Newly planted trees and shrubs dying from heat waves
Sudden heat waves and intense direct sun scorch and kill newly planted trees, hedges, and hydrangeas shortly after they go into the ground. This unexpected stress prevents young plants from establishing themselves and surviving their first season.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Switching to panicle hydrangea varieties like Little Lime or Quick Fire that handle strong sun betterDid this help you?
- 2Planting peonies, ninebark, flaming willows, rhododendrons, lilacs, or azaleas insteadDid this help you?
- 3Raking out the dead material, aerating, and overseeding or reseeding in the fall with a heat, sun, and drought-tolerant seed blend like turf-type tall fescue.Did this help you?
- 4watering aggressively about 60 minutes per day spread across 4 wateringsDid this help you?
- 5tearing up, putting down fresh topsoil, and soddingDid this help you?
- 6Applying fertilizer like milorganite and ironiteDid this help you?
- 7Giving the lawn a deep soak to ensure water penetrates the rootsDid this help you?
- 8Spot watering dry areasDid this help you?
- 9Replacing the dead plants repeatedlyDid this help you?
- 10Trying weekly fertilizingDid this help you?
- 11Considering testing with resilient plants like butterfly milkweedDid this help you?
- 12Applying pre-emergentDid this help you?
- 13Managing fungus outbreaksDid this help you?
- 14Aerating soil for better drainageDid this help you?
- 15Getting soil samples to customize fertilizationDid this help you?
- 16Hand-tackling weeds in the fallDid this help you?
- 17Spreading topsoil over the area and growing fescueDid this help you?
- 18Spreading shredded hardwood mulch on top of clay with fescue and clover seedDid this help you?
- 19Aerating heavily and spreading topsoil or compost before seedingDid this help you?
- 20Moving the plant to a spot where it gets morning sun and some shade in the afternoonDid this help you?
- 21Using shade cloth to limit exposure to the sunDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“These Annabelle hydrangeas aren't making it because there's just too much direct sun. What works for a border/screen that can also have snow piled on top (from the driveway)?”source ↗
“there is one section of the garden where plants keep dying in the summer. We’ve had to replace plants in this section twice already and now we’re losing another plant (a Ceanothus) in this section.”source ↗
“Mine got fried during that feb heatwave we had when were they just newly planted so we're hoping our look like this by end of next year too!”source ↗
“recently the leaves started curling and getting crispy around the edges.”source ↗
“It’s been super hot in Atlanta for weeks with temps in the mid 90s and my Zeon Zoysia is looking greenish brown.”source ↗
“I put milagonite and ironite on it 8 days ago but it doesn’t appear to be doing anything.”source ↗
“Don’t know if it needs water, is going dormant, or something else is causing this.”source ↗
“While some areas struggled a bit, essentially all of it rooted well. And then, over the last 4-5 days, it seems like it all died.”source ↗
“I'm just so bummed at this outcome in spite of hundreds of dollars of watering.”source ↗
“First 2 pics were taken in May, 3rd pic at the end of June and last pic end of August. Question is what the heck went wrong.”source ↗
“Currently lawn is being taken over by nutsedge and spurge.”source ↗
“An area of our lawn has been bare for going on 3 years…well that’s not true, last year I spread some topsoil over this area and some fescue grew in well but didn’t survive the summer, despite irrigation…so I dug up a small area and google says it’s clay, which I suspected…”source ↗
“I think the combination of heat and sun absolutely destroyed it this summer.”source ↗
“At this point I’m kind of at a loss. There’s still some living grass mixed in, but a huge amount of it is brown, crispy, and seems dead.”source ↗
“I had to water too much to keep it all green which leads to shallow roots.”source ↗
“My back yard never survives the summer, even with a basic irrigation system.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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