Sorry, soxxx, I know how you feel.

I have pulled the plug, threw in the towel, given it the heave ho, cut my losses, ....yea it is dead out there. Just the cactus remains. I am with you in this growing club of EX gardeners. I am still out there in the 105 sunshine doing work in my vegetable garden in prep for a day of rain. No plants. I am putting cardboard path liners down and cutting a door tread to keep the wild things out . Generally cleaning up in hopes of a better day. I need to put in a drip system and put another rain tank by my husbands roof.

It's been a horrible summer. I feel so bad for y'all :(

Tomorrow I am taking several roses, a couple of althea bushes and several perennials off life support. I just can't stand to see their little brown limbs fighting for a breath of life anymore.

I am not having it that bad as yet............only the geraniums and they are all in containers. I just keep plugging away each day (at least six hours of plugging) dragging hoses, and my fruit trees and crape myrtles get deep watered at least once each week from an overnight fast drip.........has worked really well so far, but I am so ready for this to be behind us.

I am so very sorry. It's bad here, but we are able to run the soaker hoses.

Have you considered cutting the roses back...maybe the althea too? Could they go dormant....maybe and return?

BTW I looked ahead and we have 65% chance of rain on the 30th. Maybe you'll get some sooner

sadly
c

I'm so sorry. I totally understand. The conditions this summer are just terrible.

We have deep watered everything throughout the summer. My things that are in some shade during the day are all hanging on. this is stuff that is in the sun all day and they have just flat burned to death. we have hit 105-107 on my little hill every blessed day and this stuff hung on valiantly but the things I mentioned are finally just gone. brown, burned, shrivelly...all those good adjectives,lol. this last week just seems to have finally done them in. I even have 2 mexican sages that have to go tomorrow too...well...those I may be able to just cut to the ground and see what they do next spring...I lost 2 of my butterfly bushes last week. I just keep telling myself that they are just plants...they aren't livestock...so many of the ranchers have no water...so, really I am blessed.

I've had some dead trees fall down out on my property. One Texas Red Oak is still alive, but I can tell it's just leaning on a large cedar tree and wouldn't be standing if it weren't for that cedar. With the trees, it's not just this current drought and heat...they were already damaged quite a bit by the last drought that ended in 2009. Cumulative damage, you know. And I've said goodbye to some plants in my yard. Some were victims of the armadillos that are especially bad this summer, others died from heat or too infrequent watering. I promised myself I won't go get more plants in the fall. Enough is enough...until this drought ends!

I gave up on one of my plants, a leafless Randia rhagocarpa, back in May at our property in Bayview. I did not water it before I returned home to Dallas. In July, I was amazed to find it had leafed out following rains.

Gardening at a remote site like our property is a process of trial and error. A number of new plants died while others thrived during the drought of 2009.

Ty

no plants here either this fall. we have two redbuds that are looking pretty bad even though we deep water them. the trees we are worried about right now are our pines...our house has huge pines on all sides. in the front(thank goodness these are pretty far out in front of us) 2 of the pines have died...hubby looked the other day and they have the dreaded pine beetles. apparantly the pine beetles attack when there is a drought.

Yep, life can be miserable at times. This unrelenting heat has made me retreat to the indoors, get bored and eat too much. I think I'm the only thing growing!!! Carrie, my Eternity, which is in the most shade, is the only brug that is doing even slightly well. I've not tried to water any more that just enough to keep things alive. Linda, you mention the armadillos. I have a similar problem on our farm place, and the mesquites and prickly pear seem to be popping out like crazy. Have spend a good bit of time spraying to control this outburst. And don't even say the word grasshopper! Thick as the hair on a dog. They are even eating the young mesquite leaves. There is one product that seems to help control them -- Bifen. But DON'T use on or near edibles.
In all our worry and fret, I've learned to say, "Lord, what would you have me do for YOU today?"

"Lord, what would you have me do for YOU today?" always good advice! Meanwhile, I can't believe my little suburban garden has gone through 2 droughts in the 3 years we've been here. No wonder everthing is growing so slowly.

"Lord, what would you have me do for YOU today?" Amen. That attitude helps keep things in the right perspective.

Also helpful ...

My daughter gave me the plaque :-)

Some things you can save by digging up and putting in a pot. Against the advice of the good people on the Antique Rose Forum about a month ago I dug up two Mrs. Dudley Cross rose bushes that were very stressed in the full heat of the sun. The few leaves they had left were burned and then the deer got in and ate those! It was doubtful they were going to make it so there was nothing to lose other than my labor.

As I dug them up the dirt fell away and they had hardly any roots. I guess they had baked away in the heat. I put them in five gallon pots with fresh soil, watered them, poured on some root stimulator and covered them with a large clear plastic bag and sat them in the shade. The soil has remained damp and I haven't watered again. They are putting on new leaves so it looks like they may recover. Time will tell.

I'm doing this with several other plants also. I wish you all the best in getting through this drought with as many plants left as possible. We're going to lose some, but that's to be expected.

Yes, Weldon, and I also thank Him for what I DO have. I try to reason that it could be worse as I know it could be.
It is a full time job for me keeping things watered, but the results are rewarding. I am glad Eternity is doing well..so many of my brugs aren't. My little birds are so thankful for their fresh water in the bird baths....they reward me by singing for me and catching birds. I watched a Mockingbird do in a grasshopper the other day, and I wanted to hug him.

great saying to start your days with-

interesting you dug up a rose plant roselee, I have 8 that are really struggling and I am thinking of pulling all of them up and potting them, except I am not sure what I will do with all of them in the winter. Are you planning on bringing them inside? I put my pulmerias upstairs last winter, it is almost an attic- just upstairs and unfinished in the house, not any heat or air up there, but there are some windows up there- do you think they will make it? Do you water them over the winter? I did not water the pulmeria and it did fine. I would love it if I could over winter things up there, we have a lot of space up there, Maybe I could even just put something down on the ground and cover the floors and water it once in awhile? Now my wheels are turning!

I have a lot of roses planted in pots year round and they do fine through the coldest of San Antonio temperature so these should do fine in their five gal pots.

Many roses in our climate don't even loose their leaves in the winter. This is especially true with the old China and tea roses. But whatever kind of roses you have if you decide to dig them up they will definitely do much better outside with some sun and fresh air, and watered during the winter.

Most of my roses are managing to live through this heat; especially the ones that get a little shade in the afternoons. Only if it looks like some aren't going to make it with extra water and shading would I dig them up. I have one or two more I may have to 'rescue'.

Be sure and cover them with clear plastic if you dig them up now and keep as much soil around the roots as you can. It will help them through the shock of loosing a lot of their feeder roots in spite of careful digging. Just watch them while in full shade and remove the plastic in small increments after they've had time to grow new roots. It will take few weeks.

Plumerias are amazing plants. Believe it or not you can uproot them and store the bare stalk in a closet for the winter, plant them in the spring, and they 'spring' to life. There was a post about it on here a few months ago and I did this last winter.

Keep us posted on how the stressed plants are faring!

I grow roses and daylillies in pots and they do just fine. They take the winter a lot better than this heat. Drying out is the big problem. If cold such as we had last winter is expected, cluster your pots if possible and put something around the outside to protect from the extreem cold.

I read in the container forum that it helps to put buble wrap and white plastic around he pots to protect the the roots from and reflect the extreme heat. I would also think it would insulate from the cold. Doesn't sound very attractive, but better than losing a rose.

It was 111 degrees at 2pm today, at this point I will try anything. Barbra

LOL Roselee, I see your daughter has the same crazy-wonderful sense of humor you do :)

If a plant is going to die anyway I figure why not try something that might work? I have mini roses that I don't really care about (long story) that have looked dead only to spring back to life several times. My big,climbing heirloom roses were found on TX abandoned homesteads so I figured they'd do ok in all types of weather with irrigation to help them. Oh, and my Fourth of July climber is blooming as it can. I thought it might be a winner.

I've lost so much I forgot I even planted! But the Double Delights I planted last fall, are doing so much better than expected. They're not pretty right now, and need dead heading but they've bloomed and bloomed all summer long. They get full sun from about 11 on. Blazing sun for most of the day and still they bloom. Haven't dead headed in over a month, haven't fertilized since before the 4th of July, and they're still blooming and putting out new growth.
They get watered when the grass gets watered, every 2 or 3 days.

I've lost one brug, the rest are barely alive. :(
Plumies and all other potted plants except the desert rose and blue potato bush have been moved to deep shade. They're looking pretty good, but of course not blooming right now.
I did leave one plumie on the north side out, but its shaded by late afternoon. Its blooming and looking good.

I resigned to the fact this summer was a dud for the flowers and quit worrying and working so hard on them. Just keep alive what I could and regroup when its cooler.

I'm thankful we don't depend on my gardening for or food!

"Lord, what would you have me do for YOU today?"

Perfect.

It was 111 again yesterday, my husband and I sat in the front yard, hand watering, trying to keep the grass alive. I am going to the coast tomorrow with 13 new pots. I will be trying to save whatever is still alive. I will also dig up my dayliles and put them in black plastic pots, they only had a few brown leaves on them over a week ago. I am sure I have lost alot of them by now. I put down mulch, it seemed to hurt them more than help them. I think I actually cooked the plants. Barbra

I pullled the plug on daylilies, collumbine, and annuals last week.