..

Nev, that's not a pretty sight.

Hi Everyone.

I guess you win some and you lose some but "Mother Nature" has the final say.

All the best, Nev.

The only vague and flimsy explanation I can offer for the low growing plants survival is that cool air sinks and perhaps low to the ground was ever so slightly cooler than above. And yes, stress will definitely trigger a survival response.

tj

Well at least your tour was a success. Sorry about the shape of your plants now.

I'm not familiar with whatever that ground cover is, but likely it's able to take more heat than broms.

What I don't understand is : do you normally have all these broms in the same location year-round? Are these hot spells unusual? Wish I was better at translating Celcius to F.

What is your air quality like on a normal warm-season day? Clear blue sky? Or sort of milky, humid and hazy?

Hi everyone.

Dave - I agree with you about the ground cover; it does
seem to be "bullet proof" which is surprising because it has very
thin leaves and I thought it would have been the first to suffer.

To answer your second comment, yes these plants are in
the same location all the time and have been for some years now.

Fortunately these abnormally hot spells are unusual,
we'll just get one every three years or so but this time I thought I was
prepared and rigged a temporary shade cloth covering about three feet above the
plants. What puzzled me was it didn't seem to make any difference and the
damage was the same as it had been on previous similar occasions when the
plants were uncovered.

That's why I suspect it was the hot dry wind which put
the nail in the coffin by dehydrating the plants and adding to the already
sudden temperature variation going from 19 degrees C (66.2F) in the mid-morning
to 41 degrees C (105.8F) early afternoon and back to 20 degrees C (68F) the
following mid-morning. That's a temperature variation of 22 degrees C in a
twenty four hour period.

Normally summer days are moderate to hot here with clear
sky and average temps. around 18 - 28 with moderate humidity as I live just one
street back from the ocean, but this year the temperatures have been all over
the place.

All the best, Nev.

Hello Everyone!

Nev that's the first time I have seen these pictures, that change in weather was very nasty and I hope they have all produced some nice offsets for you to replace your damaged plants. If there are any that you do not have replacements plants for please let me know and I will see if I have any spares I can send you.

This summer has been super dry for us with hardly any rain when we truly need it and we have had to put a lot of time and effort to make sure everything gets water when it needs it and move our bromeliads and orchids around to protect them when and if needed; so the gardens a bit all over the show at the moment but once things cool down a little I will be able to put things back in there usual spots to get the best out of our plants.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Hi Everyone.

Trish - At last you've managed to join our friendly forum and I'm sure you'll enjoy being here and contributing to our knowledge sharing. Those pictures above are the ones I tried and tried (without success) to post on the other forum.

The weather here is still very unsettled with rain almost every day which is almost unheard of for this time of the year, this of course is bumping up the humidity and the next thing we'll experience will be problems with rot, so it's important to make sure there's good air circulation and adequate space between all plants.

When I grew orchids many years ago, it was usually mid February that these conditions prevailed in our area and everyone could expect to lose at the very least a few plants to rot no matter what preventative measure they had in place and it was so common the problem came to be commonly known as "February Rot" .

I only mention this here because I know that many of us still grow orchids and the following link is an interesting read for these people (Joe) for instance. It points out that the start of this rot was in December (not February) and by the time February came around, treatments often didn't work because the disease by then was too firmly established and a preventative treatment should have been started in December.

http://www.bribieislandorchidsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/file/orchidgrowing/Pests-and-Diseases.pdf 

All the best, Nev.

Hello Everyone!

Yes Nev he he I finally was able to get on and join this forum; I experienced some registering issues at the beginner.

The weather is just so unpredictable at the moment and I hope things are on the improve for you. Just imagine all the pups those damaged plants are going to produce and you will probably find they will astound you with the intensity of their colour because of the harsh conditions they have endured.

Thanks heaps for providing above link; Joe and I will sit together over the weekend and check it out for sure. Joe is still heavy into growing/collecting orchids and although they have been through one tough summer they are still doing well but he has lost a good 5% of the seedlings he had that were still rather small and that would have been from rot because of the relentless hot/humid weather.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish