Trees dying all over Portland. Not enough rain at all this spring, none this summer. Last summer, last spring, same thing, lots of dead trees by middle of last summer. This summer they died in June. Simply not enough water.

Don't know if any of you have noticed, but since 1998 there have been daily experiments up in the sky with planes jetting out pollution, big white lines that cross and tic-tac and streak and then billow out for hours into haze, milky white smoggy smudge that blots out the blue sky. This past two years, whenever clouds or moisture or a front approaches over the Pacific ocean, you can see the lines from planes closely outlining and crossing through repeatedly and destroying the moisture, drying up the rain in the weather systems that normally water the Pacific Northwest.

If you do not believe this, you simply have not been looking up at the sky and engaging brain and eyeballs, and looking several times a day and night at satellite pictures. I have been watching many times every day and night for 8 years and this is the horrible fact: this plane poop in killing the water.

And without water, the #2 necessity for life (after oxygenated air), death ensues. The West is experiencing severe water shortages as is much of the globe.

The climate is changing, but would change a lot less if the planes stopped meting out death and destruction via dessication.

Lots of dead trees here, everything turning brown and shriveling, ppl not noticing or ever bothering to water anything, stuck in old assumptions about the PacNW, but not using their eyeballs in the present.

It's becoming a desert out there. 102 degrees here officially, 114 on my deck. This is hell.

I should have moved to the Washington / Canada border where at least there's more cloud cover!

Hell baking burning scorching searing in a red-hot oven out there!

Been watering my 300+ baby trees like a maniac, ground on my little 1/4 acre saturated with water thank goodness, takes a lot of work to keep it wet in weather like this.

Everything else is frying crispy. The plane polluters who target any clouds out over the Pacific will burn in an especially flaming circle of hell for bring death and fire to the formerly beautiful wet cool Pacific NorthWest.

"With the mercury at 102 by afternoon, the National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning, a hazardous weather outlook and, for wildfires, a red flag warning.

BURNS - A band of wildfires threatening two eastern Oregon towns has grown to at least 30,000 acres.

The dozen or so lightning-caused fires dubbed the Egley complex are about 12 miles west of the twin communities of Burns and Hines, with a combined population of 5,000.

Meanwhile, Gov. Ted Kulongoski has invoked the Conflagration Act, which will free up firefighting equipment from across the state to protect homes and business should the fires continue to move toward the towns.

Fire managers asked a few rural residents and ranches to evacuate, but nobody else so far in the two towns that form the commercial center of Harney County.

More than 500 firefighters, three helicopters, 27 fire engines, 13 bulldozers and 18 water trucks are on the scene and operating out of a fire camp at the county fairgrounds. Also today, aerial tankers will drop water and retardant on the complex of fires, which are burning in grass, sage and timber.

This afternoon, winds are expected to be 5 mph to 15 mph, with temperatures in the upper 90s. But a fire this size can create its own wind and weather, said Tom Lavagnino, spokesman for the federal interagency team managing firefighting efforts."

We're getting the hot weather up here too, last report on the news at 5 we were sitting at 32.1 degrees celsius, half an hour later we were sitting at 34 degrees. We have just broken the 1953 record of 33.2 for this day in July.

A......

That's nothing... I can remember a whole decade of 90's! With lots of great music to boot.

Well I was surprised how windy today was... a serious Santa Ana like pattern. I even saw a few downed trees (mostly alders) from this morning's wind.

Let's tear out all the maples and plant our western native live oaks! Yay!

I concur with Cascadians, that there is something with the spraying of the skies that results with dry, hot weather. Perhaps, the "chemtrails" is a weather modification program. Just look at the strange weather that is happening around the states and the world. "Chemtrails" are not to be ignored and it amazes me that most people don't even take notice of the skies. Something is afoot and it doesn't look good. I'm glad I live on the coast where the temps are more moderate, yet, we are not immune to the daily sprays. I urge everyone to do some research and write to your local government representatives and demand an answer and explantion and a stop the spraying!

Seattle was music in the 90's ian wa! Hangin' at the Five Point after a show at the Off-Ramp. Before Bell-Town was cool.

It was very windy here in the South Sound today too. I had to stake all my hollyhocks, and I lost a huge, big, fat new basal cane on my Voodoo Rose. Wind snapped it right off. Bummer.

My parents live near Stafford, OR and it has been mega-hot down there. Heading down there this weekend, hope it mellows out. Outdoor wedding to go to. Central air has become standard in new homes near them.

Anyway, yes, it is very scary what is happening. Just watch Al Gore's movie. There's a lot of things that scare me right now. I grew up near Berkely, that's all I will say.

And why do we think this isn't usual? A sequence of days in July when the temperature hits the upper 80's or even into the 90's is a pretty much typical summer weather pattern for this area. Recent July record breakers occurred in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2004, but a similar sequence is recorded as far back as the 50's, so why this should be considered a new phenomenon is a bit of a mystery to me. Our hottest weather occurs in July. High 80's, 90's and now and again, triple digits (more likely in inland areas) happen......and with measurable regularity.

I don't necessarily disagree that weather patterns may be changing for a variety of reasons, but the influence seems to be much more noticeable with winter weather patterns than it is with summer. I've lived in this area my entire life and this summer or even this spate of very hot weather doesn't seem the slightest bit out of character with all the previous summers I've experienced.

After the 7 months of gloom that we have endured, it's about time we got summer. One of the things that fool us, is that when we get gloom, we don't necessarily get rain -- certainly not enough to do much good in the garden. We have a rain gauge and in the whole month of June, we just got one inch of rain. We listen to Vancouver news and the city is complaining about too much rain and yet on Vancouver Island we get a sprinkle. I highly recommend a simple rain gauge so you can find out what your micro climate is receiving.

>Recent July record breakers occurred in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2004, but a similar sequence is recorded as far back as the 50's, so why this should be considered a new phenomenon is a bit of a mystery to me.Last time I looked the range for the Montlake weather station inside Seattle was 10-103F and the international airport in Tukwila 0-100F. However, "record breakers" inherently implies abnormality, and you have listed a whole cluster close together during recent years. Maybe this time it is the start of something. We're certainly being told the climate here is warming, anyway.

I remember the summer of '94. My best friend was going to UW and she had a teeny little apt in the U District. I came up from CA and spent the summer with her. (Fun summer!) It was on the 2nd floor. I remember suffocating in that airless little apt. I remember it being very hot that summer. We would go to a little corner store and get popsicles a lot. We also go hang out in Ravenna Park and have picincs to try and stay cool.

Hot, Hot, Hot!
It is a scorcher so far. These are temps right on the water!

70F @ 7AM

80F @ 9:30AM

90F @ 12:37 PM

95F @ 2:57 PM

96F right now, and am hoping we have topped off. Thank goodness I have a below ground basement. Cool as a cucumber down there. Keep cool!!

Picture from front yard. Water looks inviting, but still very cold!

95 here just north of Victoria, almost 35 o.C. 115 in the greenhouse, but there is nothing live in there except a cactus or two. This is the hottest I remember here, although other heatwaves have probably come close. That water does look inviting! I just want to crawl into the fridge. No gardening today! (just watering)
Al Gore, I am listening.

KPLU announcer reported 97F for Bremerton at one point today, said it was the hottest he had for western Washington.

It is hot. Still 80F here at 8:35PM. I let my camera's batteries run down, so the date on the above picture is incorrect. I took that picture today around 3:03PM.

Thank goodness I am home this time. Everything I grow from the Southern Hemisphere is suffering. People talk and talk about the winters here. It is almost always the dry weather that hurts the plants in my yard.

I have come to be quite blase about the Western Garden Book quotes, and how this and that will or won't have a chance here.

Maybe I am getting crazy with the heat!!

-Brian

"I have come to be quite blase about the Western Garden Book quotes, and how this and that will or won't have a chance here"

That is off topic here. Sorry. This is a subject of discussion on another forum, so does not mean anything on this board ;)

Later on TV news they said it had been 100F in Shelton, and that it was now 60F there - making it a 40F drop in a matter of hours.

Don't know what you're talking about but some zone assignments in current edition overly conservative.

Brian, when you said everything from the Southern hemishpere is suffering - do you mean it's the wrong time of year for them to be hot? Don't they acclimatize here? Just asking because I have a tree fern that was wilting yesterday and I thought it would stand up to heat. This is a little off topic too, sorry.
Quite a bit cooler today thank goodness!

"Don't know what you're talking about but some zone assignments in current edition overly conservative"

Yes, sometimes that. The book also can be the opposite. Two examples are Hoheria, and Cordyline australis. I guess the book could add that these will die to the ground eventually in zones 4-6, but usually will resprout from the base.

The original discussion on another forum involved some thinking the book is infallible. Nothing was mentioned of any specific examples of this. Posting the comment here was careless mistake to say the least!

Hi novita,

Plants from Southern Chili and Argentina, as well as most of the temperate Southern Hemisphere don't tolerate extended freezes or high heat well.

Generally speaking, they like cool summers with more rain than we get here. They tend to prefer cool to even frosty winters without hard freezes in winter.

They do adapt to the flip flop of the seasons. When you acquire these plants, they are almost always grown from seed here in the Northern Hemisphere. Take care.

-Brian

Hear, Hear! Thank you for saying it, Gardengal! The Pacific Northwest usually gets some hot weather (above 90 deg. farenheit) during the summer. Portland more than Seattle on the average. This weather we are currently experiencing is NOT abnormal. I can remember many warm summers while growing up.

The Pacific Northwest is considered a modified mediterranean climate. Warm summers, cool, wet winters. Some years we get a little more of one or the other.

I remember being in high school and being so excited to get 90-100 degree days. Now, I just suffer through the heat, but I agree that a few hot days are nothing new to the PacNW. Though I think August is usually the hottest of the season.

I believe our winters are becoming unusually dry, and that's what's taking the toll on our surrounding vegetation. The damage just becomes more obvious in the summer.

Here, the winters the past 3 years have been exceedingly wet but the springs very dry. Cloud cover, cool temps for spring but no rain. It stops raining in early April, just stops. Before 3 years ago, it would rain through July 4th.

If you watch the sky and satellite photos you will see that the plane emissions deplete the clouds of any moisture. Watch and see it blatantly for yourself.

Say what you want, but it was obviously warmer than normal. Here in Bremerton it was officially three degrees F away from the hottest day since records have been kept here. Here is a quote from the Kitsap Sun.

"BREMERTON

The city's record high temperature for July 11 was shattered this afternoon.

The mercury hit 99 degrees at 4:35 p.m. at Bremerton National Airport. The previous record of 90 degrees was set in 2002.

Bremerton's most sizzling day on record was Aug. 10, 1981, when it was 101 degrees"

Note all the fairly recent dates.

The one that surprised me was it got to 99 degrees in Sequim. That would tie the all time record high although the weather station is not in exactly the same place as the old one. In fact Sequim was warmer than Poulsbo during the whole warm spell... if anyone is interested in Sequim, LOL. Maybe it has something to do with all the development around that area in the last 5-10 years.

Airplane contrails are known to increase night temperatures by a few degrees. I would still chalk up most percieved climate change to just that, people's perception. Of course, things have changed a little bit (and they always are), but statistics would bear out a much less dramatic scenario. Part of it also might be that Pacific Decadal Oscillaion regulates precipitation quite a bit, especially in Oregon and northern California.

Well, the weather think tank at the UW says the climate is changing and the Cascade snow pack is shrinking. They might actually know what they are talking about.

Just had an established hoheria burn up last winter on Camano Island, where it got into the teens. There are reasons why you keep seeing some plants in books but not in local gardens. Until recently I never saw any hoheria in local gardens, but they have been listed by the Western Garden Book for our zone for a long time. There were some in the Seattle arboretum but they had all died by some years ago.

Since they are far from rare here, ubiquitous in fact it is quite easy to see that cordylines are not hardy here either. Every so many years there is a general freezing off of these. All plants have a pre-set minimum temperature and for these it is quite a bit higher than the minimum temperatures for this region. The purple ones seem to be even more apt to fail than the green ones. A planting of yuccas and purple cordylines at a business in Shoreline is now a planting of yuccas. Likewise a home garden grouping of Mexican fan palms and windmill palms up the street from me inevitably became a grouping of windmill palms. It doesn't stay above 15-20F around here long enough for Zone 9+ stuff to persist.

Freezing to the ground of an evergreen tree or shrub is not "hardy" or "successful." Zonal Denial enthusiasts can have plenty of fun with tender stuff, while it lasts and more power to them. I've killed a few marginal things myself. But those wanting a plant to last in good condition indefinitely should not be told one that dies back periodically or dies outright is hardy. If hardy does not mean ironclad or bone hardy then the term has no meaning.

I suppose if one wants to take a dogmatic approach to the term, that is a reasonable definition. However cold hardiness is typically defined in most gardening resources as the ability of a plant to withstand average winter temperatures assigned to a hardiness zone or what can be expected to occur 75-80% of the time. If you limit that to what will be reliably cold hardy under any possible winter conditions, you've greatly reduced your possible plant choices - perhaps unnecessarily so.

The other issue to consider is that absolute cold temperatures are not the only defining quality of plant hardiness. Exposure to wind and excessive rainfall in winter will also have a limiting factor, as will excessive summer heat and drought or the lack of summer heat. And none of these conditions take into consideration microclimates that occur in any gardening situation that will amend 'normal' climatic conditions and offer either more amenable or adverse growing situations.

I personally tend to take a much broader view of hardiness and if a plant survives relatively unscathed 9 out of 10 winters, I consider it hardy. And as most personal landscapes tend to have a 10-15 year lifespan anyway, that is not an unreasonable assumption.

A system that has been used is

Hardy
Half Hardy
Tender

to indicate different expectation levels for a region. This covers the full range of what exists, without having to come up with minimum temperatures for each plant. Hardy is used for those that can be expected to persist without distress indefinitely. If you don't have a category for such, put Half Hardy plants in the same group as Hardy then it becomes too encompassing and simple to be very useful - plants that are likely to freeze are not differentiated from those that aren't.

All plants have minimum temperatures that do not change. Mere hours of exposure to temperatures below the minimum is adequate to severely damage or kill. Environmental factors like a cool summer or a damp heavy soil can interfere with attainment of full level of hardiness by retarding or preventing full maturity of growth. But you cannot make a plant tolerant of lower temperatures than it is already inherently capable of with favorable siting.

I don't consider any plants to be fully hardy here, because when the next ice age comes along the whole region will be covered in a vast sheet of glacial ice and they will all die.

Then we're not fully hardy either. Maybe those of us who enjoy "exotics" are demonstrating our shared African origins more than those who only plant things like arborvitaes and hardy hybrid rhododendrons.

There is nothing wrong with any of the views above. I will say that I would rather have more options than less. Here is an example where all of the Coconut trees died around Lake Placid, Florida in 1989, they just forged ahead and planted more! I think the landscape there would not be the same without them. link below

Why can't we think the same here? Sometimes people speak like it is sacrilege to normalize this practice of replanting things that have failed at one time in the past.

Acacia dealbata is just one example that we should grow regardless. Heck it is short lived anyway, and fast growing as well. Let's plant a bunch, and have some winter beauty, and maybe some fun. Seriously though, people in this region are much more conservative than where I have lived elsewhere. Bay area, Texas, South, Southeast....I guess I don't see the threat or danger of this practice to anyone who does not practice it.

Here is a picture of an Acacia dealbata near my house, a species that I was told "will not survive, has not survived, been tried in the past and failed, does not have a chance here.." by many. Heck, I would have never seen this tree myself, but I took a taxi from the ferry to my house one time, and he took a different rout. Right by this tree. And it was in bloom and you could not miss it.

-Brian

Here is a link that might be useful: It's nice to see....

Much of the interest of this specimen is that it is the only such example known in the Puget Sound area. If it weren't for this one plant Acacia dealbata would be represented only by specimens that lived for a short time and then froze out.

Other longer persisting examples may be present, of course, but if so have not been discussed or publicized enough to become "known." Locations and heights of various species of mostly much younger acacia specimens can be found of page 30 of Trees of Seattle - Second Edition.

A northeast Seattle garden, formerly the home of two species (both trees froze and died completely last winter) now has perhaps dozens of seedlings of the one species coming up. Same site also has little bottlebrush plants coming up like cotoneasters.

Come on Ron,

How many times have you walked into a nursery and found this plant for sale? Not more than once or twice. Never?

Maybe if this species were for sale on a larger scale, and was present in many areas in the PNW, that possibly might change things. Things being that the only large specimen is here in Bremerton. We both know this is not the most favored area, though not the least?

The curious point here is that nurseries, growers, customers and landscapers are biased towards certain half-hardy plants and not others. All of them will use/sell/buy half-hardy varieties of Hebe, Ceanothus, Cistus etc. without a second thought, but the same people mostly avoid equally hardy species of Grevillea, Acacia, Leptospermum and others because of their "questionable hardiness." I think what's really at work here is more of a popularity issue: most gardeners and landscapers believe certain plants just don't fit into the look they are trying to achieve, and nursery buyers mostly aren't into bringing in such plants under the perception the market can't bear it (although to some degree, that depends on who's selling it!)

Dearth of acacias here is due to them freezing and dying, as some did just recently. It's not for lack of trying. Look at the number of them that Jacobson cites on page 30, seen last year or earlier. As long as winters are mild, there are some around. Several species are weeds in northern California, encountered as soon as you get far enough south (Redwood belt) for this to be possible.

Quite an improvement. Good time to think about doing some serious watering.

The most effective time to water is after a rain, even if the rain is minimal. This is due to the higher humidity and generally lower temperatures, which reduce the loss of water to evaporation and complement the water from the rain.

--Carl E. Whitcomb, Establishment and Maintenance of Landscape Plants

Here is a link that might be useful: Carl E. Whitcomb

Hi Ron,

I guess this tree might be from a superior provenance, or it is just more tolerant to cold. I took seed from this tree and they were planted outside. So from seed to established saplings, these Acacia's were able to tolerate the cold we have had without so much as a dropped leaflet.

I am not saying you are incorrect, I just have to wonder why this plant is here when most others have died. It has certainly been around before 1998. I was told that directly by the person in the building. It would probably be huge, but some person deems it necessary to butcher prune it every other year or so just after it blooms.

Here are a couple of pics of my seedlings from this tree taken today. You are more than welcome to try one.

Good one. I didn't look at this before.

"Then we're not fully hardy either. Maybe those of us who enjoy "exotics" are demonstrating our shared African origins more than those who only plant things like arborvitaes and hardy hybrid rhododendrons"

Are you insinuating that I think like an Australopithecine? Homo erectus? I would say Neandertal, but we all know he is not a common ancestor!LOL. What you don't know is how good I am at cave drawings!

"Quite an improvement. Good time to think about doing some serious watering"

Good to know. My yard is like sand. If I am home so I can water, it becomes expensive with the sprinkler system and all. I usually just let the lawn turn brown every summer, but I still need to water the plants. Take care.

-Brian

I'd never call a heterosexual man "Homo erectus." At least not to his face.

When I was in business designing and installing landscapes I would never include plants that were marginally hardy. It just wasn't good for business. Now as a home gardener in the colder part of Zone 8, I've considered a few, but in most cases they don't seem to 'fit in'. I am willing to try a Windmill Palm in my Jurassic Park area though.

We put in a windmill palm and have been astonished that it's doing so well. It can handle a fair amount of water, is exposed to freezing and winds and direct hot sun. It's growing gangbusters and we really like it. Planted crocosmia near it and swamp magnolia and it looks great.

Southeast Asian species liking moisture and fertility. Specimens not receiving these two considerations have poor color and slow growth. Long grown in PNW and proven here, one in Tacoma was 38' tall some years ago. Seedlings pop up in beds at Carl English Botanical Garden, Seattle.