Goodness gracious! Where are you located, if I might be so nosey! Or not, if it bothers you--: ). I've never heard of such hot temps on May 2!

Good luck with your roses.

Kate

Holy moly...Our roses barely have budded leaves and its May. Yours are burning up :-/ gee

That's what it's been all over Southern California all week, Kate. It's our version of your "Polar Vortex". It has been flat out MISERABLE. In this heat, it's all you can do just to keep the blamed plants alive. Even shaded, with moisture control soil, all pots are requiring daily watering and they still wilt. Kim

Henryinct I'm in So Cal too. It hasn't been quite as hot where I am but my a/c is going almost non-stop.

If you are able to water deeply your roses will be ok. I have trenches around each of my roses. I'm able to fill them with two to three gallons of water.

My roses have been blooming since February.

I'm wondering what summer will be like. It was cold at the beaches with June gloom until mid-August.

It's a pain, but a few years ago I went out and bought a bunch of patio umbrellas and bases that I can move around as I like. When this weather comes up, I pop them up so the roses get a break from the sun during the day. When the weather gets better, I relocate them back to the garage. I'm a little closer to the ocean so, our temps weren't as high (yet), but it's still scorching weather out there. All my sweet little spring flush are brown.

Since those temps (and accompanying problems) are not uncommon here in the middle of the country during July and August, I know what you mean about sometimes not even being able to get enough moisture to your plants (I like the movable umbrella idea, however), but I just never heard of such problems in springtime!

You have my sympathies--and wishes for sturdy air-conditioners!

Kate

Oh to have an air-conditioner......

Our plants look okay, it is just the blooms that are crispy. The low humidity is an issue along with the winds

They're not uncommon here in many areas in summer either, Kate. We often have them during "fire season". Unfortunately, "fire season" is an increasingly greater portion of the year, beginning earlier and earlier and lasting longer, as are these conditions. A/C is a must inland! Being able to afford to run it like we used to is also an increasing issue. Kim

This is ridiculous. You guys are baking and I'm still shivering in gloomy 40/50 degrees and drizzle. We're still having night time temps down in the 30s. We're between 10 and 20 degrees below normal. We should all be at our most moderate and comfortable time of the year right now. Now they're saying there is still too much ice on the big lakes and we're going to have a cold summer too. ARRRRGH!!!!!

My roses are simply refusing to grow because it's too cold and gray. Out of 134 roses I only have leaves on 10! Everything else hasn't even begun to bud out. By this time I usually already have some buds starting to form for the June bloom! It's going to be a wimpy spring flush.

Welcome to what, I'm afraid might be the new "norm". Hotter and drier in some places; more "sub Arctic" in others. Things have DEFINITELY changed and not for the better. Scary stuff. Kim

That said, I did a a walk around this morning to cut everything that wasn't already fried so I could enjoy them in the house. I'm pretty sure that poor old Grandpa Dickson is done for, poor fellow.

Ended up with a couple nice bouquets.

More refugees from the heat

Kim is right, it is scary, and it's happening all over the world. As gardeners in many areas the expected just isn't happening and here it's 96 again although it was supposed to "cool down" to 92 today. Some of my blooms just disintegrate when I touch them since the humidity has been very low and we've had hot winds. It makes me wonder what it will be like 5 years from now. The "spring flush" might just be a fond memory by then, although I dearly hope that I'm wrong.

Ingrid

Feel for ya. In 2011 we had temps over 100 by April (which lasted for months) and that was a very hot, dry year overall. A few weak roses died on me, but nothing really unexpected or devastating. The fall flush ended up being really nice.

The heat is killing my roses lol.
More than that the dry wind we've been having.
It's sucking the life out of my roses.

I feel you. If only to have an ac. If only for three months.

Portable A/C units are at HD and Lowes. They don't require water and you can move them from room to room. Several years ago I lived in a town house and had one downstairs and one upstairs. I was able to set them up by myself. They were well worth the investment. At the time they were around $900 each. They're down to around $400 each. They're much nicer than what used to be called swamp pumps.

Most of my roses are OK but my hydrangeas are fried.

This heat sure is hard on a newbie trying to raise newbie roses. I watered my Blue for You rosebush just two days ago. But it lost all but four leaves and most of the new leaf buds are fried. I'm wondering if I should dig up this plant, put it in a pot and take it to some shade. I got it last October from Chamblees.

Can you' put up a little teepee instead? It's cooler where I am today (west adams); hope it spreads.

Jasminerose4u Are you feeding your rose with fertilizer? Depending on how long you've had it planted, it should be larger by now. Normally it should be blooming by now and I would not transplant it until late December or January.

I would dig a small trench around it so you can water it much deeper than you can the way it is.

I live in the Southbay area of SoCal and it is a little cooler today.

I'll try to McGyver something. It was still 94 degrees today, but should get cooler tomorrow.

I'd shade it during the day.
In the hottest afternoon bits I shade my new roses and give them a drink.

Doing much better than the ones I didn't do that for last year lol.

Here's some rescues.
Thankfully my big flush was mostly before the heat..
Mr. Darby was very late and his petals do not appreciate the dry heat.

Good thing they make wonderful cutting roses. Smells divine.

I'd shade it during the day.
In the hottest afternoon bits I shade my new roses and give them a drink.

Doing much better than the ones I didn't do that for last year lol.

Here's some rescues.
Thankfully my big flush was mostly before the heat..
Mr. Darby was very late and his petals do not appreciate the dry heat.

Good thing they make wonderful cutting roses. Smells divine.

{{!gwi}}

These are all problems I never really had in Connecticut. This intense heat has occurred after the roses have passed the first bloom and the new growth is well underway and much of that has been destroyed. I did some pruning so the HT garden doesn't look too good but the floribunda garden still looks pretty good I think because there is a lot of shade in the front of the house where that garden is. Watering is an issue that I never had before. The roses are only in their second year here in Pasadena and the root systems are not well developed enough and although the top growth is huge it is going to get a lot bigger and then what am I going to do? I have carefully checked moisture level and it seems that no matter how much I water it is hard to keep them above barely moist.

Welcome to inland valley, Southern California, Henry. We live in an oven, literally, and it's not even really HOT yet. There are another five (at least) months yet to go before any real relief, IF there is any coming. You quickly learn here that "full sun" is to be avoided whenever possible. Four to six hours of direct sun is about what most types can endure and flourish. Much more than that and surivial becomes the issue. Planting in close proximity to any hard scape is also to be avoided whenever possible. Borders of roses, perennials and flowering shrubs are gorgeous and accomplishable elsewhere, but not where the heat is extreme and continuous. There can easily be a thirty-plus degree heat increase within just a few feet of walls, patios, walks and drives and that increased heat can last for many hours after the sun has moved from shining directly on those surfaces. It literally cooks the plants as surely as planting them in clay and glazed ceramic pots will. Even with deep mulch, good soil and appropriate water, well established plants can (and frequently do) wilt as though something has damaged their roots. Canes scald and Flat Head Apple Borers attack, frequently killing the plants. The best goal is for as heavy, dense a foliage cover as possible to shade the plants' canes and shade the soil. Those can be very difficult issues for anyone who hasn't dealt with them to understand. Kim

Henry, are you mulching your roses deeply? That's the best way to keep the soil moist for much longer. Without that you'll always have problems raising roses in your area.

Kim, you're describing my situation exactly. There is nowhere to plant here that does not have extensive hardscaping, not to mention the heat radiating off the huge boulders around the house and garden. I'm continually surprised that I have a rose garden at all, especially since afternoon shade is scarce here. It's only by constant watering that I can keep the status quo going, and if we ever have severe water rationing my garden will be gone very quickly.

Ingrid

Ingrid, I planted in horrible soil that was amended and mulched but the garden is surrounded by concrete. When we got here it was a construction site, No topsoil and nothing growing with no watering system. Much of the backyard is covered by concrete and the pool. Hopefully the situation will get better as the soil improves.

Deep watering and mulch, mulch, mulch.

Lynn

Mom was surprised at how damp the soil was in the veggie garden where I was working today. Just drip. Once the plants come up tall enough we can use hay in the veggies.

It is amazing what a thick layer of mulch can do. The big roses probably got less than a gallon of water in the heat wave and did not seem to wilt, the blooms fried but the plants look good