The Aftermath of 116 Degrees

Record breaking weather. Again. It seems we say that every season - be it late freezes or early infernos. We endured another; literally an historic high temperature of 116 degrees two weeks ago. We knew it was coming so planned for it the best we could, guessing that watering would be the #1 thing to do. So we did. For several days just about everything received a good soaking right up until the heat hit; we then stopped watering during the heat of the day, it would have evaporated. Many of my friends shaded less heat tolerant plants with shade cloth; on two acres we gave up on that notion. 

A concern I had was that there are certain plants that will shut down when the soil is too saturated and the air temperature is high. Arctostapylos fall into this category - they suffer terribly if watered in hot weather. We avoided watering these kinds of plants as much a possible but at 116 degrees, who knew what else might shut down? Uncharted territory.

The usual suspects - Hydrangeas, shade plants and water lovers suffered the most, but I am pleased that the damage was minimal overall. The xeric plants in my garden for the most part suffered no damage I can detect, in fact a couple like the Romneya coulteri perked up and is blooming more than it ever has. The many West Cost native plants look terrific and are quite adapted to drought and intense sun, but no one knew what would really happen at an historic 116 degrees. This post aims to document the aftermath and hopefully solidify the survivors to keep adding.

Let's dive in and look at some of the damage. But first, here's a vignette that fared quite well - Ceanothus 'Blue Jeans', Opuntia no i.d., Cistus 'Paper Moon', Artemisia 'Powis Castle', Liatris sp. and foreground bottom just barely visible is Agave neomexicana. All, save for the liatris, are drought tolerant plants in gravelly soil. The liatris seeded itself where it is, by the way. I would not have thought to add it to this location, but I like it. Sometimes plants know better.

Surprisingly Sedum spurium cultivars were crispy in certain areas. A common thread through what was damaged is that they were exposed to intense high afternoon sun on the hottest day. Others just a few inches on either side were basically fine. Reflected heat and direct afternoon sun were key reasons for damage, a factor almost impossible to control.

Hydrangea 'Nikko Blue' actually recovered quite well as compared to what they looked like during the peak of heat. Yes, the blossoms are crispy but the plants survived. If they weren't so pretty we'd rip them out. I'm still tempted, as no other plant on this property requires as much water as macrophylla forms of hydrangea. Other forms such as serrata, quercifolia and paniculata fared much better.

Much of the Hydrangea macrophylla foliage looks like this, even though they didn't necessarily receive direct sun.

Stachyurus praecox foliage looking much the same as the hydrangea. For the record, these are all in a good amount of high, overhead shade.

Many sedums became bleached out and shriveled up - testament to the fact that they do indeed need supplemental water. This is Sedum reflexum which should be a pale silvery blue color.

Combine a salix or willow with white variegation and you're asking for trouble. Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki', a water lover for sure but also one that needs some sun to get good coloration on its leaves. It will recover, I am sure. Salix are tough.

Under dappled sun even Rosa chinensis 'Mutabilis' suffered leaf burn. The flowers all shriveled and dropped too. Rosa glauca, Rosa pomifera, Rosa rugosa all look fine.

Hydgrangea quercifolia 'Ruby Slippers' has the faintest browning on the flowers, barely detectible. These are in a lot of sun and high, overhead shade for part of the day. 

One surprise was Euphorbia grifithii 'Dixter' - I have two of them and both look the same. 

More sedum damage - note on either side it is fine, this is just where hot afternoon sun hits perfectly.

This saddens me a lot - Penstemon pinifolius 'Melon' might not make it. Quite surprising, too.

The winner of the fried leaf award goes to my poor blueberries and gooseberries. They suffered so much, just after they really began to take off. This is a blow. Even the fruit is crumbly. They did get water but they also get full sun all day.

More blueberry damage. Of the dozen blueberries, three look fairly healthy. I am confident they'll grow out of it so long as "record breaking" and "weather" aren't in the same sentence for a couple of years. We'll see. 

Not only is the gooseberry foliage dried up and shriveled, the fruit got burned too. They are supposed to be green. As a matter of fact, most of the ribes species did not like this hot weather. Ribes odoratum and R. sanquineum that were in sun are very unhappy.

My pile of debris clean up from this past weekend. Casualties. A lot of that is raspberry debris, I think that they may have verticillium wilt and I did a big clean up on them. Many lettuces and greens bolted, so the leftovers after the chickens had at them are also piled up.

There are many others not pictured such as Aruncus dioicus that was in a good shot of afternoon sun, hardy fuchsias that were in the same area. They all perked back up after a soaking and cooler weather, but foliage damage on the aruncus is bad. Another surprise was Berberis darwinii - it's alive but about 75% of its leaves are completely brown. A second specimen around the corner is fine. The damaged one was near the euphorbia - in the full baking sun on the south side of the Himalayan mounds. My Fatsia japonica 'Spider Web' was flat on the ground in the height of the heat, it has since perked back up and lost a couple lower leaves but looks fine. It doesn't receive a lot of supplemental water in summer, just average, so I was surprised. I suppose there's a tipping point for moisture and soil temperature for such plants and we reached it.

Moving on from damage, I shared images last week of plants I would keep my eye on. Let's review how they did. First up, Itea ilicifolia survived and looks rather good, actually. This is next to the 'Nikko Blue' hydrangeas.

Atriplex halimus, salt bush, south facing with reflected heat said "no problem". It's a keeper. More of this, please.

A scene I featured last week looks virtually the same after the inferno. Teucrium chamaedrys is beginning to bloom and the bumble bees are all over it. More of this too, please.

Eryngium giganteum looking ghostly and gorgeous, bees all over this beauty, too. It did not skip a beat and is in full sun all day until late afternoon.

Quercus hypoleucoides, silver oak, looks fantastic. It was meant for such weather.

Agastache 'Kudos Red' looks the same - that is to say pretty darned good.

Here's a closer look at Teucrium chamaedrys. 

Berkheya purpurea, South African thistle. I'm not surprised it looks great (being a thistle and all), but wanted an excuse to include it here.

Artemesias fared very well. A. 'Powis Castle'

Artemisia versicolor 'Sea Foam' never looked better.

All the lavenders look fantastic, too. 

Although a little fluffy from the flowers finishing up, Dorycnium hirsutum also did not skip a beat. This seeds around in my gravel, but that's ok, I pot them up and give them away. 

In the wilder regions of the garden, Spiraea douglasii, our native spiraea looks great and did not really get any extra water at all, which surprises me. No burning on the leaves that I can see either.

All the arctostaphylos look great, this one has never looked better - Arctostaphylos silvicola, 'Ghosty' manzanita. Before the heat it was actually the weakest of all the arctos in my garden but this is what it wants, clearly. 

Same with Romneya coulteri, Matilija poppy - it has never bloomed so much. It struggled to establish, but now I believe it's here to stay.

The cistus also fared well as expected, but their blooms all shriveled up and there's a lot of foliage and petal litter all over making them look messy. A few yellow leaves, but overall they are ok (I hope). My fear is that whatever water they received before the inferno was too much for them. Time will tell. Hebes also look fantastic and were given decent water before hand.

Also, I wonder if you noticed a theme with those plants that fared well. Many have silver foliage, a clue as to their origins (think Mediterranean or other hot places) and other West Coast native plants also fared very well. I'm pleased I have many of both represented in this garden.

Really just about everything else weathered the storm, from echinacea to stipa to armeria to asclepias to penstemon to chamaecyparis to hostas. I was lucky. FM watered well. We both watered well.

Finally to wrap it up a look at a few wider shots of the garden post-inferno. These bronze carex look nice, I thought the carex would all fry but they are in enough high overhead afternoon shade that they were spared.

A scene viewed last week too, the Santolina virens and S. 'Lemon Queen' both sailed through the heat with no issues. 

The "meadow" is also fine. There is such dense planting in there that no sun could possibly penetrate the ground. 

On a "normal" 85-degree day the garden feels pretty fresh.

And to wrap it up, after being pent up inside an air conditioned house for several days, Annie is happy to be playing in the thyme field.

And my birthday boys, FM and Hobbes. Hobbes' birthday was yesterday, the 7th, he's 16! My FM's birthday is today. Happy Birthday, FM! Thank you for all you do, we all love you to the moon and back!

And that's a wrap.

Time will tell the extent of damage that may be unseen right away. Trees might suffer in ways undetected by the human eye and whose damage may take months or even years to manifest. For now, what I observed is documented here.

What lessons did I learn? Nature always has the last word. During all of this, it felt silly to have a garden. It was freakishly hot. I know, places such as Arizona and Sacramento feel it regularly, but we don't. There is such a thing as being acclimatized. So what's next in the world of such extremes? I'm not one to baby every plant I have - that would be impossible. What I have to do is let go. I have to say "let the survivors stay" and move on. Otherwise, I could go crazy trying to protect agaves from winter storms and hydrangeas from summer heat. I don't want to have to protect my plants through the seasons, I want to enjoy the garden and my life. So. Watering a little? Sure. Moving pots out of the direct sun? Yes. But I think I'm learning to let things be.

Thank you for reading and commenting, we love hearing from you! Happy gardening everyone!