Cleomes "Sparklers" are losing leaves

Hello,
I recently planted white cleomes in my garden where they receive about 5 hours of direct sunlight a day in Houston. They also get bright indirect sun in this sweltering heat. Initially, they were doing wonderful but in the last two weeks, starting from the bottom going upward, the leaves yellowed and are starting to fall off. What were once full cleomes are now scrawny little things. The blooms are beginning fade as well. We have received an unbelievable amount of rain, could this be the culprit? This is what I"m assuming due to the yellow color of the leaves. Or, are they receiving too much sunlight? I will post a picture in the morning. Any input would be helpful.

Could be the rain, lower leaves yellowing and falling off and losing flowers are some common things that happen when plants are overwatered. Unfortunately there's not much you can do when you're not the one doing the watering! Hopefully if the rain stops they'll perk up again.

Ecrane3,
thanks for the response. Since we're in the same zone, what are your favorite plants? I'm trying to start using plants that compliment our zone as opposed to buying plants because they look nice (only to watch them die slowly). I'm having success with Sky Memory flowers, plumerias and potato bush (which is quite lovely despite the name). I've been looking at Dave's Garden to find heat and full sun tolerant plants, but I haven't stumbled on the right thread yet.

Here's the picture of one of my Cleomes.

On the cleomes--it could be overwatering but doesn't quite look like it to me, it almost looks more like they've just been in too much heat/sun. I'm not sure though. Usually when things are overwatered, they are sort of wilty/soggy looking in addition to turning yellow, and yours don't look that way at all. Could be they're too close to the whitish colored wall which reflects sunlight and heat, and combine that with the sunlight and heat that they get anyway from the sun, it could be too much. I don't grow cleomes though so I don't know much about their heat/sun tolerance.

As far as plants that do well--have you discovered the Texas Gardening forum? http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/region_tx/all/ That's probably the best place to find advice on plants that will do well for you. You and I may be in the same zone, but CA and TX have very different climates, really the only similarity is that we have the same average lows in the wintertime (which is what the USDA zones are based on). We have all our rain in the winter time and get pretty much no rain at all between May and October. We also on average have lower summer temperatures than you do, and we have no humidity at all during the summer which means even if we get an occasional day that hits 90-100, it cools off into the 50's and 60's overnight. I grow mostly Mediterranean plants--a lot of California natives, and I also like Australian natives so I grow a lot of those too (they have a similar climate to us). But I don't think they'll like your humidity--a lot of them tend to be susceptible to fungal infections if they're exposed to too much moisture during the warm months. Your recent tons of rain that you're talking about would have probably killed half my garden. I'm sure I have plenty of things that could grow OK in TX, but since our climates are so different I'd have a hard time predicting which things would grow well for you and which ones wouldn't.

Hi lifesaverlove, it looks to me that the plant is suffering from too much heat/sun and also dry. things that are growing against a wall dont get a lot of water as the walls tend to shelter the roots, and as Ecrane told you, the wall also heats up and holds onto heat, it is acting like a radiator. I would next year, move them to a slightly cooler area with less direct sun at the roots, they also look like they need feeding as they are so yellow looking which indicates lack of neutrients, if you look how green the neighbouring plants are, you see the difference in vitality, so they obviously enjoy this position but the Cleomes dont, I think you are a bit late to move them right now, but do it at the end of the summer when the heat has gone, give them a good watering/feed for now to try see them through the rest of the flowering period, a liquide feed would be faster acting right now. good luck, WeeNel.

What great information guys. I hadn't even considered the placement of the plants against the white brick. It make sense though. The heat down here is sweltering these days, by 8 a.m. it's almost up to 90 degrees and by noon, it feels like 110.

Last year I planted salvias in the same location and they didn't last as long as the cleomes. I just may have to leave that area alone and focus on places not as close to the house.
Ecrane3, you are correct about the humidity, yet another thing I hadn't considered when asking about plants. It's amazing how clueless I really am. I think it's time to hit the library and book stores to get more basic information.

WeeNel, the green plants are what I've been told are called Mexican Petunias and they love my garden. They love this punishing heat. I will look further into fertilizing properly. I thought I did the trick when I planted them in organic soil, probably another novice misconception.

Again, this is great information and I will be able to apply it to my future gardening. I truly appreciate y'all taking the time to consider the possibilities of what is going on with my cleomes.

Organic soil is a great start, but plants are still going to need fertilizer, they will use up the nutrients that are there in the soil and you need to put more in. There are organic fertilizers that you can use, anywhere from stuff you can buy at the store to making your own compost and things like that, or you can use synthetic fertilizers, but regardless of what you use you will need to reapply it from time to time. Some plants get by on less fertilizer than others which may be why some of your plants look healthier than others. If you grow TX native plants, they're probably going to need the least amt of fertilizer since they're adapted to growing in the wild in the type of soil that you have around.