After The Heat

 It was as though the very earth was melting
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Last week our area suffered through a terrible heat wave that shut us all down for a while.  We shrank and went dormant, like the Aeoniums. 
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Late Thursday afternoon a sea breeze brought relief as it began to push cool air back over the land.  Everyone's mood suddenly improved.  A few people, less than five hundred miles north of here, reported getting a little rain.  
  
Finally back outside, to ponder what the heat damaged or delighted.  Odd how some of the Agaves were sun-bleached...
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...when something like a Hydrangea sported pristine new foliage and flowers.
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The extreme temperatures turned roses strange colors.  
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This rose is normally peachy-pink:
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Time to cut that Fuchsia back.
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But, happy peppers.
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Happy begonia.
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The first flower from dainty Lotus jacobaeus
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A few good things came out of being stuck indoors for so long--things got repaired, installed, cleaned.   Less than five hundred miles north of here, some people got a little rain. 
 
 

Comments

  1. And it was a little, but welcome ..rinsed the dust off, but I still had to water.

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  2. I echo what you said. Except we were only 50 miles from the rain. Still, no rain for us. But the forecast says 50% chance for Thursday. Never give up hope.

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    1. 50 miles! So near! Fingers crossed you get some rain.

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  3. Hope that rain makes its way towards your area soon. Quite an image there with the agave being sunbleached, and your first image clearly illustrates what it must have been like during the heatwave...

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  4. So glad you were able to get some relief from the heat with the sea breeze. I hope the damaged plants will recover.
    xoxoxo ♡

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  5. Complaining about the weather is a favorite sport...for the plants too, apparently.

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    1. As is their right, them being out in it all day long. Complaining about the weather is part of gardening--not the fun part.

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  6. I have a bleached agave too - recently planted, I was worried it was the result of too little - or too much - water. We had lots of gray clouds this weekend and a few tiny droplets - actually, they were more like Mother Nature spitting at us. Still the cooler temperatures allowed work in the garden at last. So many plants are dead and I'm anxious to start replanting - even though I know we could get more blasts of heat into early October, I'm already starting...

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    1. As I remember, if the bleaching isn't too bad, the Agave unbleaches after a while. You are more coastal, shouldn't be so bad for you (I'm jealous) It was down to 63F this morning, felt so wonderful!

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  7. I recall a summer like this was for you (including a couple 110F-ish heat waves), my last summer in San Diego, 1990? The winter rainy season, after a cold wave, ended up very wet.

    Looks like you and your plants survived Phoenix-lite...after a particularly long, hot summer at the old place, my Agave victoria-reginae was sun-bleached...recoverd the next year. It's easy to forget some of these "desert plants" are not always so, nor tolerable of extreme heat and sun. Here's to everything bouncing back, at least between Santa Anas...S. California is not such a cushy gardening place, is it?

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