Thursday, August 9, 2012

Wimps!


I’m afraid us Pacific Northwesterners have a bit of a reputation as weather wimps. We don’t have to deal with blazingly hot or horribly humid summers. No hurricanes or monsoons. Winters are usually mild, the worst thing we face are endless grey skies and rain. So it should come as no surprise that when Portland hit 102 degrees last Saturday (the hottest day since July of 2009) there was plenty of complaining around town.

Other than worrying that no one would show up for my open garden for fellow bloggers (but they did, turns out Portland Garden Bloggers are a hardy bunch!) I wasn’t concerned; my plants are danger-ready, living for hot days like this. They were finally going to have their day in the sun, so to speak.

But it turns out they’re wimps! Brown leaves on the Verbascum olympicum was the first damage I spotted.

Then I noticed several leaves on the Eryngium agavifolium decided to go all yellow and brown.

This is the most surprising though…

What’s up with that!? If you saw yesterdays post you know these guys were looking fabulous just last week!

After I scolded them for being such wimps I realized they hadn’t seen heat like that for years (if ever) and I’ve hardly provided any relief. Between the baking hot sidewalk, driveway, and gravel these poor plants were no doubt feeling some pain as the sun beat down on them for hours.

So much for the flawless, almost black, foliage of this Cordyline…

The only other plant in the front garden to show signs of stress were the Kniphofia caulescens, at least I can remove their lower leaves.

In the back garden it became obvious the Chocolate Mimosa hadn’t gotten enough water recently…

Thankfully not all its leaves look so bad.

I lost a few fronds on one of the Tree Ferns…

And the Gunnera is now sporting a few tawny highlights.

Even the Saxifraga ‘London Pride’ crisped up a bit.

If it wasn’t so sad I’d almost consider the burnt Tetrapanax leaves to be beautiful (that’s one at the top of this post too).

Oh heck…they are beautiful, aren’t they?

Because I don’t want this post to be a complete downer (after all I enjoyed the sun and heat), here are some happy discoveries. This one I’m sure was brought on by the high temps as I don’t recall seeing it before...

One of my Aloe dorotheae is going to bloom!

The blooms on this Haworthia finally opened.

That’s it in the bottom center.

I’m including this shot of the other side of the same container because I am totally in love with this small Agave petrophila from Cistus, isn’t just adorable!?

And ta-da! My first ever Colocasia bloom (at least I think that’s what it is)…

On the Colocasia esculenta 'Elepaio'...

And guess what! The Sonchus canariensis is starting to push out new leaves…yay!

As for our heat it was short lived. Sunday burnt on at 94 but we've been cooler all week...

35 comments:

  1. It really hurts when you see the damage on the 'kids' - some that as you mention seemingly appeared overnight! My Acer shirasawanum 'Aureum' looks fried! I moved the pot to the deepest shade, and gave him a thorough soaking. It has been the summer of our discontent for sure, not just us as gardeners, but for the plants as well! Here's hoping most of the damage you report is only cosmetic!

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    1. P.S - For the sake of my future sanity, don't let anything happen to that gorgeous Albizia julibrissen 'Summer Chocolate' - I first stumbled into its presence at the Chicago Independent Garden Cetre convention two years ago and have been haunted by it ever since!

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    2. For your sanity I will be very very careful with 'Summer Chocolate'...I don't want to be responsible for sending you over the edge!

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  2. Wow, I'm surprised that your garden was hit so hard. I agree it didn't help that temps had been so mild prior. I had some scalding on a few of my agaves earlier this the summer, but everything seemed to pull through the 102 degree heat okay. Even the Ensete maurelli, which has seriously burned in past years, is looking wonderful. Isn't it strange how different it can be just a mile or two away?

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    1. Forget a mile or two away...just a matter of feet can make all the difference! The other Tetrapanax in my garden didn't suffer at all. The other Agave americana and Verbascum in the front garden have not a blemish. For most of them I can chalk it up their position receiving reflected heat nonstop all day long. The Cordy is no doubt simply because of its dark foliage and the Mimosa is my bad for not watering it better.

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  3. same thing up this way too. carnage! my schefflera blooms (soooooooo sad) are all floppy and sad looking. They got tons of water but apparently don't like 100 degree weather. The palms don't seem to mind.

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    1. I'm so sorry! (it got to be 100 up there...wow!)

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    2. i know right! It's odd for me if I don't reach to 100F mark at least once each year. Along the water however may only top out around 90 most years

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  4. Wow...that's kind of surprising. I have to say, I was surprised that I didn't have more damage...mostly a few of the leafier plants (Rodgersias...what a surprise). It doesn't help that our garden is really exposed to the wind...anything that was subject to the wind+heat definitely showed more damage. Generally, I do water fairly regularly...so that may have helped a bit...who knows...but I think you're right...our plants just aren't used to such harsh treatment ;-)

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    1. I've been such a bad waterer...and now you have to assume there is no moisture at all left in the soil. Guess I better get with it!

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  5. Welcome to the club -- you now have a real garden, not one of those sissy "always look good gardens". :-)

    Know who likes it hot, hot, hot? Opuntias apparently. Mine have been loving this summer!

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    1. Oh yes none if my Opuntia were complaining! Of course I was thinking about the rest of the country (especially the drought stricken areas) when I wrote this. I have nothing but complete admiration that anyone can keep plants alive in those conditions. We've got it so good here!

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  6. I feel your pain. When we had our first heat wave of the summer, I had similar burns on some plants that usually love the heat. You think they'd have no problems, but they're just not used to the intense sunlight.

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    1. I hear you've got another heat wave on the way too, is that right?

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    2. Yep, that's what I hear. We're still at my in-laws. Home on Saturday. Can't wait to see my babies again :-).

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    3. But I thought your kids went with you on this trip? (hahaha...I couldn't resist!)

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  7. Ouch!

    That's a bit sad seeing the effects of the heat. Mind you, 102 degrees, phew! My garden would positively melt in that heat.

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    1. And just seeing those amazing pictures of your garden I agree. Your gorgeous Rodgersia would go up in flames in no time!

      Here are Adam's photos if your're interested, trust me you won't be disappointed: http://www.growingontheedge.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7134&hilit=wander+around+my+garden

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  8. I am in florida and i noticed the last month these dead spots on virtually everything.....I thought it was disease but no I am wondering if it is some kind of pollution...have never seen so much stress on my plants...

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    1. Yikes! Maybe a neighbor was spraying some nasty chemicals?

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  9. Yeouch. I think I've mentioned already that we have some plants that are very, very unhappy with the heat (and nasty humidity) we've been having. You'd think being in the southern swampy coast that it wouldn't be a problem, but then again, I may be entirely my fault!

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    1. No not your fault! That can't be...it's the weather for sure!

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    2. Maaaaaaybe I'll accept that the hottest July on record EVERYWHERE may have had something to do with it! ;)

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  10. Oh dear, oh dear.... so disappointing to see that kind of damage especially on the agaves. We had a couple terrible thunder storms blow through here last weekend with hail and very strong winds... tons of damage... and so it goes in gardening

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    1. Hail can be so very destructive, not to mention what a strong wind can do! You're right though...gardening is such a gamble, you win some and you loose some and all the stressing I do over the weather doesn't help a bit (well, other than to upset my husband)

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  11. I'm so sorry about your damage! The tetrapanax leaves are pretty cool though. We've been pretty lucky here; our hottest day was only 91 degrees.

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    1. More heat predicted for the end of next week...

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  12. If I hadn't experienced 100+ temps at Cistus a few years ago, I'd have accused you of photoshopping this post! These poor babies didn't have a chance to develop a base tan.

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    1. Since I've lived here I can remember 3 significant heat events in Portland. During one of them we chose to visit Cistus...just think maybe we were there at the same time!

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  13. Blimey, even your agave got scorched! Funny how days of cool and not so humid weather, then suddenly a burst of summer high temps (albeit a short period) can do some visible damage on plants, even supposed to be sun loving ones. Same thing happened here a week or so ago, the warm spell scorched and crisped some plants. But a majority loved the warm spell though! Yay for the highs! Glad to hear your garden open day for other bloggers went well :) Love the Agave petrophila! And funny that you had scorch on some plants and yet the variegation of the Colocasia remained pristine, it's in a good spot!

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    1. I know most Colocasias are supposed to be sun lovers but I find that mine are so much happier in the shade...so that's where they go!

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  14. What you showed sure happened fast, but maybe it was the shock of going from NW weather to SW weather too fast? I have a transplanted A. havardiana pup, and it is particularly looking bad, though no spots...but it has been enduring too much sun and heat since May. It will come out of it and be fine, just establishing. My A.victoria-reginae 'Compacta' did the same in the very long summer of 2002...only 4 yrs old, and now at 14 years old, it never does it.

    From Daphne in TX -
    http://www.klru.org/ctg/question/Can_plants_actually_sun_scald/
    http://www.klru.org/ctg/episode/date/7_28_2012/

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    1. I saw the same scald spots on a friends agaves over the weekend, her's also coming out of the blue after the 102 day. Thank you for the links!

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  15. How old is your Agave petrophila? I have a plant of almost the same size that I purchased two years ago. Seems it grows quite slowly for an Agave.

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    1. You know I don't know how old it is, it only came to live with me last spring...

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