We didn't have much of a season for roses this year in NYC. All of this heat has fried the flowers, so a tough gardening day was spent at Jefferson Market pruning the bushes, laying down buckwheat mulch to retain moisture and fertilizing with slow relese manure. Which is the stuff to use since regular fertizlier will burn with too much acidity.
It gets one thinking about this heat island effect and how crucial green spaces are to create pockets of shade to cool down a cooking asphalt city. Listening to talks from landscaping heavy weights of Hood Studio & Robin Key can really get one going on this topic.
But with all of that I now suffer from rose envy having seen London's Holland Park a few weeks back, those rosebeds were bursting!
Better luck next year..