Draught has spurred all-out plant-rescue mission

You know those signs that hang in factories that say “It has been X days without an accident?”  I’m considering getting something similar, except mine will read “It has been X days without a plant death.”

If such a sign existed that X would be pegged at zero for about the last week or so. The unlikely combination of record high temperatures just a week after a late season frost warning and a drought has been deadly for plants and discouraging for gardeners.

In my garden, plants have been crisping up before my eyes. A tray of beautiful Profusion Double Deep Salmon zinnias that I had started from seed and planned to plant en masse around the patio was great one day and all but six were dead the next, despite daily watering. The fact is, I should have been watering those small pots twice a day.

And there’s the Catch-22: If you spend all your time watering, you won’t have time to plant, but if you plant instead of water, you’ll have only dead plants to put in the ground.

 In some cases it has become a full-on rescue mission.

Severely dry container plants become hydrophobic, and the only cure is full immersion into a bucket of water. Hold them under until air bubbles stop and then you can continue watering as usual because the soil will go back to being able to absorb water. I spent an entire hour soaking dried-out annuals in 4-inch pots one day, but I have no doubt it saved them.

I’ve resorted to giving plants another dunk in a bucket right before I plant them because there’s so little moisture in the soil or in pots to tide them over until I get back to them with a hose.

I’ve also been cutting back a lot of annuals as I plant them. When it is so dry it’s difficult for plants to support a lot of foliage, so you’re better off cutting them back by up to a half. This will give them a chance to get situated, and they will flush again out in a couple weeks.

I’m a believer in growing perennials and shrubs “hard,” which means that I water them deeply on a regular basis to get them established (usually for the first season).

After that they are on their own. For the most part, even as the annuals I still have in pots are perishing at record rates, perennials are hanging in there. I picture their roots going deep into the soil looking for water. Most are surviving, but signs of stress are already showing.

I always hesitate to complain about the lack of rain in our area when so many other places have been in a state of sustained drought for years, but gardeners are professionals when it comes to commenting on the weather.

So my comment is this: We could use a little rain, but until that comes you can find me trying hard not to kill more plants.