We're having a lot of heat and little rainfall here in the midwest this year...yesterday 99 as we took our g'son for icecream at 4:00 PM. I'm doing OK w the watering (except for my pocketbook---ouch)and fully expect most of my brugs to droop in the heat.

My question is about leaf surface area. Wouldn't more leaf area equate to more water loss via transpiration? If I deleaf the lower part of the stem (still leaving plenty on the upper portion)might that cut down on the stress?......or maybe this is just an excuse for me to deleaf as I seem to prefer a 'standard' but just didn't get around to cutting off all those side shoots when things took off this spring. How about you true hot weather folk down south? What do you do?

Will