How is your garden coping in this heat?

[HammyHocky]

Just that really!

I have kept up an evening watering schedule and sometimes a bit of morning if the night has been warm and dry, but some things are still so sad and scorched! I am hoping once the weather calms down a bit some hard cut backs will help things to flourish again. I have lost a few things entirely which I’m gutted about, lupins for one, quite a few sweet williams, and a couple of herbs which I’m surprised about.

How is yours faring? What have you found is super resistant? Have you lost anything particularly special to you?

I wish my Japanese anenomes would spread! I cannot seem to get them to thrive.
Other than that mine is doing okay ( but is getting daily watering) I am gradually changing to more shrubs such as hibiscus, buddleia, lilac, cistus, shrub roses etc. I figure that shrubs, once mature, can root down to seek deeper moisture, so I'm picking ones with good colour.

I've rediscovered my love of gardening after several barren years so it's been a real labour of love nurturing the new plants. Geraniums and pelagoniums are very happy, petunias thriving too but the handkerchief size patch of green is burnt dry. Planning to dig it over and put it to clover in the autumn, so I hope that'll be more resilient.
Rose, honeysuckle and wisteria all flourishing
Hose pipe ban from next week.

No you don't. Once they get established they go nuts ...they will overshadow EVERYTHING and push through stones, paving slabs and slate steps.
They do well in big pots though.

Thanks for giving me hope.
it’s a lacecap that I’ve had for 4 years and done very well in its pot.
wont do anything until weather turns but will give it some TLC and repot as suggested

I'm in north west England and we've escaped the worst of the heatwaves. The lawn is still green though one area is about to turn purple when the invasive self-heal starts flowering. My feral antirrhinums (I let them self-seed every year) have been fabulous. I've struggled with sunflowers because it was so cold for so long but they've come to life now. Lupins, achillea, roses, hydrangeas and various other perennials are all bouncing and some scraps of ajuga I put in for ground cover on a difficult patch of soil are running riot. Unfortunately, it also seems to be a very good year for common willowherb and dock.

The only things I put in pots now are geraniums
nasturtiums. Lavender rosemary Mainly due to the many slugs and snails I usually suffer with but hardly any slugs this year. Silver lining I guess. But they are also very heat resistant. I have a fushia and a rose in a pot which looks fab. Loads of flowers and healthy leaves.

a few of my shrubs are wilting and scorched so I’m watering them every day The apples are not very big and some dropping already.

Hope you’re all watering your hydrangeas.
The clue is in the name - they are thirsty plants.

The good: salvia (weirdly, never thought it would take but is blooming), cherry tree sapling, tomatoes, nasturtiums

The mixed: corn, hydragenas, roses, sunflowers, peas, strawberries

The sad: cosmos, beans

very well established wisteria having a second lot of blossom and growing even more wildly than usual. Artificial grass under a weeping silver birch seems to be holding up ok

Most of our plants are in huge pots since we moved from our previous house with 0.5 acre garden to a paved courtyard with small planted borders two years ago. I've been watering daily, sometimes twice on an attempt to keep everything happy -

The wisteria is doing fine, as is the magnolia (planted in the border by us in late 2024) which for the first time has a second flush of buds! Lots of perennials are romping away, particularly the astrantias, acanthus, lavender and persicarias. The David Austins also seem to be enjoying it.

The large potted acer is crispy, same as other posters have reported - a combination of too much sun and wind here (south coast). We have s huge cornus China Girl in a 1m pot that looks very sorry for itself, but we were at a plant nursery at the weekend and theirs were similar, so not too worried. The verbena (a 5' galvanised trough full which lasted well into autumn last year) has finished flowering this week as has the previous owner's massive hypericum hidcote.

Hopefully in the autumn, much of the house interior will be finished so we can crack on with enlarging the borders and getting stuff into the ground!

Well at the moment, I am using far more water than I usually do because I've had to switch from using a hosepipe with a small directional nozzle to watering cans with a rose. With the hose I can water them all individually with no wastage but can't do that with the watering cans. The ground gets more water than what goes in the pots.
It is also physically knackering. I can't use my little indoors watering can with the narrow spout because it would take me all bloody day. Couldn't plan for the hosepipe ban and get a trickle watering system on a timer in, because we had less than 12 hours' notice.

200+ bonsai trees in small pots need a heck of a lot of water. 😕

My lawn is brown, acers shrivelled, fruit not developing further on step over apple, Japanese anenonmes shrivelled as are baby foxgloves and Astrantia and lavender in a pot. Rosemary in south facing front has completely died. Previous owner planted hydrangea there too which is really not good and neither are hydrangea in back. Peppers, aubergine and courgette struggling.

Established roses doing well, agapanthus, lavender and echinops. I’m replanting next year with more drought tolerant plants. We’re on sandy soil and it’s time for me accept that and plant according to that as I am not prepared to always be watering, only happy to use what we can collect and will look at increasing that this winter. We have an underground water collection tank and I pumped out nearly 2 water butts full today, it’s now empty.

I've checked my two Acers, they are both under a tree in large pots and although not crispy, they do get some full sun in the earlyish part of the morning before the tree shades them. I've watered them both every day to make sure they don't get too dry so I hope they will be ok. As they are quite big now, they would be really expensive to replace at the size they are.

Japanese Anemones tend to droop by the end of the afternoon so I am still giving them some water and a couple of plants that are fairly new, a blue Penstemon, Heavenly Blue and a purple one, Pensham Czar are also getting some water.

The pots still take most of the time though, having to give serious thought to how many I have around for next year.

Although I am not under a hose pipe ban, I will still continue with the watering cans, I'm looking on it as a bit of exercise lugging them up and down the garden.

Every cloud and all that 😄

My sweet peas have given up. Most things are looking quite beleaguered apart from a large hydrangea bed. This has a drip irrigation system and I’ve just checked the hosepipe ban and we are allowed to keep using it. So I’m pleased about that. The lawn is almost completely brown.

Also just remembered all the apple trees are just jettisoning their fruit. Brown lawn is covered in shrivelled apples.

The blackberries are ripe already, which is concerning, but my god are they sweet. They’re the best I’ve ever tasted.

Dephiniums and hostas have been "slugged". 😡

Some hanging baskets have dried out - despite daily watering, so the contents have been binned.

Lawns are looking sad. 😢

Catmint, salvia and montbretia doing well. 🙂

Not many weeds.

The grass is pretending to be dead.

I mulch very heavily, and I an now watering individual plants that look like they need it, and seedlings. Mostly with a watering can, in the evenings when the sun is going down. I quite like scraping a crater where the water can collect and soak down, rather than sprinkling it on the surface.

My parsley in a pot seems to be dying, I don't know why.

There seem to be very few biting insects this year.

I agree. They are a menace.

We’re in the South East and it’s still boiling.
Plants suffering this summer include 2 x acers. The one in the pot is actually fairing better than the 20 year old established one in the bed. The pots are all looking a bit pathetic.
Hardly any lemons this year and not a single apple. It has outgrown its pot, so not surprising.

Things thriving include olive trees, vines - loads of grapes this year, fig tree - probably a good 50 fruits, lavender ( in the ground - pot grown ones are dead) and the wisteria, which is on its 2nd flowering. The star jasmine has been amazing and the scent is fantastic. Unfortunately, it is now dropping its flowers, which makes the garden look untidy.

The grass has given up.

We are on a hose pipe ban and the water butts are already low. Seeper hose on the borders.

Its doing surprisingly well - we've just been on holiday for 2 weeks during which time it didn't rain at all and came back and its all alive. Been out there today watering it and clearing leaves. Lawn has gone slightly brown in places but that will revive.

It's a type of creeping plant that attaches itself to your clothes - that's how it spreads it's seeds.

It's also called "Goosegrass" I believe.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/43619751@N06/46969004415/

Mine’s loving it. We have a drip hose system and a lot of Mediterranean type plants. The acer is fine, it’s on an E facing wall and fairly short so not in direct sun a lot. The amelanchier looks a tiny bit scorched from the first heatwave but is fine. The olive is very happy. The fig tree is going nuts and producing figs the size of my hand!

I have lost a couple of newish plants but more due to being out competed by other things than the heat.

Lawn is plastic so looks perfect <runs away>

@minipie I’m so envious! I moved last year to a house with a huge fig tree and last year and this year it had millions of figs which all promptly fell off before they ripened. I need your secret!

One of my hydrangeas actually looked sad yesterday, even though it’s been watered every day.

Honestly it’s never done it before and I haven’t done anything particularly to it apart from a fairly severe pruning earlier in the year. I think it’s the heatwave plus reliable water maybe (the drip hoses)?