Ten o'clock and 102 degrees

June 4, 2016

We knew our unusually long and cool spring was too good to last. Summer's here, and with a vengeance. Yesterday our backyard thermometer sensor, which is in the shade in a protected area on our back porch, hit 109 degrees. I spent the afternoon moving around the hose to provide additional water to our newest trees. Other than trying to keep things alive and harvest what's already set fruit, I mostly abandon gardening in summer and let zinnias take over. They are pretty and don't mind the heat.

Protecting peaches

Our Mid-Pride tree is full of nearly-ripe peaches. We neglected to thin this one as much as we did for the Desert Gold tree, but the peaches are actually larger. Go figure. This year, we're trying something new:using tulle bags (the kind used for wedding favors)  in an attempt to protect the ripening peaches from the birds. This was a suggestion from someone in a gardening Facebook group.which I've found to be very helpful.

Plumeria

There are still a few blooms on this yellow plumeria, which lives in a large pot on our side patio and is partially shaded by a pergola. The other one hasn't bloomed yet, and may not. These two are the only survivors of an unexpected early frost a few years ago that arrived while we were out of town and unable to move them into the garage as we usually do when there are frost warnings.

Petunias and sweet potatoes

Portulaca and sweet potatoes

I put together a second stacked-pot planter on the other side of the patio doors, this time using heat-loving portulaca rather than petunias. Sweet potatoes also love the heat, and are easy to propagate. I just use cuttings taken from vines, strip off the bottom couple of leaves, and stick the stem in the soil. As long as the soil is kept moist, they have no trouble rooting and taking off on their own. Mike created a drip irrigation system for them by drilling holes in each pot, and putting a circle of drip tubing in the planting area of each one.

Yard long beans and a volunteer tomato

Zinnias

Plumeria- lots of leaves but no flowers.

We lost several of our plumerias last year due to frost damage. This one in particular had grown too tall to be transported into the garage, and the frost warnings weren't that severe. It lost about half its height and came back later than usual in the spring, but has leafed out nicely and really looks better than it did when it was bigger. Unfortunately, it hasn't bloomed yet and I expect it probably won't before it goes dormant for the winter.

So if you want to see our plumeria flowering, you'll have to go here and here.

A little bit of Hawaii in Arizona

Beginning when our children were in preschool, we started taking summer road trips, and by the time they were in high school, we had visited all 48 contiguous U.S. states. We didn't make it to Alaska and Hawaii until they were in college, and I will never forget the fragrances that greeted my nose when we first got off the plane in Maui. During our week there, I took great delight in learning about the flowers that contributed to those fragrances, one of which is plumeria, also known as frangipani.  Plumeria is often used to make leis, and to me, it smells like Hawaii.

We tried bringing back some cuttings, but were unsuccessful in rooting them. Several years later, our local Lowe's started selling small plants, and so far, we've managed to keep them alive. We have four plants in three different colors, and keep them in big pots in an area that receives partial shade during the hottest part of the day. We move the pots into the garage whenever their is danger of frost, which doesn't bother them since they drop their leaves and go dormant in the winter anyway. They start putting out leaves in late spring, followed by clusters of fragrant blossoms like these.

It may smell like Hawaii in this part of our backyard, but the heat tells another story. It's supposed to hit 117 degrees this week...ugh!

Plumeria

This is the first time this plumeria has bloomed, and I was delighted to see that it was yellow as we also have the white and pink varieties. We bought them at Lowe's several years ago, and the colors weren't labeled. I love their fragrance...they smell like Hawaii!

Plumeria do surprisingly well here, but we can't grow them in the ground. We keep them in big pots that can be wheeled into the garage whenever there's a frost warning.

Backyard wanderings and musings

Enjoyed my backyard walk today, although I'm feeling rather morose in general about many things. Lots of zinnias coming up in the raised beds; most other things unrecognizable. Spent some time deadheading marigolds and snapdragons and scattering their seeds, in hopes that they will grow.

Roses are in full glory now; mostly Queen Elizabeth and Iceberg. The Black Cherry looks really good; Mr. Lincoln and Peace aren't doing much yet. Won't be long before the heat gets them, though.

Speaking of full glory, the invasive Mexican primroses look wonderful now. This includes the ones in the lawn and growing up the hibiscus, thevitia, and other places they do not belong. Too bad they won't (a) stay where I put them and (b) bloom for more than a few weeks in the year.

Grapevines over the arbor trellis may actually make it into an arbor this year. We're trying to prune the older ones, on the fence behind the lemon tree in hopes of actually getting edible fruit this year.

Hollyhocks are blooming; mostly yellow, some tinged with pink. No Punnet square representation here. I guess if I want red ones again I need to purchase new seed.

Romaine lettuce is still edible; everything else has gone to seed. We've picked a few strawberries, mostly from the hanging basket thing...those in the ground have been eaten by various nonvertebrate species. Peaches are golf ball size and although we aggressively thinned this year, probably too many for the tree. Apricots and nectarines are much smaller; a little more than marble sized for the most part. There are some mystery plants growing in the vegetable garden area that I haven't identified as yet.

One of the plumeria looks like it may actually put forth leaves. The other one has a dead-looking top that I cut off, hoping to inspire growth on some of the lower nodes. There are blossoms (I think) on the avocado tree that we are trying this year. The Carolina Jessamine I cut back is vigorously regrowing; that was obviously the correct thing to do and I should attack the others when I get the time and energy to do so.