Here, Oklahoma is OK. Everything else is getting sunscalded blooms. The plants are fine but the blooms look wretched.

The PLANTS are doing just fine. It's the flowers which take the brunt of the abuse. The only rose flowers which are looking good are those which receive partial shade for some period during the day. April Mooncrest in full sun is definitely not happy.
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Give it a bit of relief from the direct sun and it's a happy rose.
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The plant is definitely enjoying the weather. It's pushing out flowering canes like this in all directions.
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These look this good because something provides some protection from the blazing sun.

Golden Angel X R. Californica nana
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But, little looks as expected with the intensity and duration of this heat and sun. Had I based my desire for Blue for You on it looking like this, it wouldn't be in my garden. And, this is IN partial shade from the worst of the conditions.
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The flowers which are resisting destruction best in more hot sun are those with smaller, lighter colored petals.

Morey's Pink
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Pookah
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Doc

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Of course, the "color" laughing best at this heat and sun have nothing to do with roses. Leucophyllum ADORES this.
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As do Caesalpinia...
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Pavonia
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Romneya
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As are the lantana, salvias, russellias, hibiscus, crepe myrtles, pelargoniums and our ubiquitous bougainvillea. Kim

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It is amazing to see the plants that LIKE the heat. Hard for me to understand since I hate the heat. Kim, you've pretty much named them. Lantana, bougainvilla, Caesalpinia, oleanders, and the others you mentioned.

My roses, not so much.

I'll tell you who's NOT laughing at the the heat...me! Today it was at least 109 officially, but here in the foothills, it reached 113. Just a few minutes ago, at almost nine, it was 107 while I was out hand watering. I'm too old for these weather shenanigans.
Kim, your flowers and plants are just beautiful and certainly are standing up well in this horrid heat. My plants are all doing well, too, but it takes a lot of work by my wonderful drip system to keep everything going since we get very little rain ever. Thanks for posting these refreshing photos. Diane

Fantastic photos Kim and it's good to see the ups and downs of gardening in your extreme desert conditions (though even your "sad" rose pictures look pretty impressive). You ought to post pictures more often, to go along with your excellent rose Master advice!

Cynthia

Thank you, Cynthia! I'm actually savannah conditions. Steve in the AV is REAL 'desert', though the gardens I service in the Santa Clarita Valley (between my valley and Steve's) is not quite as extreme 'desert' as his. I'm 'blessed' with enough coastal influence to prevent hard frosts, so I can grow the more tender, drier tropical types. In some areas of my valley, bougainvillea freezes. It also freezes in Santa Clarita and would be an annual in the Antelope Valley. Hibiscus of all types are weeds on my savannah hill. Hot enough to make them explode; dry enough to prevent the insect issues that plague them elsewhere. The only thing missing is enough rain to make things really take off. That requires the hose. But, thankfully, when the roses stress and hunker down to endure the heat, the others above push like mad.

These are also pushing to provide color. Nature does them right. Their flowers are only expected to last one day each, so each morning, there are new ones to replace yesterday's faded surprises. Kim

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Dalechampia, with flowers about a third normal size. It's in the area where I fear armillaria might be starting.
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Golden Horizon with lantana.
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Blue Emu Bush
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Trimezia
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Neomerica (Walking Iris)
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Salvia
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Russellia
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Even artichokes...I wish I LIKED them.

Roseseek, you just had to make me jealous didn't you? Those Hibiscus are gorgeous.
Your Morey's Pink is a looker too! Glad they are doing well for you despite this heat wave (we consider 90 a heat wave in PNW)

Thank you, frenchcuffs. You know, hibiscus are actually easier to root than roses and can make excellent house plants. There are Scandinavian and Northern European members on the hibiscus lists I read who grow many as indoor potted plants. I have to prune them as I have to prune roses and mailing hibiscus cuttings isn't any different than mailing roses. Please let me know if you'd like to try! Kim

too mean, Kim. If you had any idea how long I have laboured over leucophyllum, pavonia and romneya (you can keep the bougainvilleas though). Thankfully, the many shrubby salvias seem OK and well able to withstand the dodgy english winters (must be my rubbishy sandy soil).

Not "mean" at all, Camp! Do you know how often I've seen the glorious photos of amazing perennial beds in Britain and longed for something like that outside my windows? The ONLY way that would work here is to move there. The plants I've shown are what will grow here with the budgeted water, time and energy without frying and requiring constant replacement. You deal with soggy soil. I deal with dust, fire, wind, aridity, gophers, rabbits, moles, squirrels, snakes, rats and the resulting coyotes who are totally opportunistic using anything available to hide in and under. A nicely "thifty" perennial for you will either be completely invasive or a total life support candidate here. I understand the desire to grow leucophyllum, etc., believe me. I love campanula in almost all forms. So do my brown snails and slugs. Hosta are beautiful "exotics" as are peonies. They are completely unhappy here and IF you can get them to limp along a little while, it's only by applying copious ice around them to cool things off, make them wet enough until the snails and slugs, rabbits and gophers munch them for a late night snack.

I would love being able to grow a rambling rose across the front of the house. I CAN get them up there, but they have to be continually blown out with the hose to replace the never present rain to clean out the debris, hydrate them and prevent critters from nesting in them. Add the Los Angeles Fire Department which doesn't want them there as they make it harder to prevent the house from burning, and you can see the issues. In this exposure, the north side is the only one which won't cook them regularly. The other three bake much of the year. And, this really isn't the "extreme" compared to just a few miles (and more) away. Kim

Roseseek, what a great job of working with what you can. In Las Vegas I have learned to accept the limitations bestowed upon my garden by the climate and work with what I can. It often required some creativity and adjustments. My purple bougainvillea died back last winter due to the cold:( it really struggles here due to the winters.

I agree with Jaspermplants...lantana.... That plant loves the heat....it did not faint when it hit 120 here on Saturday and it receives 8 hours of late morning to late afternoon sun. Blue plumbago instead of hydrangea, yellow bells, daylilies, oleanders, agapanthus....but fortunately there are some heat hardy roses too:) Another extremely heat tolerant plant is the fern leaf lavender. It is in full sun, grows as fast as weeds and flowered last year until the temperatures hit 28-30 degrees in December or January.

Thanks desertgarden. Today was a bit less severe sun-wise, so the leucophyllum photographed better. This is with nothing other than hose water and the "finally useful cat" planted under it. All kidding aside, the cat is buried under this plant. It will continue flowering like this as long as the temps remain high and it receives SOME water. It's a Texas native, so you know it MUST be tough. Kim

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Here is Oklahoma, sitting on the edge of a gravel driveway that gets all day sun, apparently happy as a clam in spite of the 100+ weather we've had here for over a week. That big cluster of flowers in front is a new cane that must have had a dozen flowers at the tip! It's not as red as it usually is, it's a lot more pink, but it's still beautiful!