>Brisbane has just gone through its worst heat-wave on
>record, it was 37C, 90% humidity at 6.00am a couple of
>mornings ago. I've been reading your reports of freezing
>weather with great envy!
<snip....>
>I kept the pots sitting in 2-3cm of water at all times, the
>lack of wind and high humidity meant that they lost very
>little water anyway. They are potted in a fairly standard
>peat, perlite and sand mix and remained throughout
>under 30% shade cloth.
I'm not quite sure what the problem with your plants is. In Adelaide
the temperature is quite often up around the mid 30's at this time of
year (37C forcasted for tomorrow). In my greenhouse the temperature on
one of these days peaks at about 46C but because the humidity is high
the plants don't appear to suffer much at all. In your situation I
wouldn't expect you to have a problem. Could it be that they are
remaining too wet? As you mention the water doesn't evaporate very
quickly.
Cheers
Terry