It's Not The Heat, It's The Lack Of Humidity

Wind chill dropped the temperature at least 10 degrees.
 It's not the heat, it's the lack of humidity.  It's only 91F, but with winds at 25-35mph and humidity at around 3%, it's nasty outside.  Stuck inside, I started looking back at old photos.
June 2005:
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I braved the heat and went out to compare.  May 2014:  The maple and hydrangea have grown bigger, there are Cypress, the barely visible Wisteria on the right is gone but I'm still pulling suckers from it.  I blued up the hydrangea with soil sulfur.  The Azaleas are gone. The Begonia is the same, just smaller because I cut it back a few months ago.   There are a few more roses.   
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Out on the front slope, I sure don't miss the Baccharis.  I get great joy on a daily basis from not missing the Baccharis.  This was 2006, I think:
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And today, in the heat and wind.  It was so dry my lungs were burning.  I splashed some water on a tomato plant and a desperate lizard came running and took a drink out of one of the wet leaves.  That's dry.  
 photo heat6960_zpsc590e711.jpg The Aloes look fine.
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How's that Digiplexis?  Fine.  Just fine.
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Even the rooted Fuchsia cuttings, very carefully placed in a damp shady corner, were fine.  I've learned a few things about helping plants survive these wind events.  I was the one that was dehydrated.  
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The Hydrangeas--they were toast, yes?
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No.  The established plants were surviving.  Newly planted, not so happy.  Planted last fall, 'Snowbird' opened a flower this morning, by the late afternoon it was just starting to crisp on the edges.  
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'Souvenir de la Malmaison', planted fourteen years ago, looked great-actually better than it does in cooler weather.  Whodathought?
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I was also surprised that the tiny Aloe seedlings looked happy.  Heh.
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Oh.  Those look nice together.  Too bad it wasn't planned.
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Now what was absolutely staying hydrated? 
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 I've been spending the week cleaning out closets and dusting things that don't normally get dusted.  All over Southern California the homes of gardeners are becoming a lot cleaner than they normally would be.  Even the dogs don't want to go outside.  It's Bloom Day, but it's too hot, too hot, too hot. 

Comments

  1. Those are a great set of photos showing how everything has matured and all the changes. Looks stunning.

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    Replies
    1. Remember to take lots of photos of your own new garden to record the progress over time, if you ever get those construction guys out of there. It's fun!

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  2. Baccharis is boring. Looks much better, more exciting and still water-saving. Love love love the garden section in photos 2 and 3. The Japanese maple is not toast? Wonderful! Surprising, isn't it, how well hydrangea is holding up?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, you are right. Baccharis is --well, let's call it "not right for that spot". There are no bad plants, only wrong places.

      The Acer is fine--very well established. Plants overall are starting to show stress after 4 days of this. I guess they can only take it for so long.

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  3. It's miserable isn't it? In September/October I complain when the heatwaves hit but, in May, I'm downright resentful. While I've always believed that it's best to plant in the fall, I've generally been able to get away with planting into early June - now, I think I'm going to push my "spring" planting back to February and March.

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    Replies
    1. It's kinda scary. The new record temperature at John Wayne yesterday was 21 degrees higher than the old temperature. 21 degrees!

      A weird weird weather year.

      One real surprise re: plants, my potato vine cuttings that I got out of the compost pile exploded with growth. I think they tripled in size in the past 3 days. Guess they like heat.

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  4. Always surprised me that my climbing SDLM loved the heat too. I keep waiting for fog to roll in and save the day, like it does every May/June here at the coast. Sure seems like old weather patterns are being up-ended. If this is the new normal...yikes.

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