , fleas , ticks , spiders etc. . Do an internet search for - diatomaceous earth
Ants carry aphids to the roses and milk them for the honey dew [ the black sooty black stuff on leaves ] .
Spraying for aphids doesn’t do much good unless you spray for ants at same time . Just having aphids doesn’t mean you also have ants , they can come in on birds feet , a leaf in the wind , or on butterflies , or anything else that they can hitch a ride on .
Seven , Mathathiion , Diaazeion , Orthonex work , but it takes spraying every 2 or 3 days for 2 weeks . If spraying for ants , keep the spray on or as close to ground as possible . The higher up on plant you spray , the more good bugs you kill . Drenching works best . When spraying on concert house foundations , brick , flashing -- after spraying go back and spray all cracks edges and dirt touching again . Then spray again , you are spraying a sponge that just soaks up the spray , it it’s not on top the ants won’t be affected by it .
The way most of the poisons work is it gets on the ants feet and they lick it off . It gets in their stomck and they die from other ants bitting them , then the poison is in more ants and so on .
Most systemic poisons don’t work very well on ants , They don’t eat much of plant and no one has said they checked the honey dew from aphids to see if it contains enough poisons to kill the ants .
Sticky ant traps don’t work .
Tangle foot does work but needs to be applied at least 12 inches from ground and 24 is better . This distance helps to keep dirt and other stuff from getting stuck .
Ant stakes take at least a week to notice a difference .
Liquid plastic containers seem to work , but don’t seem to attract the ants , they have to find it .
Mixing with corn meal , flower , flower , and oatmeal doesn’t seem to work on the ants but I think is is doing a job on the birds and there babies .

Home made posion-- Mix grape jelly - boric acid , and dry cat food together . Break the dry cat food into small pieces - all most a powder and then make little balls . The ants will carry it back to their home . Can harm birds , cats dogs , squirrels , opposums , raccoons

Garlic spray - 10 to 15 cloves in a pint of mineral oil . Crush garlic in press , soak in mineral oil for a minamuin of 24 hrs - 48 is better - strain , one tablespoon of oil in a quart of water and spray on trails . Can be mixed with soap and or Neem oil . not sure what happens if alcohol is added .

Cilanto / Coriander or Eucalyptus , tomato , mint , onion - leaves stems or pieces - mince / chop up - soak in mineral oil 2 days - strain - 1 tablespoon to a pint of water - dish soap or alcohol can be added but not both .

Lemon zest / peel - use putato peeler , put peels in a mayo jar , cover with rubbing alcohol for 2 days - strain - one tablespoon to a pint of water - dish soap can be added .

Ah come on guys. The ants only come in when it is dry or when it rains!! Neither of those describes where we live. Fortunately, whoever first owned this house put a cement walkway around all but a smaall section of the front of the house. I have a prayer of controlling the little beggers.

Chuck, if you had slapped that ant the 37 other people who had been invaded would have sighed with relief and slapped their ants too. Lol! You can bet that you were not alone. Ants never travel in packs of one, I have noticed.

Hmmmmmm I like the lemon. At least it would smell good. I wonder if I washed the windows with that solution........... Correction, I wonder if the kids washed the windows .......

I was invaded by bees earlier this summer. Persistant little beasts. They were sure that my attic was the place they wanted to be-and how. I have had the regular "Wild Planet" this year. At least the skunk decided that life was better closer to the creek when I turned his cozy hidey hole into a swimming pool. I have not found a way to keep the @#$%& opossum out of the brugs yet though.

Hey! Wasn't it the heat we were complaining about?

Who knew spiders like extreme heat? They are really abundant here too... I suppose that means populations of some other bugs (the ones they eat) are also exploding. I know spiders are our friends, but I do get sick of walking face-first into the webs!

There are lots of brown grasshoppers (but maybe not more than usual?) -- but also LOTS of the green ones -- katydids? ...that I don't remember seeing hardly ever before. That might not be due to heat though, I was already noticing them before the 'Wave.

I lost some but not most of what I brought home from RU: two of four blue [flowering] salvias from DrDon, and half of the six Cerinthe SoCal sprouted for me (and may lose another yet, the leaves scorched and it hasn't grown a bit since, although it's still green-stemmed... perhaps it's petrified and still green?)... Plants from wcgypsy are doing better: only one of the Centrathus is

Remember, in Geologic Time, humans haven't been keeping records long enough to even SAY what is normal -- only what we're used to!

~'spin!~

I too, have had an influx of brown crickets/grasshoppers.
Does anyone know how to divert them elsewhere? How to control the population?

I came home one night and found them hopping around in my apartment, when the front door was closed. (I don't have a back door.)

They're everywhere.

Loulou

Only 100? We had temps up to 120 which are common here in Blythe. How often do you water newly planted iris in this kind of heat?

Well, they shouldn't be planted all that deep so just feel the dirt on top next to the toes. slightlly damp is wonderful, let it dry one more day, then water. Iris don't like wet feet and the top of their toes should be sticking above the soil.

Most of my RU plants look really happy, altho all four of my verbena rigida bit the dust. I neglected them for just 2 days but in this heat we've been having that was all it took. The nepeta is flowering if floppy and has put out many new stems. The verida seems to be frozen in place which means it is hopefully putting its energy into roots.

the special butterfly weed is about to flower for the first time. there are 2 flowerheads getting ready to burst open so of course it has turned both showery and windy as heck. Not much in the way of showers yet. But a promise.

Any of you guys seeing parts of that huge fire? ~~~waving ~Blooms

Hi Blooms,
I found that the nepeta kinda sprawled the first year or two and now the blooms are standing upright, sorry about the rigida...and they're so tough, too. Hope it's cooling off for you there, today has a real hint of fall in the air and I think we're all more than ready for it...why, it's almost time to start bringing firewood up!!
Sherry

Yes, Sherry, yesterday was beautiful here. Not too hot and not too cold. I was able to catch up on some weeding without burning hot sun. I figure if it stays around this temp (80-85 degrees F), the summer damage to my plants will be a thing of the past. I finally planted the last of the hot weather annuals. They may not last very long but they sure are pretty. Our local nursery doesn't get cool weather annuals until mid-October (November for the primroses).

Thanks,

Chuck

First it was too hot, now that feeling of hurry, hurry, hurry....gotta take lots of cuttings and at the same time wanting it to cool down more for seed planting. I'm lucky enough that my dh just built a big shade structure for me, but now I'm wishing for climate-controlled greenhouse. We never know, Chuck, your hot weather babies may last quite a while.
Sherry

We're in for MORE heat next week. ENOUGH ALREADY !!!!!! Time to start sweet peas though.....

Yesterday, the forecast was for the first Santa Anas of the season to hit on Sunday. I definitely do NOT like those winds. (just when we think it is cooling down) I better be sure to water everything really well tonight. Most of the plants I got at the R/U survived that unbelievable heat, thank goodness.

Oy,
I took a tour of some of our gardens that we have installed within the last year and found that some of the Japanese maples that were planted on the NORTH side of the houses had sun burnt leaves as well as some of the ferns and a vew rhodo's.

Fortunately most will rebound well but the rhodos will have the brown sun burnt splotch on its leaves for awhile . - very disappointing, especially when the plant is front and center and you have to walk past it every day when coming and going from your house.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starting to rethink placement of some of my plantings. Our sun seems to be so brutal anymore that things I used to put in full sun I'm now trying to plant in high shade. I think things are definitely changing.....However, this morning was just about as beautiful as they come....just perfect.....getting too warm now though. Jasperdale, thanks for remininding about the sweet peas. I never did get any planted last year and really missed them. Hope you all have a really good weekend!
Sherry

Dear Deviant_deziner,

That is a very impressive walkway. You should be congratulated on your taste. Thanks for sharing,

Thanks again,

Chuck