HELP! My Garden is dying.

[Miguel Flores]

Hey everybody I could really use some advice/help. Im brand new to this gardening hobby, and some of the plants i've recently planted are starting to die on me. I live in Tucson Az where temperatures have reached up to 101 degrees the past couple of days. I have a small section of land that I overtook to start my garden. I started planting bugambilias, rose bushes and the golden lantanas. Before planting I made sure to dig the hole at the right depth mixed the soil half organic with half native. My watering schedule has been the same since day one. I water once a day at 9am before heading to work. The first couple of weeks the flowers were doing great some were starting to blossom and grow at a steady rate. Recently last friday I noticed that they started looking "dead" the bugambilias pink flowers starting falling off and the leafs turned yellow. The lantanas stems turned a light brown and the flowers that were blossoming fell off and the rose bushed looked like somebody set a torch to them. Completely burned. Im completely lost because I dont know what happened. I feed them prior to noticing this. I used the Miracle Gro plant food (comes in a blue powder type of form that you mix with water). Im wondering if i over fed them? (however only one lantana plant is still in good condition and is continuing to blossom and I fed it the same amount as others) Could the triple digit temparature weather damage my plants? Help please!!!

 

[Alicja Burnette]

I'm new to gardening too but I've noticed even hardy, easy-to-grow plants are very delicate while becoming established. I had several die out on me after transplanting. I live in an area that has also been hovering around 100 degrees. So when plants that were supposed to grow in full sun started to die out, I returned them and bought full sun plants and planted them in areas that actually DIDN'T get full sun, as 4-6 hr of sun seems to be "full" enough around here. I don't know anything about the plants you planted, though. Good luck.

 

[Chuck]

You are watering too often. You cannot overwater a plant but you can water too often. And you have probably burned your root systems by using Miracle Gro too often and too strong.. It is not the temp. They love it hot. Stop watering until the soil is dry about 2-3 inches deep and throw away those nasty chemicals and get organic fertilizers. Mulch your plants about 3 inches deep. Don't worry, I don't think your plants are dead, YET. When the soil is dry and the plants are a little wilted in the morning give them a good soaking. It will take a little time for your plants to get over this so be patient