Not since 1976 has anyone in this country had to seriously wonder how to care for their favourite shrubs and perennial plants. Most plants are able to withstand drought conditions if there is some moisture to bring a little light relief from the heat, be that by way of rain or from a bucket of water from a tap. Their root systems can dig very deeply for the underground water courses and their roots can travel an incredibly long way to reach any moisture. In fact after the initial soaking when digging in new plants, it is recommended that they are left to fend for themselves in normal weather and not to have too much cosseting. This has been proven to work in these desperately dry situations – many shrubs that have already been used to putting out feelers for moisture, have managed quite well with much lower amount of water, dispersed in a time critical way. If supplementary watering is possible, then a large can of water an be poured slowly and deliberately over a border of plants, so long as the bigger and perhaps much prized plants are given as much water as can be offered. If it is possible to shade some delicate specimens so their foliage doesn’t bleed.
Another preservation technique is to only plant them in rainy of cool weather anyway, never in the heat of a midday sun. The best times for watering any plants, be that indoors or out is actually first thing in the morning or early evening, when the brightest sun has dissipated. By these times, the heat has reduced and there will be less damage to scorched leaves that are endangered when anyone spills vast quantities of water on already parched infrastructure but then cannot do anything if these simple rules and suggestions are not complied with. When planting out new purchases, or just re-potting propagated ones, then a small handful of water retaining pellets would be very helpful as these do really do what it says on the pack – they will help bed down surrounding plants and the pellets take in vast quantities of water to be slowly released by the plant when maximum growth activity takes place.
