petra, are you talking about roses at your house? Did you water at all? I have most of the roses you mention, and they came through better than most everything else!

Yes, the roses in our garden. Sorry, should have been more clear. We did water as much as watering restrictions allowed, but obviously it wasn't enough. I am particularly bummed out about Maggie, it was huge and gorgeous.

Hello Petra,
I did lose a few roses(hybrid teas) and trees, but most of my antiques and English roses made it through. Last year I put a timer on my irrigation and I think that is what kept most of the perennials alive.
It was such a rough year. At least we have gotten a few showers this spring so far.
My father has about 40 wooded acres and has lost about 40% of his mature trees. So sad.

I didn't irrigate much- the drought was so severe that all of my drip tubing and water hoses got chewed into by poor critters looking for water. Plus my well was dry for much of the season. I lost almost every single rose that was under 3 years old. I even lost roses that had gotten really big in their 2.5 years in the ground. But I lost absolutely ZERO roses over 3 years old. None of my roses ever even looked thirsty! It was amazing. I almost killed myself watering my non-roses, and lost so many non-roses that I almost vowed to never spend money on them again. I even lost tons of stuff that hadnt been watered in the 7 or 8 years previous to this drought. Stuff that I thought was bulletproof in Texas. But not my roses.

I can't discount this. I'm afraid some of this is in SoCal's future. perhaps our NEAR future.

Jeri in SoCal

My water bill was like the national debt from putting soaker hoses on my many huge old oaks. I dont care - whats a mature tree worth? I lost alot of roses in my newer arbor bed. It was in full all day sun. Ended up living were Carding Mills, Queen Elizabeth [ a $2 find some years ago] and a polyantha. I watered lots - but had not built the bed up as well as I should and had not top dressed it - it sunk, possibility I overwatered but just as possible was the blast furnace heat that these young roses were subjected to. I will just build the bed up and replant. I did make a list of all the annuals that would tolerate heat and drought. I had experimented and my flowering beds actually looked good! I am already dreading summer and plan to mulch the heck out of all the roses, new trees I have planted and the beds. Soaker hoses were the answer to prayers to help with watering. I am replanting......but am putting my favorite roses and rose bands behind my horse barn in the big bed I am doing there that will be shaded from the deep heat of the late afternoon sun. Anticipating summer to me is like preparing for a war - this year I am going to be ready! Thankfully....we have been getting plenty of rain, and the next 4 days will be rainy. I will never complain about rain again! It will be interesting to see how many trees were lost.....So far, my old oaks are putting out new growth and look fine - my water bill money was well spent and I dont regret a cent of it.

Living in Carrollton (north of Dallas), our water restrictions aren't as stringent as most in the area since we use a different water source, we are in Stage 2, can water twice a week, so that may have been the difference. I did lose most all of the new perennial plants I had ordered, am resorting to seed this spring to see if that helps.

My husband and son just insisted I had to have a sprinkler system installed, and I just wonder how great this is going to be with the way things are going - we may get to the stage of "no watering", it wouldn't surprise me!

Several years ago, I read an article in National Geographic that said the American west was settled during a 100-year wet cycle. If that article is true, and I had my doubts at the time, then things are only going to get worse.

In Florida, we've shot ourselves in the foot by allowing developers and farmers to drain every possible piece of wetlands they could. We're now paying the price with droughts and not enough water to go around. Poor roses--and trees and wildlife and......

What really suprised me was the damage to all of my drip irrigation, soaker hoses, and water hoses. If I used a hose it would be chewed through by the next day. I'm going to have to buy all new water hoses this year! And I have 8 or more that I'm going to have to throw away. My drip tubing is so demolished that I'm going to have to do major work to cut out the chewed out bits and piece it back together. I've usually found 1 chewed out piece per season before this drought, but for example, I bought $40 of soaker hoses in a last ditch rescue attempt to save some expensive camellias- in less than 24 hours the soaker hoses were destroyed. They were chewed in half, every 2 inches. The critters were thirsty!
I lost mature trees as well. The border between my rose garden and the road is a stand of short shrubby pine trees and I lost 3/4ths of them. Everywhere in our area the native dogwoods died. Big huge magnolias are dead all over town. When we would drive along the roads you could look out and see at least half of the mature trees dead or dying. My mama lost several more oak trees that have been on our home place since before it was settled. It may become a desert out here before too long if all of our trees die out!

For those of y'all looking to plant seeds- one of mine I grew around 8 years ago that was supposed to be a very tender perennial is still around kicking and is pretty neat- tweedia oxypetalum - the drought doesn't touch it, probably because it's a milkweed relative.
Speaking of milkweeds, I've been trying to plant more of them to help out the monarch population.

I thought it was very ironic that all of these summers I have concentrated on watering my roses, but when the $#%& went down, the roses were the only plants in my otherwise Texas Drought Ready garden that didn't try and kick the bucket.
I went and bought a bunch of Chamblee's roses to put along the border of my rose garden where the pine trees died, but I'm really hesitant of ordering from any of the more expensive places, because my last 3 years of expensive orders all died in one fell swoop last year. They are saying that this summer is supposed to be just as bad.

I am reading this thread with sympathy and concern. What others are going through may be coming to us. Periodic severe drought is actually normal for California. There was a year of about 6" of rain in the Bay Area back in the 1950's, and a year much like this one (3"-4") back in the 1880's. We tend to think that because our average rainfall is 15" per year here, that is also our normal rainfall. It is not. We don't actually have a normal rainfall. In 20 plus years of personal observation, I have seen regular swings between 7" and 23", over 20" being less common than under 10".

Just as an experiment, I tried watering with the (clean) bathwater recently. I bailed 40 buckets worth onto various young fruit trees and roses. It took about two hours traipsing up and down the stairs and was exhausting. If we go to water rationing and I'm not allowed to run the sprinklers, I guess I'll do it, but otherwise, I think it is just too labor intensive for me.

I have a dozen roses in gallon pots waiting to be planted in a new tea bed. I originally intended to plant them out later this spring. Now I have decided to wait until fall. Where they are they share water with the front rose garden ("free" water). By waiting until fall, I will take advantage of whatever rainfall we get next year. We clearly did not get enough this year!

Rosefolly

I sure hope they are wrong and this summer won't be as bad!! We've been getting more rain, as a matter of fact, it's drizzling as I write this. This spring, we've already had more rain than all of last year combined. We've been downgraded from exceptional to severe drought, phhh.

Our big, beautiful pear tree died and the maples and live oaks don't look too good. From what I've read, the full extent of tree die-off won't be evident for another few years. Those that are severely stressed at this point might succumb to another dry summer, or harsh winter.

Lots of thirsty critters here too, but we put out water every day pretty much all of last year. The bird baths had to be filled twice daily because the water just evaporated. Our anoles (green lizards)seem to have disappeared, they are usually everywhere and last year I saw a grand total of 2. Last spring/summer, there were dying fawns everywhere. Deer were not producing enough milk to feed their offspring and abandoned them. I really, really hope things will be better this year.

Here are a couple photos of the backyard, same time of the year, before the drought and after. And many plants and trees look much, much worse.

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Thank you, Petra, for an excellent thread. In the rose park nearby with over 1,000 bushes - Austin roses are the ones with the largest trunk, compared to really skinny Hybrid Teas. I'm glad to hear that Austin roses are drought-tolerant, they are cold-hardy here in zone 5a.

Hi Rosefolly: I set my hot water thermostat to lower temp., which means I have to run the shower longer to get hot water. I collect this water and run up-and-down the stairs like you, it's good exercise.

My neighbor bought this container with mesh on top (to prevent mosquito from coming inside and hatch. It also has a faucet at the bottom to attach a garde hose. He cut off his gutter's pipe to fit the container under. It looks just like the below picture submitted by a Soil Forum Member:

Posted by joepyeweed 5b IL (My Page) on Thu, Mar 25, 10 at 18:08

I had a pallet bin tied together with twine, but hubs complained that it looked junky. He was right.
So we bought some 8' fence panels when they went on sale. Cut them in half and hinged three corners. Stapled woven wire fabric on the inside. Its not a work of art, but it does look better.

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yeah, we have water meters so we are all just filthy, all summer long, one small bath a week (recycled). Good job I have no friends.

Last I heard, La Nina is supposed to be ending soon (as in the next 30 days or so) and we will have a 'normal' summer. I sure hope so. I didn't put in any trees last fall after the fire because they were forecasting a strong La Nina, which would effectively created a summer as bad, if not worse than last year. I lost close to 20 trees to the fire and unfortunately even some of the roses that survived the fire I lost in the following weeks because the water meter burned up and it took some time before I could get that replaced. I lost Mutabilis during that time. She was about 6 - 7years old and I could not believe she didn't pull through. On the other hand, Frederic Mistral was right next to my privacy fence that completely burned up and with some light pruning, it looks good!

Rosefolly,

Instead of hauling buckets could you set up a siphon? Forty gallons would be worth the (minor) effort of the set up. If you don't know how, ask your DH. They know how because they use the method to siphon gas.

Cath

Rosefolly,
I guess we should be grateful for the rain we do get! Our average in NorthEast Texas is 50 inches per year, but even this large amount is always a problem because the hot hot summer months are bone dry. So we'll have temps of 108 and no rain for 3 months. Last year with the horrible drought that killed so many trees we still got 34 inches of rain. That 34 inches was all in the winter spring and fall(for example, we're supposed to get 7 inches this weekend) and our summer was exceptionally hot.
Even with that 34 inches our water source was almost dry, and many many water sources in Texas were completely dry.

Hi Sienna: I'm glad you mention Frederic Mistral being that tough. He's tough here in my cold zone 5a. Folks here mentioned that roses die in the winter NOT because of cold, but because of lack of water. We plant our grafted roses 6" deep here, and I will plant my own-roots 3" deep, so I don't have to water young bands so much.

Thank you, cweathersby, for very good info. about drought, such as roses over 3 years old survive, versus plants under 3 years died. Deep roots is the key to survival, rather than how much water a plant gets. We had a drought in Illinois 2004 when I bought lots of young plants. I watered them religiously but lost all of them through the winter due to shallow roots.

I'll plant my 25 own-roots this spring deep, to ensure both winter survival and drought resistant. Thank you for very good info.

Strawberryhill, unfortunately, age does not always help. The OGR drought casualties I posted were all older, well-established roses. Maggie was close to 10 years old, and Crepuscule and some of the other ones around 8 or 9. A few of the Austins which are doing well are around 2 - 3 years old.

petra, it's heartbreaking to think of your 10 year old Maggie dying, and your other roses as well.

I surely hope sienna_98 is correct - about La Nina ending -- and with the rain we've been having so far this year, looks like it may be so. Today we're at 40% going for 90% coverage this evening so we're all very happy - no crying in the rain for us.

I fared much better than a lot of Texans because our town draws water from a local lake so our restrictions were minimal. My water bills were out of sight, though, because I had not put a thick enough cover of mulch and I was determined to keep the roses alive. Lesson learned, I'm going to get some thick mulch down before the end of April. I feel for all of you whose summer was such a disaster. I hope this summer is a huge success for you.

cweathersby, I can't lose the image of the poor critters desperate for water. Now that's sad! I'm just sorry you lost your hoses and have to go to the expense of replacing them. On another subject, it's interesting how well you tweedia oxypetalum did. I may have to try that.

Like Petra's second pic, there was nothing beautiful about my landscape in August, but I'm thrilled that the plants survived. Everything is gorgeous right now - lots of good growth and many buds. Archduke Charles has been blooming steadily for more than a week. The redbuds are in bloom, the Ice Follies are finishing, and the jonquils are beginning. My neighbor's yellow iris is in bloom and one clump of my iris is blooming. The pink-flowered oxalis edging several of my beds is lush and all my clematis have buds. I love spring!

Thank you, Petra, for the info. Someone in zone 4a had a long list of Austins, over twenty, and only Graham Thomas didn't make it through a harsh winter. It seems like the hardier the rose is, the more drought tolerant it is. China and Nosette are known as NOT HARDY in cold zone. Maggie is China and Bourbon, Crespuscule and Mme Alfred Carrier are Nosette, Prosperity is Musk (shade-tolerant). They are the ones that died, right?

Thanks for posting those pics, Petra, the drought pic. looks very much like my yard in 2004. I'll play it safe and choose hardier roses, which can withstand drought if it happens here again.

We had a choice between air conditioning and watering and of course air conditioning won out. Maggie did not but the Noisettes survived and thrived. They did go dormant but not dead. I lost a few but they were ones that were smallish or already sick. The ones that had been here for years on the Tea side and Noisete side just took a nap

This topic is on the minds of many of us. We had a very hot dry year last year--nothing compared to what you Texans and Oklahomans went through, but bad enough--an overall dry winter, and right now the two week forecast says no rain. Water supplies are low, and we're running out of time for rain to replenish them. I feel pessimistic about the coming summer, this season being typically droughty and hot.
I've seen some bad summers since I've been here, the worst probably being 2003, when we had practically no rain from late January until September. Our water source at the time did in fact run dry, though we were on vacation at the time and didn't experience it. Anyway, one of my chief observations from that bad year was that the native flora didn't seem to suffer significantly. So I'm surprised to hear about having to water trees, which--did I understand this?--are native and established. Or are periodic mass deaths of trees part of the natural cycle? Or was the summer just that truly exceptionally bad? Or was it the fires specifically?
I'm mightily interested in gardening in such a fashion that my plants don't die--so are we all--and also interested in gardening with as little watering as possible, mainly because I see water as a scarce resource here. Possibly I overrate this issue because of running out of water in 2003, but basically most places aren't getting wetter than they used to be.
As a rule we water our plants the first year they're in the ground and then mostly leave them to their own devices. After the first year I lose few plants, and roses almost never. Of course we planted baby roses in quantity last fall, and I hope we don't run out of water to nurse them through the summer. This summer may turn out to be an unpleasant practical investigation of how much drought baby roses can take. I've also developed considerable faith in the idea of the soil web of microorganisms that sustain our garden plants. I'm being more sparing with hay mulch than I used to be, scattering it thinly, and encouraging the growth of just about any herbaceous plants in the beds that aren't truly ugly or invasive, including abundant annual grass which is just mulch grown in place. I'm trying to dig better planting holes, amending them with hay, and sometimes with sand--we have always done a cursory job of planting and need to improve--and then largely leaving the soil alone. Depth of soil certainly seems to be important: I'm much more likely to lose plants growing in thin soil over rocks, unless they're specifically adapted to those conditions, like many aromatics. I think it helps most shrubs and trees if they have many feet of clay under their feet. I'm also waiting fairly impatiently for our trees and shrubs to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, that is, get big enough to offer some shelter from sun and wind, and improve the soil by dropping leaves and twigs. Gardening in a big open field is no joke, and it seems to cause particular misery to the Teas and Hybrid Musks. The big question in my mind is, how would my garden fare if we got a summer like the one last year in Texas and Oklahoma? Without watering?
Melissa

I'm in the same position as you, Melissa, more or less. I did this big garden make-over,moving many roses and putting in new ones (I finally learned how to achieve soil that can retain water a bit better, and frankly it's easier to improve soil if you don't have to work around plants). But now I am very, very worried and frightened at the prospect of the up-coming summer. I am in the process of filling up my four 1000-litre capacity water tanks and collecting mulch,etc. I'm also planting out as many of my potted roses as possible.This seems crazy:here I'm worried about the 100 plus vulnerable plants out in my garden;why add more??? Because frankly I am afraid there will be water rationing,and it is really difficult to keep potted plants watered, whereas ones planted out in the garden can get by somewhat...And yet, this is nothing in comparison to what Texas has had to go through...regards, bart

Bart, how funny, today I've been moving baby plants from pots to the propagating beds for exactly the same reason: to give them a better chance if we have water rationing. On the other hand, the pots are right outside the house, and it's easier to dump rinse water from the dishes on them, and so forth. In the past I've also set up an outdoor (cold!) shower in the middle of strategic beds and washed up there.
Gardens can get crushed and pummeled quite badly, and the gardeners along with them. I hope we get through this year without too much damage. Good luck to you and your garden!
Melissa

Melissa, part of the reason so many old, established trees succumbed to the drought is because even groundwater dried up in many areas. There are many "dry" towns where all the wells have run out of water and water has to be trucked in. Streams and lakes have dried up, and rivers have turned into puddles. Trees with more shallow roots can't withstand extreme drought conditions, and many trees with deeper roots will be so stressed and weakened by severe droughts that many will succumb to diseases and insects they would normally be able to fight off. Mind-boggling, but as of last month, the drought has killed an estimated 5.6 million urban trees and 500 million forest trees.

The Texans can correct me if I am wrong but I believe that there have been a series of back to back drought years in Texas preceding last summer's drrought. So it is not only the historic record drought of last summer but also the accumulated rain deficit that is so damaging.

Cath

Cath, we have had several drought years. It all depends on who you talk to whether we're at the end, middle, or beginning of a drought cycle. ;) But certainly, at least for Central Texas, the last two years have been exceptional. Lake Travis, which is just West of Austin is currently 40 feet below normal, as the rain that we have had this winter fell mostly over Austin and to the East.

Petra, what kind of soil do you have, please? I'm so sorry you've lost roses. That is just too bad.

I have been happy that my Duchesse de Brabant, older than 3 years old, which is planted in heavy clay with part shade, seems to be okay. She got deep watering once or maybe twice last summer in north Texas. That was it. She seems to be fine. She is planted in what is usually the no-water zone of the yard, so she is used to making do. The ajuga, the columbines and the Turk's Cap are dead as door nails. The English thyme which has been so happy, for years, under the shade of a yaupon may have given up the ghost this winter... but 'something' removed the yaupon branches over the thyme in the middle of the summer, so the thyme was in almost full sun after that. The thyme is/was also in the no-water zone of the yard. Drattedly, the formerly-golden-euonymous is still alive. Some people lost theirs. The daffodils/narcissus are starting to bloom, and the Spanish/wood hyacinths are up. No idea if they will bloom yet. The cedar sage is hanging tough.

Merry, we have clay soil as well, with a dense layer of limestone at varying depths all over the property. In some places you can dig deep, in others just a few inches. My Duchesse de Brabant is doing okay as well, though it has lots of dead wood to trim off. DdB and Belinda's Dream were right next to Maggie. I don't know why those two made it and Maggie didn't.

We were out in the backyard this evening and noticed that one of the huge maples does not have any leaf buds at all. Hopefully, it's just leafing out late. If not, we might hire someone to trim back all of the branches and let a climbing rose or a confederate Jasmine take it over. Sort of a natural trellis. That is what we are planning to do with the pear tree.

Cath41, here in the Hill Country, the drought started in 2007. It let up, then got worse, then let up again. Last year was the absolute driest and hottest.

For 13 years I have lived just west of Texarkana, TX and have never experienced a summer like 2011. We didn't have the severe drought that central & west Texas have been experiencing for years now; but I have never seen so many >100F days (approx 50 days) with nights around 90F. With these temperatures there was not any rain from sometime in May to sometime in September, if I remember correctly - perhaps longer. It is normal for us to not get much rain during the summer, but at my house we got none.
I have over 30 roses and over 100 camellias. Some of my roses and camellias did not get any water during this period, but most of them were given a lengthy overnight soaking about 4 times during drought. I did not lose any roses, although Mr. Lincoln came very close. My teas and chinas have never looked so good after withstanding the drought. I lost one japonica camellia and almost lost 3 large sasanqua camellias. Most of my lawn died, but fortunately I lost none of my trees large or small.
I have a number of fruit trees and had to frequently water the smaller fruit trees - about 3 or 4 look bad, but they will live. I have well water and was cautious about running my well dry, which happened to a number of my neighbors.
I think that the hot sun beating down daily with no cooling nights did more damage than not receiving any rain. I had some camellias that had over 50% of their leaves cook and turn brown - I considered most of these plants bullit-proof for our area. We have received adequate rain this spring, but the faucet can be turned off anytime soon - we didn't get the 5-7 inches of rain forecast a week ago. Paul

I have heavy alkaline clay here, with a limestone base. I dug up a Knock-out grafted on Dr. Huey, and was amazed at how thick Dr. Huey's roots were, and how far it extend out to get the moisture needed.

For Texas folks: The roses that survived the drought, were they own-root or grafted on Dr. Huey? Thanks.

In our area, the exceptional drought continues. Someone mentioned La Nina is ending, but her effects continue. The high pressure dome is still around, right on top of us and to the west. I hope will some system knock it down soon and that it will not spread over the entire state as it did last year.

I lost very few roses from the effects of cruel summer 2011. The ones I did were due to gopher and mole activity diverting irrigation down past the root systems in the loose sandy soil. I did not see own-root vs grafted a variable. Suprisingly, many came back from very dead looking remains.

I have all OGRS and species types. Only one Austin, Heritage. I did plant several new roses last year and all of them made it on no more that twice weekly irrigation.

My tea and china roses are all on their own roots. At least half of my remaining roses are on own roots. Some of my remaining roses are on Dr. Huey rootstock (I assume that most if not all are on Dr. Huey), as I have a few Dr. Huey shoots come up far from grafted roses. I like Dr. Huey and am cultivating a couple of them.
A few people have mentioned damage from the moles and gophers. I forgot to mention them in my last note. I never saw so many tunnels and piles of dirt from them as I saw last year. It still feels like a sponge from their tunnels when I walk across what is left of my lawns. I am very surprised that there is not more damage evident from them. Unfortunately I still have lots of evidence of them, it appears that I didn't lose any of them to heat and drought.

Mine are all own root. The grafted ones kicked the bucket years ago.
Speaking of bulletproof- camellias are that here. I see old established ones in the most run down neighborhoods in town. Our summers are always dry, but they don't mind it at all. This drought killed a HUGE order of camellias that I planted 3 years ago.

A couple of months ago, I drove through some of Houston's old cemeteries. They used to be planted with own-root antique roses. Just about all of them are gone now. The Washington Cemetery has replanted a lot of them. But they've replanted with red Knockout roses. I hate that dreadful shade of red! It's being used so much for a landscape rose that I think of it as the new ligustrum.

I killed 3 Knock-outs grafted on Dr. Huey, nasty thorns on both single-red and single-pink. They are OK for highways, but not for home gardens. I wouldn't want to leave a heritage of thorns for my children and grandchildren to get poked.

I agree with you, eahamel: I'm getting sick of that cherry-red color of Knock-outs. I was so happy to see a clump of ornamental grass in the parking lot, rather than Knock-out. At least ornamental grass look nice in the winter, versus thorny skeletons of Knock-outs.

We had a huge thunderstorm last night, and actually got 4.5 inches of rain!

I noticed a very vigorous pink climber while out running errands today. It is growing up a tree in a formerly residential, now commercial, area. Because of its' location, it has probably had to make due with just the tiny bit of rain we got during the drought. It is in great shape, pretty pink flowers and nicely scented. Below, a few pics.

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I watered my mature roses about every three to four weeks and watered the babies about 2x a month. By the beginning of August, I thought I was going to lose most of my roses - they looked terrible. However, almost all of them survived. I have had to prune a lot of dead limbs but overall, they look fabulous. My teas (e.g., Mrs. B.R. Cant, Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux, Georgetown Tea) are currently in overdrive, the chinas (e.g. Old Blush, cl. Martha Gonzales, Louis Phillipe) are thriving, the Hybrid Musks actually never seemed to notice the drought, the Rugosas thrived, my climbers did have die back but are currently very happy and seem to have definite thoughts about world domination, and even the bourbons survived (my bourbons are a little more frail and water dependent. Maggie is not happy but she is alive. Zephrine had significant die-back but is going to be OK). We have had a lot of rain this spring (I am north of Ft. Worth) and the roses are responding beautifully. My mature fruit trees are not doing well, however, and many will probably die. My cedar elms and oaks are fine and they were not watered. My pines are fine. We do have a stock tank for the livestock that almost went dry but did not and that helped the local wildlife.

Petra, my money on your old rose is climbing Old Blush - looks just like mine growing up a Crape Myrtle. They are hard to kill once established.

Lewane, I think you nailed it! I just compared the cuttings to our 2 Old Blush bushes (non-climbing) and the flowers and leaves from the climber are much smaller, but look identical in form and color. Thanks for the ID!!

Michele, glad to read your roses did so well. Louis Phillippe used to be huge, growing up the side of the deck. Now, there's one 2 foot cane with a few flowers. The climbers (Zephirine Drouhin, an unknown, and Viking Queen) are all doing pretty well, but all 4 Mutabilis had massive die-back. I looked at photos from a few years ago, and it does not look like the same backyard. But Heritage, Old Blush and McCartney are HUGE, and covered with buds. And Christopher Marlowe has been fantastic and not fazed by the drought at all, last year it bloomed from spring til autumn. Hopefully, the drought is over for good, fingers and everything else crossed.

petra. yes the past summer was a real test. i can't imagine this summer could be as bad. in that the winter of 10/11 was brutal, the summer of '11 brutal, i am hopeful that an easy summer will follow this mild winter we had. just hopeful logic.

one thing i did, other than hand water every day. is i used a deep irrigation spike, attached to my hose, that could let me get the water in a few inches, rather than try to permeate the top dry crust.

perhaps this helped??

still, of the 150 or so roses i have, i lost some really established plants. one 10 year old cecile brunner fried. another is coming back from the roots. in odd places several feet away!

golden princess (buck) fried. abraham darby fried. benjamin britton (5-6 year old) fried! :( so sad on this one!!

overall, many DA did fine, lady of megginch and lichfield angel had really hot exposures and did fine. with hand watering. daily. heritage died in the same spot as these.

and yes, i am prepared to do battle this year. lots of mulch and installed drip irrigation in my toughest areas.

good luck!! oh yea, i even stretched two tarps over a few areas to protect them. it was UNBELIEVABLE. i missed the legendary summer of 1980, but made up for it this year. here every day!!

Ilovemyroses, it has to get better, right?! Fingers crossed the remainder of your roses will do great. Heritage is in a spot next to the house and about 8 feet tall, maybe being shielded from the hot mid-day sun helped it survive. Great idea to water deeper into the ground!!

Have you (and everyone else in TX) noticed huge numbers of Crane Flies over the past week or so? They are also called Mosquito Hawks, I think. They look like giant mosquitoes, but they don't bite. Anyway, there was an article about the drought in today's SA Express and it mentioned that the return of the Crane Flies could signal the end of the drought. Of course, they had to add "for now", phhh.

I'm in Katy (West of Houston), and was SHOCKED at the plants I lost: 2 cedars, a Little Gem Magnolia, sages.
But all my roses survived.
I only have one OGR here in my new house, but the giant MUTABILIS is fine. It's own root.
The own-root 'Don Juan' is thriving, as are my two hybrid teas which are grafted onto Dr. Huey. ('Fragrant Delight' and 'Angel Face'--both of which have Blackspot right now just to taunt me!)

I am sad to hear that people are losing OGRs, but I never would've expected to lose a magnolia or cedars in Houston!