Thank you so much for the confirmation. I am just figuring out how to manage my watering so that I can keep things alive this year. I don't care if the plants bloom or not.
I am re-mulching all of the rose beds with a different mulch material than I usually use because I think it will prevent evaporation more effectively.
You have also confirmed that a new watering practice I've implemented this year is the right thing to do for the roses. After deep watering them, I deep water, as much as possible, the whole bed so that soil near the surface beyond the canopy of the roses doesn't wick water away from the plant, too. It's tricky because the temps are staying in the high 90s to low 100s from noon until 9pm. I've been going out to move the sprinklers using a flashlight because I am watering after dark. Thank you.
I've lived through droughts before, but never one like the one we are experiencing now, so I am kind of making it up as I go along in order to get through the intense heat of the summer months.
The soaker hoses under the large trees are helping, but not enough. I am almost certain much of the water I am putting out is going down to the deeper levels of the soil lower than the tree roots that take up water for the tree. Even when we get really heavy rains in a normal season, I mean the kind where the gutters over flow, I never have any puddles in my garden because the rain water just goes down to the deeper levels of soil to the underground streams that run under my property and feed the Trinity River. I think those streams have dried up and that's why the trees are not getting water.
Thanks, again.
Smiles,
Lyn
