Moses, you described how things are here, too, except for the spraying. And likely more foliar disease here than what you have.

Am I correct that this (“What can I do …”) is a lament masquerading as a question?

are cooler nights an option? I think thats what we actually need. May experiment with some buckets of ice around a plant

That made me smile, dianela.

I can’t imagine there’s a rose trick that Moses doesn’t already know about.

When water evaporates, it takes away heat. On hot days, I usually take the hose and spray the whole garden (like it's raining) around 1:00 PM to help cool it down.

Feiy,

Do you know what happened the last time I watered during the heat of the day with the sun in full strength blazing away? The foliage near the tip of a Quietness, yet to show buds bigger than a peppercorn, that foliage that was down about four inches from the tip, got sauteed by the water droplets acting as prisms!

On just about all second flush growth on the bush, those leaves are wrinkled like crumbled paper. The leaves above them, being younger at that time and not fanned out yet, grew normally, as well as did the older, tougher leaves below the water damaged foliage. They are fine. Those tender leaves were perfect candidates for a freaky event.

I am loathe to water overhead in full sun again on a hot day.

Moses.

Dianela,

I'm not fit enough to haul ice around the roses, but your idea has some merit. I have read about orchardists placing ice bags up against the trunks of their early blooming fruit trees in spring, trees like apricots and peaches. They do this to hold back blooming while late frosts are still happening, which late frosts would kill the flowers.

Moses.

Rifis,

You give me credit for knowing far more than I do. Also, what I do know, when next season comes along, I can't remember what I did the previous season, or remember it too late to be of any good. It's information overload.....that's my excuse!

Moses.

Moses, that’s the way my brain works too and I’m not yet quite 50 years old. I have no excuse on the age front, but I “ suffer” from information overload as well. I blame it on having too many irons in the fire.

I wish I knew the solution to your problem, but I have the same one here. I just consider it an inevitable problem that comes every summer and will soon go away once cooler temps arrive. I’m vain enough to think my garden is still quite pretty even though it bears little resemblance to its spring glory.

I’m not sure there is much one can do, Moses. Here, the climate is just getting crazier, with wild swings between super hot and dry days and then rain creating the usual humid conditions. We had an unprecedented heatwave in June during my first flush, with temperatures up to 104 and scorchingly hot winds that burnt a lot of canes and foliage. At my altitude it usually cools enough at night to give the roses a breather, but not last month! July has been wetter, fortunately, so back to the usual hot and humid. Sometimes there is just no fighting the air temperatures, no matter how much water and shade you can provide.

If I wanted extra blooms then I would add extra fertilizer or soil amendments (with extra water of course ) .

I can sprinkle sulfate of potash /kelp meal/ Alfalfa meal even Epsom Salts .

! Post first flush performance in heat - this may interest you, Moses. It suprised me. I just came across it today. I have no experience with this DA rose. The video has been up on youtube for 1 day. Maybe it was produced this week.

From the same guy who sold me on True Passion. He’s in southern NJ.

https://youtu.be/Ggmro2RGTa8?si=LSCIFTK2tBrplYs7

I amend my soil well and fertilise regularly except when it’s scorchingly hot. Then I stop adding anything. Fertilising heat stricken roses can burn them or induce yet more green growth. Some roses will just flat out refuse to bloom when the thermometer hits a certain level. My personal view is it’s better to wait for more favourable conditions. When the roses start to produce new flowering shoots and buds of their own volition, usually in concert with a drop in temperature, that’s the signal to recommence feeding.

A high potassium liquid ’tomato’ feed with added seaweed and iron would be my choice to induce better blooming, but that’s expensive and hard to get hold of here. Instead I use a fish emulsion blend, which is a tad lower in potassium then I would like, but works well enough.