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With much of the U.S. sweltering through heat waves, gardeners are seeing some dramatic changes.

I’ve noticed them in my suburban New York garden, where the temperature this week has been exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit, with a “feels like” rating of nearly 10 degrees hotter, thanks to humidity. It started in June this year, and we don’t usually experience such heat waves so early in the season. Weather, of course, is one of the primary determinants of gardening success.



And as luck would have it, it’s completely out of our control. Good news first..

. Heat-loving plants are thriving. My have never been taller at this point in the season, and the zucchini is already threatening to overtake the back deck.

Cabbage, onion and corn maggots, which prefer cool temperatures, struggle in extreme heat, , so the hope is that susceptible plants will have banner years, as well. Many of my perennials started blooming two weeks earlier than usual. I’m planning to plant a few extra late-season bloomers as insurance, should they call it quits sooner than expected.

And my hydrangeas have never been lovelier. Each of my 12 plants of different species is absolutely bursting with blooms, and many other gardeners in my region are reporting the same. That’s not as much due to the current temperature as it is a nod to last year’s weather: Abundant late-summer and fall rain bolstered plump bud formation, and our unusually mild winter ensured that most, if not all, of those buds (and t.

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