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Recently I have been dreaming of ‘raindrops on roses’ and remembering how pretty the little water droplets look on the leaves of a lady’s mantle or a smoke bush.
My hope is that by the time you read this ‘In Bloom’ there will be things in bloom again due to lovely refreshing rains that will have soaked the earth and brought new growth to our much loved plants. In reality the weather patterns look like they have set up for a summer of thunderstorms that skirt around and drop their moisture at someone else’s house. Those of us who garden in the Mid-Atlantic have had enough of living in the dust bowl that used to be our gardens.
What should we be doing as gardeners? The first thing is not to panic. Most of the plants will come back from the roots — they just might not be as pretty as they were before. Grass and well established plants should survive. Do not go round and pull everything out, as the roots may still be alive and new growth comes from the energy that is left in the root mass.
What you do need to do is be observant. Walk around your garden early in the morning and late at night and see what looks the worst! Concentrate your effort on those plants. Longer watering on a few things each morning and a few other things at night will be much more beneficial than watering everything lightly. The soil is so dry (in contrast to last year where even the mulch washed away) that it takes a long slow drink to reach the deep roots. Sprinkling the soil surface just allows the water to evaporate.
What are the signs of plant distress to look for? The first is flagging of leaves. You will actually notice this more from a distance. You look at a tree or a shrub and will see the leaves hanging down more than usual and the leaves might be a different color.
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| Silphium perfoliatum, a prairie plant native from Michigan to Texas, is winning drought tolerant plant. |
I was walking past an old dogwood last night and the leaves started to drop- always a bad sign in July. That is when you go into emergency mode and get a slow hose on it for a couple of hours and then again the next day. Hang the hose carefully over a lower limb, make sure that the water is not running off, move the hose to another branch after an hour.
Another sign of drought stress is browning of the tips of leaves. Look carefully at evergreens and the tips of their needles. Look carefully at members of the rose family, such as cherries, and see if they seem to be browning. Again, a long slow drink is needed.
Times to water, as I am sure you know, are early or late in the day. One key is not to get the foliage wet when the sun is on it. There is a sort of magnifying glass effect that turns each water droplet into a laser beam that fries brown spots in the leaves. Even plants like thyme cannot be watered in the sun.
My neighbor the other day was out watering her roses in the middle of the day and she said that although she knew that she shouldn't be doing it then she thought it might be life or death. Obviously in that situation water if you feel that it really needs it.
What plants have suffered most? Who thought that anything would kill Pachysandra! Maybe that is a good thing. Anything that was planted this year is having a hard time and needs special attention.
Hydrangeas are always one of the first to obviously droop. Annuals from transplants are faring worse than annuals that were self-sown or direct planted. Some of the perennials such as Phlox seem to be dropping their lower leaves and turning brown but
others such as Rudbeckia have not been watered at all and
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| Drooping hydrangeas are a sure sign of a too dry summer. |
are fine. Many of the Prairie plants, such as one of my favorites Silphium perfoliatum (Cup plant), which grows to ten feet (it grew to twelve feet last summer with all the rain), is doing very well in dry conditions.
What have I learned from yet another gardening trial? I have learned that the garden that I planted six years ago as a dry garden that is not watered still looks fabulous. I don’t want to be too much of a gloater but I love that garden. It has gravel mulch and contains plants that are drought tolerant.
So as you stand outside with the hose when you would rather be inside in the air conditioning watching the Phillies lose again, treat it, like so many other moments in the garden, as an opportunity to marvel at the vagaries of nature and the fact that we do not control it. It somehow makes me less panicked as there is nothing that we can do about the
drought but wait for a change in the weather.
Take a little joy in small details of nature and watch the driblets of water find the channels in the Hosta leaf that lead directly to their roots, and then go inside and watch the Phils and get annoyed about that instead.
If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me at arboretum@temple.edu.
Cheers,
Jenny Rose Carey
Director
Ambler Arboretum of Temple University
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