Emergency Watering
When you see the leaves your trees or shrubs beginning to wilt, those plants are in crisis and really need some emergency watering. This problem is particularly serious if it occurs in the late fall, just before the trees or shrubs have to face the rigor of winter. If you already have soaker hose available around the stressed trees or shrubs, you should run them for an hour or two every day for three or four days. Then water them well every week until the rains catch up and the drought eases.
Special Tree or Shrub Watering Tools
There are a number of tree or shrub watering tools that are designed to be inserted down into the soil to apply water directly to the root system. You may wish to consider using these tools. See the file Root Watering Tools for Trees and Shrubs
DO NOTHING ELSE
If you can't water during hot, dry spells, then don't fertilize, prune, or apply pest controls.
Resist cultivating the soil. Any stirring of the soil will increase moisture loss.
Do not even cut the flowers off the rose bush in long dry periods,
