Tonight was the first night I could work in the garden without dripping sweat.
The triple digits are over and it is starting to cool down at night, too. Bliss ! I also have more afternoon shade. More bliss !
The blooms are no longer frying and the roses are putting on new foliage to replace the fried foliage. That means I can prepare the roses for their last flush of the year. I am anticipating it as much as I anticipated the first flush this year, because I didn't dead head anything this summer and have looking at water stressed plants and fried blooms since the triple digits hit. YUK !
The roses that have been stalled all summer are putting on new buds.
I do the hard gardening work in the mornings, and just kind of work my way through the garden slowly in the evenings so that it doesn't feel like work. I've been removing the hips that have formed from the first flushes and damaged foliage when I saw new foliage coming along on the plant, but it has felt like a gentle time instead of hard work. Of course, I'll have to prepare things for winter and have lots of fall chores ahead of me, but tonight was for puttering in the garden.
I've been working all summer just to keep things alive during the drought. I think I lost only one rose, Paloma Blanca. It's a Griffith Buck rose and all of his roses were tested as budded roses. I don't think this one can make it on it's own roots. I've got both budded and own root plants in the garden and this is the only rose that I think is going to croak. Of course, it is also virused like all of his roses and that hasn't helped.
Today I found out that we will probably have another dry winter. How dry ? I don't know, but I do know it won't be enough to solve the problems caused by the drought. I have friends whose wells have gone dry. Creeks that have never been dry, now have no water. Of course a lot of the water is being diverted for the illegal pot grows, but that's another story. And, yeah, we are still sending water down to the southern part of the state.
There has been subsidence on my slope which is further evidence of the impact of the drought on my property. The soil next to the patio that was once flush with the patio is now two inches lower than the patio.
Toni ... I did save my trees !
I no longer have to duck under the lower branches and they are all fully hydrated. Your roses are looking wonderfully healthy. Thanks for sharing them.
Smiles,
Lyn
P. S.
Thanks for letting me blither on ... this had not been a great rose year for me.
