Record-setting temps

Looks like some of us in the Puget Sound Region may get a little break. Apparently some weather "broke off" and is interfering. Thank you, thank you.

http://www.komotv.com/weather

I'm happy with 70's at the most 80! Wahoo!

I'm glad you folks got a break. We sure didn't! Eugene (I don't live there, just spend time there), got a little bit of one, getting only to 89 deg. Roseburg, 1 hr. south of Eugene, got to 105 deg. (the hottest in the nation was death valley at 107), and I live inbetween eugene and roseburg and got to 102!!!! I don't want it! Thank goodness it isn't supposed to last long!

I remember vacationing in Grants Pass from Fairbanks, Alaska at my Uncle's when I was about 12 years old. It was so hot (probably only 90 degrees, but Fairbanks rarely got into the 80's LOL) and my aunt was boiling eggs and making potato salad. I thought the woman was a goddess - she walked around like it was nothing - supernatural, really.

We lucked out because of some cloud cover. Doesn't sound like you--all got that. So, if you don't live in Eugene, where do you live?

What a nice memory! other than the heat part :-pI live just outside of Oakridge. Work in eugene though. actually heard of it? You might have if you've been to grants pass.

Hi, Redchic01. I live about 15 miles North of Roseburg and I work there in Roseburg. It had to be over 90 yesterday when I left work at 2:00 pm and that was bad enough. I am very glad I escaped from the city and got home to a more rural area before it got to the high for the day. It's been very warm today but I think low 90's for the high. I was quite satisfied to stay indoors under my air conditioner. Hope it wasn't as bad for you today as yesterday. Dotti

Yes, it was much better today. I think that we probably evened out! I think that eugene got to 92 or 93. I'm not sure what it was at my house, since I was in eugene today. I sure wanted to be in the A/C. Much better though. Did your Rhodies suffer? I had a lot of well watered plants that the blooms just went south on. Actually the only ones that fared well were the ones that I actually got around to cooling off with water during the heat of it. I'm really saddened by all the blooms wilted or white/red/purple with brown edges.

I'm still just amazed that your aread was second in the nation to only death valley! How much did you break the record by?

Whew - you guys got it hot. It was hot here today (they had said that yesterday would be the hottest), but beautiful. Don't know what the official temp was.

Redchic, I came down in summers to visit relatives in Grants Pass, Corvallis, Cottage Grove, Eugene. Went to SOSC at Ashland for a semester and then finished up at OSU. My folks retired in Corvallis; my brother is a doctor in Philomathc.

My dad's dad's mill started Pengra, I think. My dad was just reminiscing a few months ago about the summer they lived in tents and logged at Pengra. Had to walk the railroad tracks into town on the weekends.

My folks met at Linfield in about 1940.

That having been said, I don't know that I actually remember being in Oakridge. LOL How far is your commute to Eugene from there?

So, Kathy, how did you end up in Woodinville?

We were low 90's today here, not quite as hot, but close enough! I think the plants are really freaking out now. It's supposed to be down to 80 tomorrow, though

Wow, you have amazing ties to the area. My sister went to linfield as well, ended up graduating at UofO and I went to OSU. I really liked the campus there. I've been through Pengra and the once dreaded Old Pengra Pass! I'm sure your folks have some stories about that! I've you have/had relatives in Eugene and Grants pass, which is primarily an I-5 route, you may never have went through Oakridge. Grants pass is pretty much due South about 135 mi. along I-5. Oakridge is about 55 mi. SE of eugene. If you ever went to Willamette Pass Ski Area from Corvallis, you probably went through it. It's also one way to get to Crater Lake.

I agree, how did you end up there?? I think that there's going to be some fallout in our plants that may take months to show up, even in Vancouver!

You know like when we have a hard freeze either early or late when the plants aren't dormant, and then bark split shows up in them a couple of months later. I was looking at some strange looking leaves on one of my rhodies that grows in full shade. When i finally got to the bottom of the problem, it was heat damage that it had suffered probably last fall... since there was nothing memorable about last falls heat I can only imagine what this is going to do!

picture of what the propagation greenhouse looked like ALL day!

Hi Redchic, Yes, I'm worried about the rest of the summer and how much this early baking may have hurt my plants, too. :(

somebody will have to make a post a new thread later on ....."what happened after The May Heat Wave"!!

I'm not seeing any damage on my Rhodies, Azaleas or Camellias yet-and I hope I don't. The majority I have are parked under some large Big Leaf Maples and normally get filtered sun so I am hoping. But my Sum & Substance Hosta is not at all happy. Like the majority of my plants, it is in a pot and today I had the pot moved to my porch in an area that gets only a little sun, then I shaded it until that sun had moved. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Hope that your only damages are a few wilted leaves. Dotti

I"m glad that yours are fine so far, minus the sum and substance of course. At least it is a very tough hosta! I think that it's going to take a couple of months for the the signs of the damage to show up. That being heat damage or something like that, not just drying out. the damaged leaves that I pulled off the rhody the other day was from something that happened last fall!!! and just had shown up noticeably in the last week or so.

Thank goodness today is getting a lot closer to normal! what a relief!!!

I agree with you whole heartedly! Thank goodness we are getting a breeze, which is a big help. My hosta may survive yet. I am not at all fond of temperatures over 80 at any time, but especially not when I am used to 40s, 50s, and low 60s. Then to jump to 100? Yuck and double yuck! Dotti

You had it a lot worse than we did here on Whidbey, but yesterday was high 80's and honestly, it did make me feel a bit sick. We have a/c in the house, but with my DH being so ill, he is always cold so I didn't turn it on. He finally did, for me, and got under a blanket himself. It's very pleasant today - only about 72 degrees at the moment. I've been inside all day, except for running errands . . . my house was in desperate need of cleaning! But I may put in an hour or two now.

Murmur I'm glad to hear that it's a nice comfortable 72 now.... Finally!!! I hope that we've seen that last of that for quite a while. I'm sorry to hear about your husband. That's never something anybody can imagine the process of. But, it sounds as though the both of you are doing as best as possible. Monday is supposed to be nice. Maybe you'll be able to be out then! I plan to after I get off of work for a couple hours. it'll be time to assess the damages! Many of my rhody flower buds are toast, but I was expecting that as soon as I heard the forcast. The sole bunch of irises whose buds didn't freeze in the late snow went kaput, ho hum... I think that's all that I'll notice for a while. so long as the plants themselves stayed healthy I'll get over it and just be anticipating the summer bloomers all the more!

Dottik ...I'm sure Sum and Substance will be trooper it's name implies. Heck, if it dies back that could actually be its way of saving itself, then it'll reappear all the better!..... We have to hope anyhow!

Almost missed the question:

Grandparents lumer mill went belly-up (to small, couldn't compete) in the early 50's. Folks went to Alaska with the FAA. Retired when I went to college - we all came down to the "Lower 48". I finished school at OSU and then moved to Seattle to find a job. Lived all over Seattle for about 20 years and then decided to move to Woodinville (my older brother lives nearby) to get back into the country as much as I could.

Redchic - wish I could have been standing in the propagation greenhouse all day yesterday. I'm burned today . . .

Most of my plants (with the exception of the rhubarb) did okay, but that's only because I have lots of shade. So sorry to hear about the rhodies getting whacked out by the sun. Mine are in full bloom now - usually they last about a week and then a hard rain seems to do them in. Not easy to be a rhody . . .

only a couple casualties - all zinnias that can be reseeded.
The 2 cardiocrinums I bought did NOT like the weather Saturday, even though they were watered & only exposed to morning sun.
My new tree peony also hard a rough ride: all 3 flowers looked like rags. My Davidia lost all its flowers, too. At least I was able to enjoy them last week.

I think the grass grew about 3" too...
and I have a sunburn from yesterday!

Well katie you had a very scattered and interesting upbringing to say the least.

Don't you just love that.... everything else dies, but the darn grass growes. I completely forgot to check on the cardiodrinum. yikes. I will have to do that right away! And I am sooo glad to hear that I am not the only one with a sunburn... even though I wore sunscreen!

Well, it wasn't too scattered. Everbody else did the hard work - I was just along for the vacations. :-)

I'm actually going to have to weed whack before mowing (at least 1/2 acre, I think). My grass got that high. But I did get the lawn mower started yesterday - yippee. Now my hot water heater's out. :-( I tested the elements and they are okay, so I thought I'd just reset it again and turn the power on and hope the best. I was on my way outside to play and it was raining. What@#$%%.

Katye - my brother and SIL came by yesterday and said their Rodgersia was doing great (I shared with them what you gave me). They are quite impressed with it. I gave them a piece of the burnet, too. And then I showed them my magnificent Solomon Seal - we decided that I should give it about 10 x 4 feet - it's spectacular and fragrant. I had no idea how much I'd like it. Thank you!!

Sit by it for at least 5 minutes & check out the Bee visitors - they always find the open bells, climb in & shimmy. Too cute.

Ugg... water heaters. It wouldn't have been so bad during the heat wave, but of course it has to happen now once it has cooled off.

I'm starting to see crispy leaves on some of my Heucheras. They don't normally fry, so I think it was just the suddenness and earliness of it. A couple of hostas are looking a bit sunburned, as well. Course, maybe if it hadn't been so darned cold that they were just unfurling their leaves before it switched to 90' it wouldn't have been as bad. At least it is early enough that they can grow more leaves. Otherwise, they got lots bigger over the winter-this will be year two for my two bigger (but not super-big) hostas.

Some of my seedlings finally actually grew a bunch, but the cantaloupe that I put out before it heated up and wasn't doing well gave up the ghost. Oh well, I still have one.

I think that's the whole problem... Going from a very late freeze/snow to a very early 100 deg. They must be soooo confused. I know my heucheras that were in the shade did all right, but I really haven't looked closely at the ones in the sun... I know that I saw them over there. Hmmmm....I'm really worried about all my first and second year seedlings of hostas and pulmonarias. I think that had to be really hard on the fragile little roots :-( So far they look ok, but I think it's far to early to know their fate.

This message was edited May 19, 2008 11:48 PM

Seems to me that the upside to this is 1) it was very short, and 2) that if we have another couple of weeks of very moderate temps things do have a chance to recover from this more than they would if something catastrophic happened in mid-summer (I hope, anyhow...)

While it's sort of insane, maybe the fact that we've had a cool spring and things were so late does have an upside. That is, if the plants concentrated on more root development before leafing out. They did at least have more time to do so, and my plants were looking very healthy and happy (and slow) until this heat.

This message was edited May 20, 2008 12:21 AM

Your right! That is definitely the way to look at this!!!

Good job of seeing the glass as half full!!!!

yes - because no matter how you view the glass - it has water in it!
And if it's empty - fill it up again.
=:0)

Well, for some reason I just thought I would post some pictures of the heat damage that is showing up on some plants. Some of them aren't all that bad yet, I'm just wondering what's to come. Some of it just looks pretty weird.

first one is of an anemone

Rather sad looking Rhody

nandina new growth

some violas

these are two different hydrangeas. With growth like that, I'm really not sure if they'll flower. They probably will.

this one took it much harder compared to the other hydrangea