These are interesting days … you start the day wearing a jacket with your shorts! But those cool nights are a real blessing for plants. That reprieve from the heat gives them a chance to replenish the water in the tissue that is lost during the warm days.During the heat of the day, the roots cannot replace the water in the plant tissue as fast as the warm air is taking it out. We call that transpiration for plants … sweating for people! As summer progresses, we often don’t get these cool nights, and then the plants that do not have real heat tolerance start complaining … loudly … they really want to go into the air conditioning with you! Your best bet, aside taking them in with you, is make sure they get watered thoroughly in the evening … while you have time and while you remember to do it! Get the water into the pot, not on the foliage if possible.If you like to douse the leaves, morning watering is better because the foliage dries rapidly so leaf diseases don’t have a chance to get started. Obviously, nature doesn’t follow my advice, and we still get to battle the disease problems. Rule of thumb for watering anything is a thorough watering and then allow the growing medium to become dry to touch. Dry to the touch means there will still be moisture down deeper in the container. Most plants like to stay moist and so when I say "moist like a cake is moist," most people understand what I am saying. If you tip the cake pan on its side, water should not be running out! Neither do you want to be choking when you eat it.And while we are addressing the plant/moisture issue, I need to remind you of the importance of feeding those plants. You would not do well on a diet of water and the plants won’t either. Here at the greenhouse they get fed with at least every other watering, so if you want to keep that energy level high and the growth and blooms coming, feeding is not an option. We sell both water soluble and time-rleasee fertilizers. The water-soluble nutrients are available immediately to the plant. Time-release fertilizer dissolves gradually over a specified period of time, so the feeding is in limited quantity, but available continuously. These products can be used simultaneously for maximum potential … be sure to follow instructions so you don’t burn the roots off your plants! We’ll coach you on the products if you stop out. This Sunday is Father’s Day, and I can suggest some great gifts for dads! I’ve told you before about our fabulous pruning shears that will make Dad enjoy the task at hand! We also have root feeders that will make that shade tree he is waiting to sit under grow much faster. And speaking of the shade of trees, if he hasn’t got a tree to sit under, we can help you pick out a good one to go with the root feeder! We also have some neat new birdhouses and birdbaths that will look great in the garden he is so proud of! Or maybe a container garden with glorious color where he can practice all this free advice I’ve been giving!Happy Father’s Day, dads!