In the Southeastern US we expect our summers to be hot and humid. High temperatures in the low-to-mid 90's often start in late May and continue through the middle of September. We generally get a couple of streaks of very hot weather along the way with highs breaking the 100 degree mark for a few days in a row, then returning to our typical low/mid 90's. Along with that we get a couple of cooler (?) days where the clouds roll in and it rains off and on while there is a weather system passing up the Atlantic coast or coming inland from the gulf. The thing that differentiates the months of summer is the low (again ?) temperatures. In the early summer, the low temperatures start in in mid 60's and then increases to the low 70's. In the middle of summer and on through late summer, the low temperatures increase to the mid 70's. Of course, along the way the humidity hangs in the 50-70% range. Believe it or not, there are people who have jobs that require them to work outside in the summer as well as the rest of the year!
This year (so far) has been different. The second half of June has had high temperatures in the 97-102 range almost every day. Yes, we got one two-day break with rain and clouds and temperatures in the upper 80's, but then immediately back to the sizzling temperatures. Also during this time there have been very few thunder storms and our night time lows have been in the upper 70's, and the 10-day forecast calls for more of the same.
This was a superb daylily season which had peak bloom the last week of May and the first week of June with unusually good bud counts and branching on many plants. I am a backyard hybridizer, so the first things I noticed of things declining were the number of pods that were drying up and that the only pods that were setting were those on daylilies that had morning shade regardless of me being finished with my hybridizing before 8:30AM. Now it is July 1 and I simply cannot water often enough to keep the daylilies, or much of anything else, green.
Honestly, most of my daylilies live in quite a bit of shade. Direct sun is limited to 4-6 hours per day. Regardless, the number of brown leaves increases every day. My beds looks more like late August than early July. Daylilies often have a difficult time here in the summer and some even experience summer dormancy due to our weather, but not in early July!
I am actually thinking about cutting my daylilies back like I would if I had rust - - which I don't - - just to improve how things look. Have you ever heard of anyone wishing that it was "only" 90??
