With the temperatures soaring to over eighty degrees (27°C) urgent action was called for to prevent damage to susceptible plants. (Eighty degrees is hot for this part of the world)
My remaining two Bonsai trees were moved into the shade at the back of the house. All my other Bonsai trees were taken to the local garden centre two weeks ago, and were sold before I had them all unloaded from the van. This is part of my clearout plan to make more room in the garden and maybe put up another alpine house.
Saxifragas that were potted in April had to be quickly moved into the shade, as they do not tolerate full sun at this time of the year. You know the old saying that you learn by your mistakes; well I have lost numerous Saxifragas by planting them in the south facing scree beds. They would usually survive for a couple of years and then we would get a good summer, the result was scorched plants, which did not usually recover. So now all the saxifrages are kept to the north facing area at the back of the house, where they get sun for the afternoon only. If it is very hot I move them close to the house where they do not get sun until six o'clock in the evening.
I have some of the new plants from the Czech Republic with funny names such as, Your smile and Your Kiss. They will sound strange when translated into Latin. . In the Alpine house the extractor and circulating fans had to be left on day and night to keep the air moving around the Dionysias and Cushion Androsaces and stop them from overheating. The Lewesias seem to enjoy the extra heat and are producing lots of new flowers. They are growing much better now since I moved them into plastic pots. I haven't quite figured out yet why they prefer plastic. It may have been that they were too wet in the crockery pots plunged in sand, as they seem to prefer to dry out completely in the summer, between each watering.
The cuttings of my new hybrids that were put into the sand plunge on the bench have now rooted, but I will not pot them on until the weather gets a little cooler.
