Good for you, Melissa-still managing to get stuff done! Here the weather has become ghastly; the heat and humidity are atrocious. Since I don't have shelter out at my land, I can't go early in the morning to work a bit, and then wait for the evening to come in order to water,so basically gardening season is over for me. Sad to say, the weather forecast is very gloomy; the exceptional heat is supposed to get even worse. I put shade cloth over one rose bed, but will have to plant a cypress near it for permanent shade. Ah, summer. Heat exhaustion,mosquitos a go-go, and the bindweed is in full bloom ... I'm just glad that we got air conditioning installed upstairs in the bedrooms!

Yes, bart, it's exactly like that here, too. I got a bit done yesterday but I was miserable, so I took off today. I completely understand how you feel....and, congratualtions on your air conditioning! I hoping tomorrow I'll be more fit and will be able to resume my chores. As always, WE NEED MORE TREES.

I too am sort of in the surviving the heat mode. Tea and DA roses are blooming, and clematis are getting better every year. One I missed had fallen off support, but was still blooming.

Sheila, I like that photo: the shade! Bart, do you have or have you ever thought of constructing a pergola on your land? It might be fast than trees.

Well, at least I'm not the only one suffering, LOL! Melissa, the sharp south-wet slope of my garden drastically limits the places where I can put pergolas.I am in the process of constructing a sort of pergola to shade the path leading down to my garden, and another one lower down, but it takes so long for me to do things-so many different jobs to be done,added to the fact that my land is a 20-minute drive from home, PLUS I still have to keep up with my health issues. This past year has been complicated by that last issue; this second hip operation didn't work out nearly as well as the first. I think the surgeon did a great job, but this time the doctors who handled the follow-up made a mess of things by insisting on giving me only relatively bland pain-killers, but over too long of a time,so that messed up a lot of things ( serious dysbiosis). I had to go back to an orthopedic doctor, and am now, more than a year later, still stuck doing exercises to strengthen my still sometimes painful leg. Not to mention that ,like yourself, I just don't have the energy that I used to have. And now, of course ,everything has to come to a stop because of the heat. Even going out to water after 7:30 PM is just miserable chore

Sadly, I am feeling rather discouraged. When I first started out, the roses were reliably spectacular during the spring flush. Now , that doesn't seem to happen any more. It gets too hot too soon -the main flush just starts up when it gets zapped by a sudden heat wave .I have way too many roses here at the house in pots, but once I've planted them out, I'm just going to concentrate on trees and perennials that don't mind the heat.

Sheila, do you know the name of that clematis? It's beautiful!

Jackmani, Bart. It seems to enjoy it's cave.

I'm counting my blessings, in a manner of speaking. It's only in the nineties here, and there's a lot of shade at the house and at spots in the garden. Much of France is on red alert for heat, as are several Italian big cities. Though that didn't stop DD from going out and playing beach volleyball yesterday evening (she lives down in the Po Plain, which has some of the worst weather in the country). I'm afraid there are going to be a lot of deaths due to the heat.

I did feel better yesterday, and in spite of the temperatures was able to go out and cut back more wisteria, including on the house, and work a little down in the garden. My helper was out much of the day digging holes, though I told him to stop if it got too hot; I take it the temperature was manageable. Of course, summer has just started. I hope it's not all going to be like this.

A very nice and interesting set of descriptions and observations about your garden at this time of the year, Melissa! The teas and tea-noisettes really do seem able to rally and put on a show in even the worst heat, even if with smaller flowers. Here, 'Souvenir de Pierre Notting' generally looks his best when it gets to 100F or more, finally throwing off the browned outer petals he gets if there is even a hint of moisture in the air. 'Madame Lambard', 'Crespuscule', "Merete Stenbock", 'Lady Roberts', "Oneto Home Saffron" and 'Mrs. B.R. Cant' are all also having good second flushes after our recent little heat wave.

Thank you, catspa. I grow limited numbers of warm climate roses, and some of those burn at once in heat; also, they probably feel the lack of summer water, not an issue in irrigated gardens. So they generally don't get much more than a casual glance; yours sound more rewarding. (Having said that, this morning I noticed that 'Lamarque' growing in the Small Orto has put on new growth, so that I spent a few minutes pruning old and small canes out of it, encouraging it to climb up out of reach of my hair and clothes. So there's still activity. I have an insane notion of using it to roof my vegetables in summer--living shade cloth--to prevent their frying.)

At the moment our summer is feeling like northerners' winter: time for the plant catalogs! I'm going through the online list of the nursery where I buy most of my liner plants, and realizing, with a degree of discouragement, just how many plants I need, and how scattered over a few acres of garden they are. I'm nursing a plan to buy a bunch of hoses, and run them from the central hose down to the various sections of garden, so as not to have to drag them to different zones. In fact, I'm getting a little close to the idea of an irrigation system. Watering, in a system or not, is for plants in their first year, not established ones.

Heat waves like that are terrible, Melissa. We mostly escaped them all last year and, so far this year, have had only a 3-day run in the high nineties, which is "nothing" for here. My roses do have the luxury of irrigation, though, which would make a huge difference. With the sun seeming to burn ever harsher, shade is ever more desirable, so your 'Lamarque' idea sounds great; its white flowers resist the heat well, too.

How often do you get summer rains, I wonder? A colleague of mine did a study and concluded that the reason European perennial grass species only survive near our coast (or in our creek beds) is because they get at least some periodic relief from drought from storms during the summer in their home ranges and cannot tolerate the complete lack of rain that California suffers from the end of April to around mid-October, or even later than that many years. Here too though, my native plantings in the unirrigated parts of the garden only get water their first summer; after that they are on their own. My 'Fortuniana' rose surprisingly tolerates that, along with the native Rosa minutifolia, of course.

Summer rains are all too rare, at least in my area, catspa. Now with the temperatures being so extreme, we are at an enormous risk of very violent storms coming up as soon as a little wave of cool air arrives.

Melissa, our summer is indeed like the northerner's winter-weather so severe that you can't go out! I'm going crazy from boredom and depression-cabin fever! This evening I hope to go out to my land and water, but I'm dreading it. I already made myself sick last week under-estimating how bad it would be, going too early. Bless the young people, though. They are more heat-resistant than I am, certainly.

Sheila, I have Jackmanii, too, but it hasn't bloomed. Too hot perhaps? I need more shade, even at the cost of sacrificing some roses. This weather has become too much out of hand.

Bart, your garden certainly needs trees and large shrubs, to protect the plants as well as you. I would love to see pictures of your garden--I know, I keep writing this--as I've never been able to form a mental picture of it, and so can't know whether my comments on it are sensible.

Your health problems add another whole layer of difficulty, while I half understand what working in your garden without a house to retreat to means. Have you considered a small picnic, with abundant chilled liquids, as a refreshment after working there? with extra water to sponge off the sweat?

Catspa, my impression is that in recent decades summer rainfall has diminished and become more irregular. There has always been some. So far, my plants, once they've passed their first year, have managed without irrigation. So far. I think thick planting, lots of trees and shrubs (not too many, yet), and keeping the ground covered with organic material living and dead have all helped. I do like hearing about your garden: it sounds wonderfully interesting as well as beautiful.

Bart, boredom, ah, yes. I still have my garden to venture out in, and do things when weather permits, a huge advantage for me. I can't leave DH for long, so no overnight trips (I might risk a weekend visit to DD next month). What remains: a film festival on Internet Archive, looking for a writer in French whom I find really compelling, and the eternal paperwork. I hope you find entertainments.

I am interested to hear how summer rains there seem to have changed, @Melissa Northern Italy zone 8 and @bartisback and what you say corresponds with what I've been hearing in general. Many focus on how much rain, the total amount, when in reality it is the pattern of rainfall that is at least as important. Changing patterns can, without doubt, change vegetation.

I totally agree, Melissa, about trees and shrubs and keeping the ground covered. It seems to help not only the plants but also the fauna of every sort and size that are important to the garden, too It is heartening to hear from you that my garden sounds interesting and beautiful -- it is not exactly "kempt" by many current standards (deliberately so), though I always hope some find it pleasant. Your garden, likewise, sounds interesting and beautiful to me.