The hail can be quite localised, I didn't notice any but we had very heavy rain last night. You really just have to accept that it will hail every year, then you'll be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't. Like snow in May or frost the first week of September.

Actually, it's a miracle we can grow anything at all. "Extreme gardening".

First it was army worms. My roses, lilac and apple trees have just about no foliage whatsoever. :( Then we got a huge hail storm last Sunday. Our vehicles are all pockmarked, my larger hostas are full of holes, lupines and peonies knocked down, and some of the lilies' tops were broken off. Now it's mosquitoes. I don't think my gardens have a chance until August!

Oh marcia, marcia, marcia!!! I so feel for you!!! Oh my goodness.... I hope that your yard will recover soon.... sigh....

The hail was incredible - almost as big as the hail we'd had in 1980. For some reason I can't upload a picture here anymore or i'd show you!

OK, I will try not to sound too whiny here, but we had yet another hailstorm here on the west side of Calgary... this is the second one this season so far! I am so fed up. There was so much of that awful stuff! Thank goodness it was "only" pea size, so the damage was not too terrible, considering.... sigh!

I heard that in some areas in Calgary, the hail damage was worse... I hope everyone here was OK.

Good grief! That is so unfair.

For us, it's been excessive rain. Where is this system coming from? It rained all day yesterday, supposed to rain today, Monday and Tuesday. I fear the plants will begin to rot. We are craving sun!

Oh boy, north53, this is one crazy summer!!! Such extreme conditions all over... sigh... hope you will get some sun soon!!!

We are bracing for yet another possible thunderstorm this afternoon... please, no more hail....

I can feel the pain and this year with more moisture then usual brings more ice, unfortunately! I had twice also and with luck the smaller stuff, ...and not as much as down south where they had to use the plow to clear the road...yikes!!

It's rain here now as well. Just won't seem to quit! We get a day or two of decent weather and then back to rain again. Some parts of the lawn are all spongy, and I don't think i'll ever catch up on the weeding!

The El Nino conditions we had experienced, the prolonged drought and very warm temperatures, including a crazy warm winter and amazing early and very balmy start to spring ... well, that's now behind us, cause La Nina has made her return and she brings tons of rain and cool summer temps (especially to Alberta) and cold snowy winters.

My yard and garden is sopping wet, we need the rain tap to be turned off for the time being and to receive a nice stretch of heat.

So now all this rain has brought out the slugs. My dahlias are full of holes.

...and aphids...not much sun the whole next week. The Waterfowls like it!

Ewww.... I saw slug on my lilies too!!! And of course aphids are all over my lupines.... GROSS!!!!!

Been lucky with the hail so far. Got some that damaged the hostas but other than that no other real damage to the plants.

The backyard is getting squishy though.

wet here too, my Carmine Jewel cherry is loaded with fruit and the branches are bent right over, the birds aren't eating them fast enough, lol.

Our woes continue! On Sunday, a tree came down on a tarp shed! We just can't win this year! Nothing inside was damaged, for some strange reason, and we're happy about that. Now, after the worms, hail, rain, mosquitoes and cool weather, we have HEAT. In capitals! LOL

marcia, I am so sorry to hear this!!! I am just glad that nothing was damaged and no one was hurt!

Parts of Calgary got some tennis ball sized hail 2 days ago (!!!) - thank goodness I escaped that disaster... I just hope that this extreme weather would stop.... sigh

Take care!

The weather's been so weird that... mophead hydrangeas all over town are awash in blooms. It looks like Kelowna out there.

shazam, where do you see the mopheads? You mean they are macrophyllas!? I have not seen them myself, but we live in different parts of town :-)

Now, I escaped that awful storm last night, as I was out of town... but it did not sound fun with the severe thunderstorm warning, heavy rainfall warning and tornado watch all bundled in one for Calgary last night!!! YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quite the strong winds yesterday, branches everywhere across the roads this morning, I even saw a huge bush pulled out of the ground. Our pumpkin vines are all twisted around, it'll be a setback for it. I'm surprised the power did not go out! How did everyone else do?

Sorry to hear this, August weather is unpredictable but so far so good for us.

Winter is coming!

ostrich, it sure looked like a macrophylla. I have seen the odd specimen before in bloom. It was at the funeral home on Elbow Drive.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/McInnis+%26+Holloway+Funeral+Homes/@51.0090997,-114.0810868,3a,90y,0.05h,83.5t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s1wQTADcyxc4W09aF7itPsw!2e0!3e2!7i13312!8i6656!4m8!1m2!2m1!1sfuneral+home!3m4!1s0x0:0xc0f2025834f9e4c6!8m2!3d51.0092388!4d-114.0809691!6m1!1e1

Could be something else though.

Hmn...just checked out this funereal home..lets you go right inside, neat!

But...the outside, darn high voltage power line goes right through town!

It looks like an 'Annabelle' type of hydrangea next to that funeral home.

Big rain here with about 4 inches having fallen ... now, please, let's get back to some sun and warmth, I have a bad feeling we're in for early frost and snow thanks to La Nina :(

Hail is strangely absent from my gardening woes. We have..., drought, floods, heavy snow, sleet, hurricanes, an occasional ice storm but I have only seen hail once maybe twice in half a century now. (Seems to be most prominent inland and at elevation and I am coastal and sea level here in NJ/Zone 7a). Even so, I just got a new car and figure I gotta get it into the garage for a possible hail storm every time I see a forecast for possible thunder.

Been hot and droughty here all summer and supposed to continue very warm into Autumn. I wish there were some "big rain" but every day is crystal clear, blue skies and into the 80's. Our concern is hurricane season this year as ocean temps are at record levels this far north (low to mid 80's F. at 40 N.), and that brings a LOT of potential gardening issues and WORK as well. (Not sure what if any the implications of abnormal ocean temps in the North Atlantic are for the Canadian West, but everything IS connected in some way, so expect more WEIRD weather is the moral!)

We keep getting small showers here just enough to stop harvest and anyone trying to put up hay. Has been a good year for plants though. John Cabot has hit 9' on one cane others are at 8'.

While much of Alberta had received an over abundance of rain this summer, I had gotten much less upon this ridge in which I live, as often occurs. Friends in south Edmonton had mentioned of near daily heavy showers, while most such storms had missed us and summer ended up being very pleasant and even a bit on the dry side until recent. Anyways, summer is quickly drawing to a close and the long range forecast is looking cool and wet.

Wayne, yes, the roses had put on very good growth this summer, 'John Davis' situated next to my front step has now pushed to 11 ft high!

I have to get a John Davis rose and give it a try, I have read your other posts on this rose, just have make a good spot.

Fairly certain my area had a soft frost last night. Tomato plant is ruined. Damn it.

Harvested the corn and the last of the beans and started a new compost pile. Threw plastic over the tomatoes to give them a bit of extra warmth and help prevent them from rotting in these cool wet conditions and will toss blankets over if frost threatens. Wasn't a bad summer at all at my location, though sure is cooling off now and the forecast isn't looking very promising at all ... really gonna be tough for the farmers with the fields being saturated as they are.