By Faith Peppers

University of Georgia

Water restrictions aren’t the only threat to green Georgia
lawns.
The searing summer heat is scorching landscapes across the
state.

If your landscape plants are taking a beating from the heat,
they’ll send out signals. University of Georgia horticulturists
say the hydrangeas and impatiens in your flower beds are the
poster plants for heat and drought stress. If they look droopy,
take this as a sign that all your plants need water.

Cut back and help roots

If your annuals and perennials continue to be heat stressed,
UGA
experts say cut them back about halfway. If they are wilting
badly, cutting them back will help them survive.

Reducing the plant’s top will place less demand on its roots.
The
plant will come back in a few weeks and bloom again in the
fall.

The same strategy works for woody ornamentals like gardenias
or
hydrangeas. Cut them back to one-half or one-third of their
normal size.

When summer weather brings dry weather and heat for more than
20
days, homeowners have to make lifesaving, or life-losing,
landscape decisions. UGA horticulturists suggest basing your
decisions on replacement value. Select your most valuable trees
or shrubs, and water them. Herbaceous plants can be easily
replaced.

Water fescue first

Flowers aren’t the only plants that suffer from heat stress.
Your
home lawn suffers, too.

If your lawn is fescue, you must keep it watered if you want
it
to survive. Bermuda and many other grasses go semidormant and
turn a little yellow when heat- and drought-stressed. But, unlike
fescue, they will recover pretty well with the first
rainfall.

UGA experts recommend giving your lawn about an inch of water
per
week. And they suggest watering early in the morning for the best
use of water.