I live in a declared Disaster Area!!!!
 

Well, My state in the USA was officially declared a disaster zone, every single inch of it, due to severe drought and extreme temps (over 100 for almost 3 weeks straight now). No relief in sight.

That being said, I did move a few orchids inside, but sadly I lost 2 (one to heat I believe, and the other to a GD squirrel or other animal).

Other than that, only 3 plants have died in my "vast" garden. It's vast only if you understand how small out yards are here in the city, lol...

I think all in all, Things could have been worse this far...

It has been a hot summer. I thought we'd set some records here but seems as if 1988 and some years in the 1930's were even hotter. Hope it cools down for you. Our town is set in the middle of an agricultural area and the corn, wheat, and soybeans look pretty bad.

OMG!!! I'm feel so bad for those farmers!

Yeah, no relief in sight here. Im watering the yard, every inch, twice daily just to keep things from dying. Not sure how the orchids are doing, but they seem fine this far, minus the 3 previously mentioned, lol...

Our county is also considered a disaster area. Most of the corn has had it. We gave up on the yard and have concentrated on a couple of the flower beds and the veggie garden. We finally got a bit of rain this evening. Too little too late, but we will take what we can get.

So sorry to hear that, but I understand.

WOW...I am sorry to hear about the heat wave....
We have thunderstorm in Manhattan at the moment, we will have rains Friday and Saturday according to forecast....overall we have 78F to 82F averaging this week...and we are supposed to have 105F heat by this time of year....and it is very humid; its like we are breathing water

The weather has definitely been odd. Our summers are usually very warm.

But this year it has been rather relatively cool. Go figure.

You guys are STILL having the heatwave?? wow. That's pretty bad. Since they stopped talking about it on the news here I figured it was over. In some parts of France, they declared natural disaster areas because of... too much rain! Crops are rotting, the ground is totally saturated. The summer has been unusually cool and wet, I'm still in long sleeved shirts and sweaters. No matter what people say, climate change is upon on us. The weather has been crazy crazy the past few years.

I know, it's so odd how the weather has been.

We actually had 3 fires this week in St. Louis. 1 from a cigarette that caught the dry grass on fire and swept over a block before they stopped it, one from hay and mulch that got so hot it ignited, and a rooftop that caught fire and burned down an apartment complex. Yeah, it's bad!

We've had the worst summer. Rain, rain, and more rain, and abnormally cool temperatures - just like Camille.

Yesterday we went food shopping and this was on a sign in the fresh veg section:

'Due to a weather related delay in the commencement of the irish season, broccoli is now currently in short supply.'

Translation: the weather is rubbish.

We have been having 90's and 100's for a month. We have broken 7 record high temps this month alone! Climate change indeed!

We can apply so many tips to keep moisture the plants.
1. keep water trays around the orchids.
2. hang soaked sheets around the plants.
3. I always mulch out with long coconuts palms or dried leaves that can hold moisture for at least two days.
4. I got a tip from this our own Orchid-board threads that they soak the entire pot for few hours to maintain moist.
5. Water the entire area with water and soak the ground too. And water with garden hose pipe.
over grown canopy will help too by giving shelter.

Thanks for the tips!! I found it amusing that I do some of those just by instinct, lol... Guess I might have be a natural at this after all!

If you guys could all concentrate really hard, I'm sure you might convince the rain to head out way!!! ROFL!!!

I heard that parts of the Missouri river are so low now that barges can't even get through to dock. Can anyone say "prices are going to skyrocket?!"

We had rain! We are to get more! We have normal summer weather predicted now!
I hope the large air/water current patterns are not permanently changing (or entering a long term change). This could mess everything up.

I live in a declared Disaster Area!!!!
 

We had our turn at this (the drought) last year. Very hot, no rain for weeks on end. This year we are ahead of the normal rainfall for this season. So, I know and sympathize with those of you who are suffering from lack of rain. I lost some orchids due to the heat last year so I will not replace those particular ones because who knows when we will have a repeat.
Our fun and games will come at the end of August and beginning of September-hurricane time :-(
Beverly A.

I have given up on normal summers. I am not going to replace my aerangis citrata. Two years in a row, I lost thriving citratas to the heat. Aerangis ellissi has no such problem. Maybe I will get a different aerangis that, like ellissi, is more tolerant of heat (I love them when they bloom).

We had some relief today, temps were only about 92f. But back to over 100 tomorrow with no more relief in sight... Sigh....