Tomatoes, Kumquat, Bargain Basement Peace Rose

It's been a week of hot days, high 80s. The tomatoes obviously like it because they're turning red. Would they turn red anyway, simply as a function of time, regardless of the temperature? I heard that citrus definitely need heat to ripen. The two tomatoes are different types with different times to mature, but they seem to be getting red at the same rate. Maybe one gets deep, deep red over a longer period and the other one is ripe when more pink? Here are two pictures.

I missed the peak flush of the Nagami kumquat, but you can see that there were quite a few blossoms. I forgot to sniff them -- citrus fragrance is wonderful. I hope many of the blossoms form fruit. This plant didn't make any fruit last year. The Bearss Lime tree seems to be still recovering from the root pruning I gave it 2 years ago. This Spring, it flowered and formed a few tiny fruit buds but they fell off.

Other developments in my garden is the Peace hybrid rose is recovering well from near-death. Surprising that it did not tolerate full sun. It has been in bright shade for at least 2 months and is leafing out again. It was one of the very cheap bare-root plants that was on final sale at the hardware store for $3. I thought that it was not bred to be a bargain basement plant so should have as good genes as its expensive cousins; therefore, after a few seasons in a good environment, it should be fine. It seems that I was wrong.

It's naive of me to believe that plants would have less variability within a given specie than in animals. Derivatively, I thought that nurserymen might sort their plants for sale, like transistors are sorted, or like California olives, into "Ultimate," "Superior" and "Fine." But among plants for sale, there is no such grading system displayed; only the reputation of the nursery, or the breeder, like Graham Thomas would be a mark of quality for a rose.