if your perennials were established, then yeah, they tend to go dormant earlier. I didn't water anything last year except the vegetable garden and nursery stock, and one strip with impatiens/hosta/roses/hydrangea. the hostas that got no water went dormant about two weeks earlier. tons of people have told me they lost azaleas last summer. i hope it's just the drought and not sudden oak death spreading.

rachel, that makes sense, most of the perennials were well established, but I had a few newer ones that pulled through too.

Even the fern I mentioned earlier that I thought died had new fronds today! Woohoo!

Last year I spot watered the thirstiest shrubs (hydrangea and aucuba). The small number of container veggies, herbs, and flowers got watered. Everybody else was on their own (I don't grow veggies in the ground any more). Even the pond got really, really low.

As for the azaleas, my dh and I have an ongoing battle about them. They are "his" plants - he likes to select them, plant them in unsuitable locations (too sunny), and rarely fertilizes or waters them. So yeah, they don't do so well! I keep hoping he'll figure it out, he seems to ignore my not-so-subtle suggestions...

whoops, I meant to post this on the Mid-Atlantic Gardening forum. My bad!