Amen! It's dry here in VA also. The hostas are giving up on blooming- the buds are turning brown. Wish I could get some of the water from last June!

It's dry here in So. CA for months and months. Every drop of water for a plant has to come out of the hose.

Yeah, and the weatherman isn't helping. Yesterday day he said Thunderstorms on Sunday, then changed it to "Mostly sunny, hot and humid. Scattered fair weather cumulus clouds. Light southerly winds." by this morning.

Non-gardening friends think my prayers for a good long, all-night downpour are crazy. It is festival weekend here in Chicago.

I am afraid to water with the sprinkler, after a nasty attack of mildew last year, so am forever dragging a dripping hose around the garden to gently soak the flowers and trees.

Maybe I should just go to a street festival, eat some bratwurst and drown my dry weather sorrows in beer and sweat. Let the plants learn a bit about Darwin and make them fend for themselves.

how are you watering? i live in dc area and we have very dry/hot weather and my plants are blooming beautifully.
there 's couple of things you could do. first you have to water them really well. at the garden that i take care of people always get very surprises to see how much i actually water when i do. always tell me they've never realize that. my impression is that people tend to just water the surface of the soil and i guarantee it'll dry up in a couple of hrs. key is that you wanna water deep. check the soil before you quit. stop the water , let it drain for 5 minite or so and check if you indeed water them through well. it should be moist. but not too soggy.
the second thing you really should do is mulching. mulching does conserve water dramatically and keep the roots cool so you don't have to water everyday. i use soft wood mulch ( pine bark mulch) but people use alot of different material. anything organic is much better option. i don't use sprinkler at all because i think it's inefficient. just watering hose with soaker. try to water earlier part of the day. earlier the better. you want the foliage to dry out completly before the end of the day. i've seen people running sprinkler at night and unless you are living in the desert it's a bad practice. it encorages fungal disease.
anyway, try these and i think it'll make a difference.

According to a recent issue from FCWA (Fairfax County Water Authority), sprinklers waste at least 70% of the water used due to evaporation and poor placement (sidewalks do not need watering - but we often see them sprinkled). Other sources have put the waste as high as 85%.

To make every drop count, use drip-irrigation (I like shrubblers) or a soaker-hose of the type that can be buried under mulch. And as Suzi7, says: water *Deeply* -- you should be able to poke your finger into the soil and feel dampness at least three inches down - vegs and large shrubs will prefer dampness 6" down - but my fingers aren't that long - so I use an old ruler. By having sufficient deep moisture, your plants will develop a deep root system better able to tolerate surface dryness; whereas shallow watering not only evaporates before doing much good, the plants develop their feeder roots too close to the soil's surface, and must have moisture applied constantly just to survive. I have found that watering long and slow and deep *and* under 3" mulch, lasts most plants as long as ten days even in 90-degree temps.

a $10 soaker hose is the best investment you can make- since the water needs to be in the ground, adding water to the air doesn't help.

I only ever run my sprinkler for 'pretty'- for five minutes to wash the dust off the leaves, and make the stones sparkly.

I now have a soaker hose running through each bed, and honestly- I only water every fourth day without rain. the small containers get dunked in the rain barrel, the bigger ones get watered from it with a bucket. the house plants often get watered with the dish water, and I have been known to use my bath water for the same purpose (we use lo-phosphorus soaps, so I'm not hurting anything)

but I have an allergic reaction to paying the water utility people, and am always looking to avoid drawing another gallon of their insipid offerings ;)

I have areas in my gardens where the soil is still poor & tends to dry out more quickly, so I just put some of the water absorbing crystals in the planting hole when I set out the plants. Although these are used primarily in containers, I find them also helpful for plants that require more moisture than my soil allows. A little goes a long way and will help your plants get through really dry periods. Garden centers carry this and I usually find the brand is called Soil Moist. However, the following link is good (and the price much cheaper) if you prefer to purchase online:

Here is a link that might be useful: Watersorb