Hardy Tropicals UK

miketropic wrote:I really shouldn't have asked for the rain...now its forcasted for the next 10 days ...

Andrew Leonard, down in Charlotte, NC, said he had thunderstorms last night, and 10 inches of rain fell in the evening. I've 8.05inches all year

Well most of the day its been windy and warm so I have actually had to water the garden even after al the rain that fell here yesterday.

In Germany we are not desperate for rain. Our ground water is so high and our rain tanks are now at 3m 20cm and we had to dig out the ground further back in the garden yesterday to put another 7,000 litter tank in.... Water is flowing back towards the house and sits 18cm in the downspouts. Sand lies at 22m deep and its not draining away.

Still dry and sunny here in Southampton but at least the exotics in this City are all doing well.

But due mainly to the last 3 sunless summers I have noticed a few casualties.

These are mainly the few Albizzias and even fewer Campsis plants.

Most of these have either carked it or performed really badly and this was not due to the cold winters either.

These plants seem to need about 1.600 hours plus sun a year to flower well and that is probably the reason they have done so poorly down here lately.

billdango

Albizzia is just a foliage plant here, but I think it's good enough as a foliage plant.

Warmish day at 22.5C and mainly sunny. Caused a real big problem with plants wilting all over the place. I have been trying not to water whole beds, instead watering individual plants, but I suspect that the dry bed surrounding the plants I'm watering are just sucking the water away Plants I watered yesterday were wilted by today.

Even the weeds are wilting. Spent around 4 hours emergency watering today and it's starting to affect my schedule

Was going to tackle the Nettles today, but looks like they are suffering.

Unbelievable scenes Dave! I have nettle seedlings cropping up allover as some neighbours grow them. We had a real soaking thursday and friday which I don’t mind as if we get the promised drier warmer spell, then things will romp away without the need for much watering.

it is still raining and hasent stopped all day..some heavy and some not so much at times..we are forcasted for rain 10 days in a row with highs around 30C each day..we will see when the rain stops how well the plants will do. seems the bananas are putting out rollers every few days from all this.

Dave have you thought about irrigation pipes to manoeuvre about and drip feed the beds?

kohwoz wrote:In Germany we are not desperate for rain. Our ground water is so high and our rain tanks are now at 3m 20cm and we had to dig out the ground further back in the garden yesterday to put another 7,000 litter tank in.... Water is flowing back towards the house and sits 18cm in the downspouts. Sand lies at 22m deep and its not draining away.

is that the new house, are you moved in now?

sunny right now but they are saying around 2 pm we can expect 1.00" up to 2.5" of rain JUST FOR TODAY!..I should have kept my mouth shut

Yours must be hard work with so many plants how do you keep up Dave My gardens small so i can water stuff

cordyman wrote:Dave have you thought about irrigation pipes to manoeuvre about and drip feed the beds?

kohwoz wrote:In Germany we are not desperate for rain. Our ground water is so high and our rain tanks are now at 3m 20cm and we had to dig out the ground further back in the garden yesterday to put another 7,000 litter tank in.... Water is flowing back towards the house and sits 18cm in the downspouts. Sand lies at 22m deep and its not draining away.

is that the new house, are you moved in now?

Moved in since end of sept last year. Still doing the garden and terrace... Not much time to plant anything. I'll update my thread soon. Only stress at the moment. Had to pump out excess water towards the street... Ground water is 20cm below the soil.. Like a swamp.

I think it may rain tomorrow, the grasses and ground cover plants could do with some water.

The rain is forming a queue with the first batch due here tomorrow.

A slight chance of light rain tomorrow and on Wednesday, then dry and sunny and highs in the range 24-28 from Friday for a good 10 days.

I watered with the hose today, things are on the dry side and the ground is already a brick, but most plants aren't wilting excepting the thirsty ones like brugs. I've mulched my brugs heavily with comfrey and might do the same with the canna.