Cindi mentioned wind and the difficulties it poses on establishing hydrangeas in a recent thread. Wind has next to nothing to do with roses - except for making them more difficult to photograph. Still, wind is affecting my garden, too.

Within thirty miles of where I live, 900 firefighters are battling the Gladiator fire. It has consumed roughly 15,000 acres. In its first week it pretty much raged out of control, fanned by wind, high temperatures, drought, and extremely low humidity. It all means that sparks travel far and ignite easily. But recently the news is that it is something like 20 percent contained and the amount of new forest consumed by its flames decreases every day. Yesterday it was merely 650 acres: a few days before it was 2000. The chance that it will reach us where we live is still very small. Still, DW and I spent a few minutes yesterday making a list of what we would take with us if we were to leave. What happens to the fire and whether it reaches us will depend - to a significant degree - on how the wind blows.

The wind has another undesirable effect. Right now iris and dianthus are sending out huge amounts of delicious scent, but the wind is sweeping it away quickly. Even the most fragrant of roses seems scentless in this wind. To smell the roses means to cut them and bring them inside. Somehow, I prefer to enjoy them in the garden.

Actually, wind *does* do damage to roses. I've noticed with my drying winds this year that the canes are more brittle & thinner. Plus they rub more against each other, damaging the canes with their thorns (especially if they have the smaller "prickles" rather than the big "catclaws"). I've actually seen .. cankor? Some kind of injury on more than 1 cane due to them rubbing each other with the high winds I've had this year (and as I look out the window, I see the cottonwood trees across the street swaying badly in the wind). I don't want to prune them any more than I have to, otherwise each rose will just have 1 or 2 canes!

Steve - my thoughts & wellwishes are with you with that fire. Fire's scary stuff!! We have a state wide burn ban this year for the first time in years.. which means no fire works either.

We had that last year - good luck to both of you!

Yesterday, a neighbor's barn burned down, and the fire crews were lucky to keep it contained to just outbuildings.
http://news.kfdi.com/news/1526...
It was a rare day with wind under 10 mph. Today...different story. We have all kinds of wind warnings up. Fireworks have been banned for years in most areas here, but that doesn't seem to slow any idiots down. The worst offender in the past was the judge who lived across the street from me. Rules don't apply to him, I guess. That was in a suburban neighborhood full of 2 story homes with wood shake roofs.
I mow the whole 10 acres where I live now partially as a preventive measure against wildfire. My neighbors here invite their church over for a 4th of July picnic that involves shooting bottle rockets and Roman candles at one another. What fun. And I'm the bad neighbor because I refuse to go to church like all the others. Yep I'm bad. I even trained my labrador to bring me a cold beer while I'm mowing.
This non stop wind put me in a mood for sure! My new plantings are drying up and there's no way to water everything.

Cindi - After I'm done with it, I'll send you the beautiful slow rain we've got hitting us right now your way! Of course it's raining.. I spent over 6 hours watering my entire yard over 2 days....

In our neighborhood two small fires have been extinguished in the last two weeks. Firecrackers - which have been banned here for years also - were found at the site of one. Not sure if any judges were involved, but one dentist spotted one fire and rushed from his office to help extinguish it. Presumably he was between root canals.

If I had a dog and turf to mow, I'm sure I'd train it to fetch me beer, too.

Six hours is a lot of time watering. But I suppose I spend about that much time each week watering my garden. I have just recently begun practicing weeding as I water. Pulled up a three foot tall clover plant the other day and a three year old John Davis came up with it. Its roots had not yet grown to eight inches in length. It's an old VG buy.

Memorial Day failed in my garden and I now have my first lovely Dr. Huey blooming next to some Jupiter's beard. Believe it or not, they do look lovely together. But it makes me worry a little about grafted roses. I know that almost every HT I plant here, including the climbing kind must be on Dr. Huey rootstock to make it through spring yo-yo frost weather. But I don't think I need more than one or two more Dr Huey plants in the garden.

Steve - I've got 2 Dr. Huey's right now that are gonna be shovel pruned. I've found that the grafted part of either Stainless Steel or Lagerfeld is what failed (this will be the 3rd & 4th Dr. Huey).

I have quite a few Dr Hueys - some of them are quite lovely...

Thankfully Dr. Huey hasn't appeared in my garden yet - he fails with the grafted portion for me!

I spent a few hours in the rose gardens at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco this weekend. I want my roses to grow like those!!!

I'm compiling a huge photo diary from the wanderings. It was phenomenal.

Put a link here when you're done with it! I can't wait to see!

I think there is no better place in the US to find great roses than the Bay area. Golden Gate Park in SF is one of the loveliest parks I've had the joy of visiting. I look forward to seeing your pictures.

I took over 600 that weekend so I'm needing to creat different albums. Yikes!

It has been so windy for the last 3 weeks, that I have barely been able to water and certainly unable to spray fungicide. Many of my roses have succumbed to blackspot like never before.
The wind is so strong today that I cannot keep the windows open or I would end up with every loose item piled in the north end of the dining room. I love my windows on the south side of the sunroom, but the house is a 60's ranch with a long hallway that acts like a wind tunnel.
The bad news, just realized today, is the air conditioner is not working. The thermostat is in the basement, so I have to set it extra low for the upstairs to cool. I set it at 65, and the temp in the house is a muggy 80. I've done everything I can to identify the issue and now it looks like I'll be calling a repairman on Tuesday.
Guess I'll be working down in the basement today until the cool front comes through.
It's truly too windy to be working outdoors--I have dying cottonwoods that could fall any minute. Actually I had to laugh when weather channel was talking about the 35 mph winds in that tropical storm. Our winds are sustained at 35 with gusts to 50.

That would be intolerable for me. I stay inside whenever the wind is blowing. Otherwise, I'd get motion sickness from watching the plants swaying in the breeze.

Wind was one aspect of weather that was not on my radar when I was looking for the next place to live four years ago. I'm sure it is not nearly so windy here as it might be in Kansas, but it is certainly much more windy that it was anywhere I lived in the NE. I really do feel cheated when I cannot go outside because of the wind, especially when the weather is sunny and the air is in the high fifties or low sixties. That said, we get lots of good weather in a year, so the feeling is fleeting.

Fortunately, today the weather is calm. (also, the Gladiator fire is mostly under control. Cool weather and a few more days of calm should suffice to complete the job. That and the 150 firefighters that remain here fighting it.) The high for the day will be mid seventies. And I hope to spend several hours just puttering in the garden. Maybe there will be a rose or two in bloom.

Saturday was miserable. Went out to the dogpark, could only be there for about 20 minutes as I felt like I was being sandblasted. I did get pretty nastily windburned on my cheekbones & lips and ended up eating a mouth-full of dirt. BLEH! Said to hell with it, came home, and stayed inside for a few hours (for as long as I could tolerate sitting on my butt.. can't really sit much 'cuz there's too much to do!). Got going again at about 230, decided against mulching the back as I didn't want to eat mulch and just putzed around inside the house. Wasn't a bad day, but sure did ruin a lot of my plans as far as what I was planning on getting accomplished for the day! We had sustained winds of 30-35mph and gusts up to 60 (like poor Cindi). Neighbors' cottonwood trees were swaying so bad.. again I was thankful that I had gotten rid of that huge aspen in my front yard!