Plants That Are Thriving or Not in the Heat
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Due to the heat, our rhubarb has finished earlier than usual, but the quince on our quince tree are still tiny and so are the apples. The grapes are ripening nicely, but the olive tree is really struggling which surprises me. The lilies have long since flowered, but the sweetpeas haven't even flowered and are wilting.
What changes have you noticed in your garden due to the heatwave?
Will our hot summers change what you grow in the future?
The only thing is will we get the same weather next year or will it be raining so it’s difficult to decide what to do at the moment.
Our window sill chilli plants are doing very well along with the cucumbers in the greenhouse. Lettuce and tomatoes not too bad either
TheChimp Our chilli plants are also doing well in the garden, but I was a little late planting the tomatoes in the greenhouse so I'm waiting for them to ripen at the moment. I might have to freeze some chillies as I like to make tomato & chilli jelly, but they are ripe at different times.
We've given lettuce, runner beans and cucumber a miss this year as we've been busy creating a new flower bed as well as attacking the brambles which seem to be popping up everywhere.
julie781x Here's a link J, there are lots online , some with videos
julie781x I use one which is even easier and I've used it for years now. My friends and family ask for a jar as well.
https://www.cookipedia.co.uk/recipes_wiki/Tomato_and_Chilli_Jelly
Mine were doing alright as I was watering them twice a day but went on holiday. They have been watered so will see how they have done when im back.
Jerseydrew Hope that you enjoyed your holiday.
We just find that regardless of how often we water - our area doesn't get a hose pipe ban as we are surrounded by lakes - it doesn't seem the same as when it rains.
About an hour ago, we had a little shower of rain for a few minutes (remember that wet stuff?) but the sun was still shining so I don't think that it will make a difference to the garden.
I have thousands of tomatoes on my plants in my garden, I have cucumbers and peppers growing too. I also have courgettes, green and yellow, rhubarb, and my runner beans are finally starting to set. I have harvested my broad beans and peas and also potatoes. Sweet peas were a bit hit and miss this year. One type grew but a new one I tried has done nothing. They are all over now which is early. My roses are fantastic this year but my pansies have been very disappointing.
There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to any of it, everything has been watered equally.
The weeds are growing very well indeed 
mudgesheila50 Yes, it's amazing that the weeds manage the weather no matter what!
I haven't harvested our potatoes yet as they are main crop and still in green leaf, but I've finally picked some tomatoes today.
The roses have been amazing this year and the artichokes have been thoroughly enjoyed by the bees as I grow them more for them and for how attractive they look in a flower bed rather than to eat. In fact most of the flowers have coped better than I expected, but the sweet peas are dismal which is disappointing as I like to have vases of them throughout the summer.
We've not grown any beans this year although my neighbour kindly gave me some, and we've also not bothered to grow our usual trombone courgettes this year. Again, we grow the courgettes more for their appearance and to see how long they get as they hang from an arch. They are great fun!
My allotment has not been very fruitful thus far as the ground is so dry and hard. I did grow some courgette plants at home and have now transferred onto my plot and they seem to be doing ok. Most people at the allotment haven't had great yields this year. Not sure if I will change what I grow next year, I guess I will have a read around and see if there is any other crops that are recommended in higher heat.
My plum tree has loved the weather and produced a lot however my apple tree hasn't this year and it's a lot less than normal. Cucumbers and tomatoes have done well too. The lettuce did well but had to be picked very quickly or it started to wilt. A lot of my flowers didn't like the heat and either died really quickly or never flowered.
Swimmer94 None of my apple trees have enjoyed this heat. Not as much fruit and a lot of started on rot on the tree. My tomatoes are very happy.
Back in May we had so many strawberries 
that I’ve lost count how many we had! Got too much we shared with neighbours then eventually they got smaller in size and stopped growing by mid June. We have hydrangeas but only one of them is growing well whereas the other plant 
gets dried out! We had roses too but they wilting 
fast and don’t last long. Apparently heatwave days back next week Tuesday 26 degrees next day up to 30 day after 27! 
At the moment I am not growing any single fruit plants or new flowers. I have a very large cherry tree which produced loads of cherries this year and my apple tree is full of small apples at the moment and should be ready by September/October. My wisteria is the only plant looking a bit sad so I’m going to give it a good watering from the water butt this morning. I have other trees, a couple of rowans and they could do with watering but I’m sure they will survive.
eyeballkerry My poor cherry tree was full of fruit but a flock of starlings ate every single cherry in one swoop this year. It's nice that you get to eat yours though. I'm pretty sure that our apples are usually bigger by this time of year, but I'm currently reducing groups of three apples down to two in hope that this will encourage them to grow faster.
I hope that your wisteria will pick up after a few downpours. They are such beautiful plants.
Trees are quite amazing and tend to survive whatever nature throws their way...apart from my daughter's pear tree which was eaten off at the trunk by her dog!
Here’s my cherry tree, it really has grown over the years. I purchased it when it was tiny but it really has thrived. The apple tree is behind it and the wisteria to the right. I gave the wisteria a good watering this morning and will do the same tonight from the water butt
eyeballkerry It's looking extremely healthy despite the heatwaves.
My cherry tree was sent to me during lockdown when I had a birthday. It was already in blossom when it arrived, and every year we get more and more cherries, but next year I will have to net it because of the flock of starlings that nest nearby each year then disappear. I'm sure that our cherries are their final meal before they fly off to fresh pastures!
AlysonC My Cherry tree does seem and look really healthy and I haven’t had to water it all. We have never had any problems with birds but this is probably mainly down to the fact we have five cats and unfortunately one is very good at catching birds. Recently it has been nearly one a day. If it’s not a bird it’s a mouse or rat or even a bat. We have added more bells to his collar but he still gets them, so sad.
eyeballkerry My son's cat is also a bit of an expert in catching creatures despite only having one eye. He also only has two teeth left so he brings them in alive and my son has to catch them and release them.
My dog just sits and watches the huge flock of starlings, but chases a couple of wood pigeons. I think that she's a bit frightened by the starlings.
AlysonC That’s weird because Larry who is the main one who catches the birds has a bit of a dodgy eye. The other cats usually turn up when he has caught something and sit around watching him. After giving the wisteria a good soaking last night from the water butt he had another bird, I should have given him a soaking. Back to the water situation people need to seriously think before wasting water on grass and washing cars as it is getting pretty serious with the shortage of water. I have got round to weeding the grass which I can never understand how they continue to grow but the grass doesn’t.
eyeballkerry My husband said the same thing about weeds.
We are not in an area which will have a hosepipe ban as we are surrounded by lakes and reservoirs, but I still wouldn't waste water by watering grass etc. It always comes back after a few downpours.
It's in a cat's nature to hunt, but I thought that only having vision in one eye would interfere with seeing depth? My son's previous cat was such a little sweetheart. She was frightened of her own shadow and was proud if she caught a moth, but his current one is a terror. He'd previously lived on the streets, so he's a streetwise cat.
AlysonC We have a hosepipe ban in place but if you are on priority you are allowed to use it. The issue is so many people are on priority and do they really need to water their grass. They will be the first to moan when we have a real shortage and they won’t be getting any water into their homes. It all comes down to the water companies especially with the amount of leaks around. I am amazed when I visit hot countries and everyone has sprinklers going on their lawns.
eyeballkerry To be honest, I don't understand the correlation between people with disabilities and being able to use a hose pipe. I agree with you. There's absolutely no need to water grass, and a clean car can wait.
Yes, our area has been lucky with our water authority compared to most of the country, but a lot of the country are paying through the nose when other countries who have hot climates are able to use sprinklers etc.
AlysonC The water company delivered bottles of water to people on priority list yesterday but we all have water coming through the taps. So don’t understand why they done this. This is going to add more to peoples bills because it’s not a freebie from the water company. After seeing the bottles yesterday I thought the water company knew something we didn’t and they were going to turn off the water. But nothing happened. I can see people on priority with all these bottles will start watering their plants with it as they get so much it’s impossible to use before the water comes back on.
I have a peach tree which doesn't produce fruit. This year she had 10 peaches! I lost one to bugs eating it, but I have picked the other 9. The Eucalyptus tree has gone mad! It's so big I have to see about pruning it when I can because I'm going to struggle to cut it. It's over 7ft! I'm going to need a ladder. It was meant to be about 5ft.
Sherrifffroggy When we moved into our house many moons ago, the back garden had a large Eucalyptus tree. It was pretty and gave a nice dappled shade, but it was far too big - over 20' and still growing - for a garden and had to go as it was more of a forest tree.
How lovely that you had peaches this year! I assume that the weather conditions were perfect for it. There's nothing quite like eating fruit and veg straight from your own garden, and it makes you realise how long the ones in the shops have been sat around. The eating apples from our tree (it's a duo tree with eating apples on one side and Bramley cooking apples the other) are like no apples I've ever bought with juice running through the fingers when you bite them.
AlysonC I'm beginning to think that might be the problem with my eucalyptus tree. It wasn't meant to be able to grow over 5ft. I'm concerned about it blowing over during Winter and damaging the greenhouse, but apparently they can't be pruned until late winter/early spring time. Homegrown fruit and veg tastes so much better than the shops. I grow melons and they are the best tasting melons I've ever had.
Sherrifffroggy How lovely. I've never tried growing melons, but might give them a try next year.
Our grapes are just ripening, but although they are sweet enough to eat, they are extremely pippy and more suited to wine making. I'll probably put them in a box on the garden wall for people to help themselves.
I can confirm the eucalyptus can grow very VERY big!
AlysonC Never tried growing grapes. I should give it a go as I think it's plenty warm in the greenhouse to grow them. I harvested another melon this morning. I've one left that'll be picked tomorrow and that's it for year. Once they grow a fruit to ripening point, the plants die off.
Sherrifffroggy Our grapes are grown outdoors, but I warn you not to grow them anywhere near a massive tree. Ours have sneaked past the back of the pergola, climbed a tree and are now also fruiting at least a good 50 feet in the air. There are several grape varieties that crop well in our climate, but ours are Boskoop Glory. By the third year, we had a box of grapes that I couldn't lift, so an amazing cropper.
AlysonC Thank you for the advice. I'll have a think about grapes for next year. I would say that I don't think I've harvested many potatoes so far. One bed I've cleared of potatoes and I was digging in the 2nd this morning and I didn't think there was many again.
Sherrifffroggy My potatoes are main crop so they are still in the ground, but I'm not expecting a good crop to be honest. I've even found that the potatoes in the shops haven't been great this year apart from the new ones.
AlysonC I had 2 raised beds full. They tend to start themselves off around March as I always leave some in the bed over winter and put the covers on. Around March, I can see the covers lifting and that's the plants coming up. One bed I've emptied and I've just started on the 2nd. They were very small and not many of them. Probably my worst year for potatoes I'd say.
My toms and cucumbers doing okish but today I have cut quite a few of my Fuchias back as they have really struggled with this heat. I have quite a few hydrangea cuttings and these are doing well.
TiaTia I would think that a good cutting back of the fuchias will encourage more flowers until the end of the summer at this point anyway. Like most plants in our garden, our fuchias are already trying to go to seed early this year and I'm having to pick the seed buds off for more flowers.
I've now had a couple of tomatoes, but I think that I'm going to remove a few more leaves to get them ripening. I tried a new type of tomato this year, but will go back to my usual Sungold next year.
I've never tried hydrangea cuttings, but I'll look that up, so thank you for the tip.
Only two leaves on my Rhubarb plant, both Hostas had a couple of leaves, my Tomato plants are only just flowering, Cucumber, Pak Choi and Strawberries got eaten by either Birdies or Ants. Spring Onions, Garlic, Thyme, Lemon Balm, Rosemary, Dill are good. My Bay tree has what I think is White Moth on the leaves which are curling even though I cut it back last year as it had the same thing.
katherineannmil Oh no, what a pity that you have a moth infestation on your bay tree. Our has grown far too big this year and will need cutting right back.
Our hostas got completely eaten by the dreaded slugs this year despite the hot weather. They obviously come out during the night after an evening water and have a feast.
Our rhubarb is done for this year, and I've given up trying to grow strawberries as they get eaten all of the time, but the lemon balm, thyme, marjoram, sage and rosemary are doing fine. I've never tried to grow Pak Choi, but that's a nice idea. Something to consider next year!
Mine on the balcony are ok the alottment not so much if anything its dying. Ive never seen it so bad up there
Jerseydrew what a pity that the allotment is struggling in the heat. I think that we are going to have to rethink what we grow in the UK if most summers are going to be this dry and hot. Even if there's no hose pipe bans in the future, watering doesn't seem to have the same effect as rainfall.
AlysonC we've barely had rain for months so stuff is dying and not growing as it should. Its not just the uk. Its global. Crops are failing world wide
I've not grown my usual runner beans as they were not that successful last year for the first time ever.
Next year, I think that I will look into growing varieties that are specifically good for hotter climates....although I suspect next summer will be non-stop rain if I do!
The only things still looking lush are the begenias, not to confuse with pot plant begonias. All my pots are watered daily but my beautiful roses are not repeat flowering this year as it’s too dry.
Pjran Our roses were full of blooms, but they've stopped flowering now as well despite regular dead-heading and watering. We had two new additions this year as they were part of my husband's gifts when he retired. It was nice to see what colour the flowers were, but I think that they are done already for this season.
We don't have any bergenia, but our hanging baskets of apricot double begonias are amazing.
Strangely, our tree fern has even produced a pup. Like all ferns, they like to be in the shade. It does get a little evening sun, especially on some of the fronds, but it's gone crazy this year.
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