This has been a very strange summer. Most of my flowers didn't bloom

[CatWoman]

namely my cannas and lilies.

My daylilies bloomed and were spent. Now some are rejuvenating and will bloom AGAIN in a couple more weeks.

My dahlias should have bloomed by now, but I got one bloom and don't know if I'll get more.

And NONE of my gladiolas bloomed.

[JoePhilly]

1. But my WEEDS are growing like gang busters!!!

That is the rule ... if you plant it and water it, and it dies, that's a plant. If you try to kill it, and it grows back, its a weed.

[DevonRex]

23. Or if a vole eats it, it's

a plant, most probably every bit of your snow-in-summer and the roots of your rose bushes.

[MADem]

40. Mine too!! nt

[enough]

2. Where are you, CatWoman? (nt)

[CatWoman]

5. Stone Mountain, GA

suburb of Atlanta

[Motown_Johnny]

8. Heat stress, high soil temperatures and drought

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DM_southeast.htm



Just be happy they are still alive. Cut them back in the fall and hopefully they will bloom for you next year, if the weather isn't so extreme.

[CatWoman]

10. ty Johnny

I'm watering now and this weekend I'm going to get to work cutting everything back.

My flowers were so beautiful

[Motown_Johnny]

13. It may be to early, if the leaves are green let them be.

Each species is a little different and I would need to look them up to be certain but I do landscaping for a living and we don't cut back anything this time of year.

Healthy leaves and roots are better than nothing. You don't want to stop the leaves from feeding the roots to soon.

Dead stems or leaves should be pruned away, as always, but I wouldn't cut everything back until fall.

[CatWoman]

14. ok, cool

and thanks

[kestrel91316]

29. Bulbs don't like super-hot climates. I can't grow any bulbs in

the San Fernando Valley.

[patrice]

3. We have no wind and very rare breezes here. That's quite unusual. It's still as can be outside. nt

[HappyMe]

50. I have noticed this myself.

No breezes, and wind only when a storm is coming.

[MattBaggins]

4. All my vegetable plants

Tomato, eggplant, zucchini, peopper and others have grown to massive sizes yet all have produced mainly male flowers. Normal amount of flowers but all male or failing to fruit.

[CatWoman]

6. it's so weird!!!

my hibiscus bloomed early, now the leaves are all brown and they look like they're dying

[NutmegYankee]

31. It's been a frustrating year.

I lavished much time on my cucumbers, helping them climb a trellis, and I had tons of yellow flowers by late June. Then it got really hot (for Conn.) and the leaves turned brown and just shriveled from bottom up.

I almost wanted to cry! Summer is so short here, and I looked forward to it so much for fresh Cucumbers. I talked with neighbors and co-workers and they reported the same.

[peacebird]

17. My veggies did the same, massive zuchini leaves, tons of flowers, no fruit.

Not sure if the extreme heat kills the blooms before they set fruit or what. We've been watering from the river every day....

[Le Taz Hot]

18. Zucchinis and Yellow Squash don't like the heat.

I plant mine in the spring and up until about late June, I'll get lots of zuchs/yellow squash. The plant will stop producing veggies when it gets hot but leave them in. When the weather cools down you'll have a second crop.

[a la izquierda]

24. That happened to my plants last summer in Oklahoma...

darndest thing.

[CurtEastPoint]

7. NONE of my hostas came back up, or did briefly and weakly, then poof

Too damn dry and hot and frankly I felt guilty using precious water for them.

[CatWoman]

11. most of mine have withered and look soooo pitiful

[NutmegYankee]

9. My flowers were huge this year (New England)

No doubt helped by the warm winter and spring. A few annuals, like Dusty Miller, survived the winter.

But my cucumbers were destroyed by the heat. And this is Rural Hilly Conn. heat (Max 92 F).

[CatWoman]

35. braggart!!!

[RobertEarl]

12. Few pollinators?

Just north of you and this year i have seen the fewest number of insects, ever.

Back in the spring there were more mosquitoes than there are now. Less bees and very few butterflies. Apple trees that didn't bear and cherries that never showed.

Something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear.

But things do seem to be picking up, now that we are getting winds from the Atlantic rather then from the Pacific, if you get my drift.

[CatWoman]

15. that's a good point about the insects

when I was in Tidewater, VA in June there were fireflies all over the place.

Haven't seen one here......

[RagAss]

16. Nothing blooms with Mitt in the air !

[sofa king]

19. Pull the spent stalks and leaves on the daylillies!

I just did it to a couple dozen of them around ten days ago and they look like completely new plants today. The dying growth really holds them back, if you can believe that, and the blooms appear to mature even faster without it. Most of the new species I'm working with are on their second or third stalk-set and still happily chugging away.

With another set of of about two hundred of them, a much older type which had just finished its second and last stalk round, we weed-whacked them to only three inches high, pitched about six scoops of mulch over them on a day kissed by the breath of Hell, and to my amazement they pushed straight through the mulch in a couple of days and were four inches above it two weeks later. They won't bloom again this year, but next year it's gonna look like the circus came to town.

[CatWoman]

26. I routinely pull the dead stalks out after they have flowered

but I've never had them come back the same year.

I must add that they did flower very early this year.

[sofa king]

48. Mine flowered early, too.

We had a couple of nights of frost somewhere in late March which put the brakes on an absurdly early launch of spring. But it didn't stop the daylillies, some of which blossomed in mid-April for the first time, if I remember right. It sounds to me like your daylillies might be an older strain (well worth keeping, by the way) that only blooms once or maybe twice a year.

I don't want to lecture you or any other plant lover about watering, but this might be the place to put it out there for those who don't know:

Most potted plants, particularly those you buy at department and hardware stores, live horrid lives, root-bound in pots two sizes too small and amped up on plant-crack and perfectly regulated watering.

For most species you can buy at those places, you should disentangle or score the roots, dig out at least four inches around the diameter of the pot, give it a good dose of compost or other enriched soil, and soak it water it every day for weeks. (It helps a lot with good plants, too.)

The tangled root ball of a Wal-Plant simply doesn't have the footprint needed to collect the water it requires, and it will take weeks for it to sort out all its problems. If the plant is further weakened by disease (which is most Wal-Plants), lack of watering will knock one off in 72 hours after planting. A real plant from a real plant monger can handle a more reasonable level of neglect.

The real price y'all pay for saving two bucks on a shitty plant comes in the form of more water and more time spent watering, expensive fertilizer, and as often as not, replacement.

We pay the price, too. Perhaps a dozen of the thousands of plants we've sold and planted this year died and were replaced free of charge. But we have spent hundreds of hours performing remote triage on shitty Wal-Plants that aren't watered enough. We usually win the replacement fight, but if you came to us in the first place, we would all be happier.

[Rowdyboy]

20. Hey Cat....is it related to the drought? We've been really lucky in Mississippi-normal rain etc....

Flowers were all on schedule or a little early but my muscadines are getting ripe VERY early. The heat is as nauseating as always but at least I don't have to drag the damned hose around much.

[CatWoman]

25. Hi Rowdy

thing is, we had lots of rain in the spring, but spring came so early this year. We were having heat spells as early as April.

[JaneyVee]

21. Same Here! Flowers were terrible & weak, and tomato, basil, mint plants have super-low yields

They did say July was the hottest ever but my yield is terrible this year. Tomato's small, red. Bigger tomato's are green. Basil is good but low yield. Even mint, which is usually strong, looks frail. Good yield for mint but half brown half perfect.

[DevonRex]

22. Plant some salvia for next year.

Just in case. It's the only thing that always blooms in high elevation, high temperatures and drought conditions that I've ever planted. And mint for spreading all over.

I hope next year is better. But at least you'll have some more blooms and a good choice of colors if it's not.

[CatWoman]

27. will do

[Siwsan]

28. I'm in Michigan and everything bloomed very early

Starting with the daffs in FEBRUARY. My day lillies are gone but my wildflower garden is beautiful, thanks to me keeping it watered, during the drought.

My veg garden is overflowing with tomato, pepper and squash but I've been watering it, too.

My lawn has been mowed no more than 5 or 6 times, since May when I usually have to mow at least once a week. I'd rather use the water for my flower and veg gardens.

No fruit, this year. I'll miss my pears, that's for sure.

[xchrom]

30. Might be time to amend the soil.

If they are experiencing stress from the heat - more mulch might be in order.

You might have your soil tested to see if the PH is ok, etc.

If you do a serious soil make over - you may have to take out and replant some or all.

But it's worth it to do - every so often anyway.

[CatWoman]

32. I use long needle pine straw rather than mulch

much easier to transport and spread in the flower beds than mulch

[xchrom]

38. Ok 2 things - you might need use more pine needles

To compensate for the heat.

Second - that doesn't amend the soil.

IMO - time to dig up - add what? Mushroom or some sort of firm mulch - chicken manure - etc.

It's good to do that every so many years - especially if your investing in good perennials & ornamentals.

Try to get your soil tested to make sure there are no diseases & the PH is on.

[CatWoman]

39. What do you think about cow manure?

[xchrom]

43. Love it. I always use or buy my manure in combo

W/ some sort of good soil something.

I don't know what the products are in your area.

So if I can't buy a cow manure/soil combo - I buy manure 1 part to some good mulch/soil 2 parts. Same with chicken manure.

You wanna dig up and work in at least 6 inches. So maybe rent a tiller?

[slackmaster]

33. I had some daffodils and pleiones (Asian terrestrial orchids) bloom VERY early but decently

Coastal Southern California has been spared the heat wave that is affecting much of the continental USA, at least until this week.

It's been rainless in San Diego, which is perfectly normal. My trees and shrubs that are irrigated seem to be thriving. I have a Reed avocado tree that appears to be setting fruit for the first time. Bottle brush tree is in full bloom and is host to a large number of honeybees.

[dixiegrrrrl]

34. NO blossoms on any of our fruit trees.

Crepe myrtles blooming in August, not in June.
Cukes did not grow, I think they did not get pollinated.
Local yard corn failed to thrive, many people cut theirs down.
Cannas here bloomed, FWIW. But spring rambler roses did not.

[CatWoman]

36. now on the flip side

ALL of my roses are doing fine - I planted additional climbers, knock outs and bushes.

[enough]

37. Here in SE PA, the entire cycle started about 6 weeks early.

Everything has done well, with rains coming mercifully just when things are about to get desperate. Perennials, bulbs, roses, flowering shrubs all bloomed well but early.

Garlic (fall-planted) was ready to harvest about 3 weeks early. Veg garden doing fine (cukes starting to fade though).

All the insects and frogs have been essentially on a month-early schedule also. I keep wondering what's going to happen at the end of the summer. Will it all end early, or will we just have an extra month of growing season. Strange to be in completely unknown territory after decades of gardening in the same place.

[silvershadow]

42. I agree. We are in uncharted territory.

We were moved from zone 5 to 6 this year. And that was before all that we have experienced. I did what instinct told me to do after the non-winter we had and planted way early. Mine all did fine, but with a little help watering through this drought. I echo a previous commenter about the excess of male flowers. Have no idea what's up with that, but I sure have a lot of them. Combined with lack of pollinators, fruiting has been very slim on my pumpkins and gourds.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

41. My fall bloomers bloomed in spring this year.

What's up with that?

[Drew Richards]

44. Now for something really frightening

I have a large garden every year that sustains me through the winter and spring...

This is the second year in a row that ALL of my plants (except tomatoes and jalapenos) grew gigantic leaves...flowers and withered on the vines with zero squash's, peppers, cucumbers ect... None zero zilch...

Coincidentally this is the second year in a row that I have not seen a SINGLE bee in the eastern panhandle of WV ...wasps a few...bees? NONE...

I am very worried. I believe we must have a serious problem with colony collapse or something I haven't determined yet...

I mean to see zero bees? That is down right frightening.

I am going to purchase a hive in the spring and see if that helps...

Drew.

[Lucinda]

45. I'm just a few hours north of you - but in the mountains

It's been a weird year for us too...everything bloomed, but for a shorter time. We have had a ton of rain, so its really green and lush here.

[REP]

46. My lycastes are just putting out new growth now; usually do that in May

My anguolas are putting out new growth as well; they've already bloomed earlier this year. My D Mingle's Sapphire x D goldscmidtianum is spiking again ... but the longer I grow orchids, the less I understand them (all the plants mentioned are orchids).

[Texasgal]

47. I have nothing growing

The heat and lack of rain has killed it all.

[Oilwellian]

49. Same here, Cat

I've pretty much figured out why though. All of the lilies bloomed on schedule, my begonias, which get full sun almost all day, have grown freakishly huge this year, the geraniums are blooming beautifully, but my impatients are pitiful. Those growing in the shade are doing OK, but those that get sun are struggling. I made the mistake of planting a dark magenta color in the flower box that lines our driveway, and the dark color is absorbing too much of the sun and half of them have decided to just shut down and barely hang in there. By this time of year, they should be two feet high and two feet wide. I suspect, if they were a lighter color, they would have deflected the heat a little better and grown normally. Guess I'll have to rethink color schemes next year if these increased temperatures continue. It's definitely the heat that is stressing some of my flowers this year.

I'm happy to report though, we have had lots of bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and rain this year.

[CatWoman]

52. I'm jealous!!

I'm gonna come to your house and kick all your flowers!!

[kickysnana]

51. There was a Climate piece yesterday that ended that the temps were too high to early polinate

in a lot of places.