Summer!! Only 82 days to go until the equinox and the beginning of fall.

104F and 22% humidity now and it's getting worse.. Low humidity means you can breathe but it's worse for the plants..

Nik - it was 105 degrees F here a few days ago. Hot. However, with the low humidity we have, it cools off into the 50 something degrees F every night. We don't have air conditioning, but with all of the windows open, and 2-3 very large fans circulating the air, I manage to get the inside of our house cool enough to need 2 blankets on the bed every night. In the morning, I run around the house closing all of the windows, and pulling down all of the window shades. The house stays relatively cool all day, if a bit dark.

My roses did OK - a few of them had crisp leaf ends, but most of the chinas and teas just loved it. Of course, the blooms crisped up entirely. Now we are back to highs in the 70s, and many of the teas are going in to another bloom cycle.

Hope your heat wave ends soon!

Jackie

I have just finished watching Moto GP qualifying and walked outside to see if there was anything not completely burnt up yet.

Not a good idea. Our house is built facing north of thick stone, Even so the thermometer in the kitchen showed 38 degrees centigrade, but outside in the garden it was a lot hotter.

I tried to take a few photos, but had trouble seeing as the sweat just kept running into my eyes. Just walking around for a few minutes in the sun bought on an asthma attack, so I gave up and came back in.

This is what I found, so far, not burnt to a crisp.

Annie Laurie McDowell, always fresh and pretty.

Pretty Jessica

Teasing Georgia, looking more apricot than yellow in the heat.

Marechal Niel. Nothing seems to bother this rose.

Sombreuil, One of my desert island roses.

Sorry they are not the best of photos, but they were taken a few minutes ago in difficult conditions.

Daisy

11:00 am here in Alabama and only up to 84F temp so far...but humidity is currently at 88%...a very different kind of hot

I'm so sorry for everyone still experiencing the heat. Here we reached 105 and 103 and it was a miserable heat, but now it's cooled down again to the eighties and nineties. The really daunting thought is that it will only get worse, and it will be interesting to see how long the roses can tolerate these conditions. And people too......

Temperatures are cooling a bit, but it is still hot. The equipment in my yard logged in 125F/51.6C about ten days ago. I had been traveling out of the state during that time, but upon walking the yard, found that a couple of roses looked to have succumbed to the temperatures. All of my Annie Laurie McDowells (one in the hotspot), Blush Noisette and a handful of others were in bloom, appearing to be minimally fazed by those temperatures (slightly smaller blooms). This week, the highs have been in the (109F/42C - 112F/44C) range with 9-11% humidity. I am bracing for July, our hottest month.

It's been hot here, but we've had humidity and rain, so we steam while others bake or fry.

My 'Annie Laurie' isn't blooming right now, but that's because she finally got moved to a (much) larger pot, and she is pushing growth so fast that I swear I can see the leaves popping out. And with all the rain, some of the new growth is practically white- why waste time waiting for the sun part of the photosynthesis equation? We had some sun today, and she 'greened up' a bit...

Temp at 9pm is currently 83F, humidity is 86% = heat index of 94F. C'mon, October!

Virginia

As much as I dislike heat, I cannot wrap my head around a humidity level of 86%. That seems unbearable to me, and then if you add the mosquitoes - how do you manage to get anything done outside?

Maybe you don't. Though when I visit Florida in the summer, as I have done regularly through the years, I find that the hour or two just before and around dawn are usually comfortable for a good walk (few mosquitos then, too).

Here, fortunately, we have milder temperatures than most of those mentioned, just, this year, this drought, and summer temperatures starting way too soon. Right at the moment it's relatively fresh after rain and a front moving through, a break before July returns in all its weight. When it gets too hot, I just stay indoors and read. Or go out in the shade of the wisteria pergola and admire my sansevierias.

Ingrid, although it's only been in the high '80s here, humidity in the 80s does make it very difficult to work outside. The mossies aren't bad yet for some reason, but it 's doubly hard having to wear long-sleeves and pants. My main complaint is that it's almost impossible to find roses that won't get BS in such humidity, as I'm quickly discovering even with so-called "resistant" varieties.

Ingrid, I have donated much blood to the Cause of Mosquito Furtherance. It's unavoidable, unless I want to spray myself repeatedly with odoriferous bug spray. If I plan to go outside in the evenings, I do spray with a citronella-based repellant. And I try to remember to spray Lucy, our dog, also.

We take her for walks late at night when temps are as cool as they'll get. When we walked her last night around midnight, the humidity was 92%. It will get worse before it gets better...

Just now, at 11:15am, it's 88F, with 72% humidity = heat index of 102F. Only 3 months until October...

Virginia

summer sucks

It's 99 here with a heat index of 105 and 60% humidity and the mosquitoes are TERRIBLE! I try to do my gardening very early in the morning or very late in the evening but I still sweat buckets. I have never lived anywhere else so I'm used to the heat and humidity and have learned to pace myself but it stills sucks.

Our summers don't generally suck. Temps are usually not that high and humidity is low. Winds often cool us down. Being able to swim in the sea makes summers more than tolerable..

A swim in the sea definitely helps cool you down Nik. We have a lake house that we go to on the weekends so I am able to cool off in the lake and that makes summer days a little better. We all have our ways of coping but I absolutely cannot imagine not having air conditioning our climate just doesn't allow it but my grandparents liked to remind us when they had no AC/heat or indoor toilets lol.

We don't have AC,but these older Italian houses made of stone can remain relatively cool if you keep windows and blinds closed all day. We have over-head fans in the bedrooms. I don't know how I'd survive without the fans moving the still, hot air; they also keep the insects (mosquitos and their ilk) somewhat at bay. Of course we are nowhere near the sea; I think being near the sea would make all the difference in the world, because apart from the cooling water, there's also often a breeze. Here the only way to remain somewhat comfortable is to hide indoors. Going out to my land becomes an irksome chore at best. I have to be very, very careful to avoid finding myself outdoors when the sun is out and there's no wind. The sun here is so hot it makes you feel physically ill,and I'm afraid that there is a real risk of actually becoming seriously ill in the extreme heat (heat stroke, heart attack, etc.) Summer sucks.

It's been around 100 F for much of June here, with humidity in the 30's at night and 10% or less during the day. That low humidity at least means that the temperature drops into the 60's at night. Here at 7000 ft elevation it means that the sun is extremely intense and extremely dehydrating, not just for the plants, but for people, too. For the roses, there is a fine line between being warm enough to grow and so warm as to cause desiccation. For many varieties, it's an overlap, so for them, there is no happy medium. Similarly, when temperatures are in the 80-90's, in can be comfortable in the shade, but blistering in the sun. Standing in the sun for a minute doesn't just feel hot, it stings. For roses, the sun can be too intense, but the shade isn't enough light for some varieties. It's a quirky climate.

Bart, do you have trees or other vegetation around your house? Like you we have an oldish house with thick masonry walls. What I find works best for me is to leave the windows open, preferably more than one so as to create an air current, but with white curtains blocking direct sun, and then run fans like you say. This is my strategy for our SSE-facing bedroom on the first (not ground) floor, and so far this summer it has worked. The ground floor is cooler, but doesn't have the draft, and to me it feels stickier than the bedroom. Also we don't have fans down there (and no possibility of installing any with the ceilings so low), so the bugs are more troublesome. The vegetation in the yard is mostly lower than tree height, but the yard is a jungle: there's a lot of vegetation to cool the air. We're at about 1450 feet above sea level. I share your feelings about the hazards of sun. I don't know if I've gotten more sensitive to it the last few years, or if it has gotten more intense, but I find myself having to hide from it much of the time when the days are long. We're working on more shade in the garden, but trees take decades, not years.

I think that the sun just has gotten hotter,and if memory serves me,some members in California confirm this. I think it just "radiates" more; it's rays are more intense than before. Now it's also true that I myself at least have become less heat-tolerant than I was when I was younger,but if it was "just me", why do I hear so many other people saying the same thing?

This house is much better situated than the old one; it has a North-eastern exposure,so only gets really hit by the sun in the morning; on the SW side it faces the main road, which is cut into the rock,so on that side we have a steep rock "wall" covered with weedy little trees , vines, etc. Of course at this time of year, the sun is so high and the days are so long that it does hit the house for a few hours on that side, too, but we keep shutters closed. We only open windows at night,except for those all-too-brief periods when it temporarily cools down. There's no point speaking of "heat waves" any more; as one can see from the forecast, we're heading right back to African heat.

Fruit has been good this summer.

In my unwatered garden I don't look for summer bloom. The upside of not watering is that most of the garden is pretty drought tolerant and doesn't keel over if there's a watering ban, though this year is putting some established plants to the test. Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata' needs supplementary water (buckets of dish and rinse water from the kitchen), and I have some tree peonies in rocky soil that are starting to look rather miserable. Most of the roses are fine. 'Crepuscule' actually had a second flush this year and has been putting out a few blooms here and there ever since, looking shady and handsome the while.

Thank goodness we're expecting slightly lower temperatures the next few days: it has been blazing for weeks. Still no rain, but the days are getting shorter.

P.S. I'm jealous of your R. primula.

Rosa primula has been such a revelation! You don't have one Melissa? Shocking! ;) You should! It has been doing absolutely fine in the heat/drought. And it really is so nice to have roses that aren't SUPPOSED to be blooming now (no bloom performance anxiety).

I believe R. primula is related to R. hugonis, being like it one of what are called the early spring yellows. R. hugonis was utterly magnificent in our garden, right up to the day when cane girdler took up residence. No rose suffers from it so badly. So I've never wanted to think about attempting similar roses, greatly though I admire what mine was. I'm glad you're getting so much pleasure from yours. Often one rose is enough.

I thought I was the only one who felt the heat burn and sting after only a few minutes in the sun, even when it's only 80 degrees in the shade. This most definitely was not the case ten years ago or even five years ago, and I wonder if it will now become worse every year. The only thing I can do for the garden is to keep everything well-hydrated, and some roses keep blooming or at least growing and some don't. At least in places like Italy there seem to be some rain storms throughout the summer, and that would be incredibly helpful here, but I don't hold out much hope. It's a season of appreciating what you have and averting your gaze from the rest, while waiting for better times.

Ingrid, maybe you've become allergic to the heat. I hope that's not the case. I still love it and don't mind working in it, but it's a bear keeping covered as sunscreen never works as adveritised and we have chiggers and other biting insects. It sound like we all have our travails. : (

You're in zone 6,Vaporvac. I'm not sure that your "hot" is the same as Ingrid's"hot" (or ours here in Italy),lol...

That's true Bart. I was born in Ca. and lived & visit NM frequently, so I know what that heat is like. But, temps in the 90s with humidity in the 90s is no piece of cake. When family visits from there, they wonder how we can stand it outside as it's so enervating. My experience is that winter temps determine the zones, but summer temps really vary within them. Living with those in 100s for extended periods would be hard regardless of humidity, so my hat's off to you! I hope you all catch a break soon.

I have to agree with vaporvac, 90s (or even mid 80s) with 80-90% humidity is a different kind of hell.

I live in NYC, there's the heat island effect, and there's all the reflected heat from everything around me. My yard is generally 10-15 degrees hotter than the reported ambient temperature. Then there's the bluestone/concrete pavers that all my planters sit on top of, and the modern glass and metal buildings that surround my tiny sliver of green space. Thank goodness I don't have that much space otherwise urban gardening would get tough. It's hard to drag myself out in the middle of the day to hose down everything. I hose the pavers and the outside of the pots, I find that helps a lot, roses don't wilt and burn as quickly. (We get lots of rain so water is not an issue)

Funny enough, my prima donna is not a rose, it's a hydrangea in afternoon shade. That's my canary, on any day above 85 degrees, it will sulk and droop by 12pm if I haven't hosed. Sometimes I just hose myself while I am at it.

vaporvac, I'm not allergic to the heat per se but have fibromyalgia, and can only be comfortable and not get sick within a very narrow temperature range. There are several people here with similar limitations and that makes gardening a real challenge at this time of the year. I can only garden after the sun is down, but even then I'm exhausted after 5-10 minutes if I do anything more strenuous than deadheading. Having said that, the pleasure I derive from the garden, especially the roses, is enormous. I've pared down my care regimen to drip watering and mulching with leaves, and what nutrition there is in the kitchen water with coffee grounds and fruit and vegetable leavings that I give to roses that seem to need it the most. Roses can be very forgiving, especially the older and more vigorous varieties.

Ingrid, I was not aware of that. I know that many here garden with numerous physical limitations that exemplify the emotional uplift provided by nature. However, one would never know this looking at your beautiful garden and those belonging to many others on the forum. My DH also has physical limitations when in the heat and even outdoors
now which make it difficult for him as a plantsperson, so I do
understand.

It's 73F(22.77C) right now, comfortable temp. 80F(26.66C) would be too hot for me. Can't move down South. Winter time is crispy cold though.

Bart, cold hardiness zones have nothing to do with heat. They are not at all indicative of warm season conditions unless one refers to one particular area in the world map. Latitude is somewhat indicative bit even that is no good indicator. We routinely get summer temps higher than tropical Africa over here and many areas in the US get much higher. But is usually is dry heat over here. Humidity of course is a factor which moderates absolute heat and UV radiation, so it's good for plants, but makes the heat unbearable for humans.

My most floriferous roses during this haphazard weather we've been having. Two heat waves up to know intermixed with lower than usual temps and continuing

drought:

All HTs, floribundas and Poulsen's patio roses.

Abraham Darby

Gartentraume

Blush Noisette

Nastarana

Reve d' Or

Marachel Niel

SDLM and her white sister

Tipsy

all roses in my garden are irrigated (but not sufficiently enough when drought is combined with dry heat in the 90s and 100s..).

Bolero in 100 degree heat. Flowers are not perfect, but there are a lot of them.

I think Bart is right. The summer sun is doing more damage than it used to. Rose canes and tree trunks are getting sunburnt now. I have been painting the old canes with whitewash this year to protect them. The leaves don't seem to last as long on the bushes. By mid summer many old leaves have burnt up. They did not go through drought, I kept them watered.

The roses in half sun do the best. I moved the roses that used to be in midday sun to partial sun. Nik I thought of you at the fair yesterday when I saw someone had entered a beautiful painting of a street in Athens and another of the Greek coast with the beautiful blue sea.

103F (40C) with 15% r. humidity this afternoon.... I brought the pooches inside..

I hope you are lurking, Nik. I love my Orfeo.

Wishing you the best, Nik