I know it's frustrating, but it's 10x better than no rain. I'm enjoying not lugging pails of water around the yard to keep stuff from dying.

Same here, another downpour expected today. The local paper, probably through a glitch, doesn't have the weather forecast which I counted on, yeah I can use another site and it's often inaccurate anyway.

I've had much of what you describe, canes with beautiful blooms (finally!) bent almost to the ground, hoop staking bunches of stuff, glad I bought more than I thought I'd ever need, try to stay one jump ahead of it. Weeds. Endless weeds and keep working at it. Beautiful new geranium knocked off the porch and blooms broken; it will mend. Something goes wrong every year, and I try to take it in my stride.

I just struck some rose cuttings, but my little delphiniums I transplanted into cell packs, 57 of them, I woke up at 5 yesterday, heard the downpour, had a bad feeling and went out in the rain to check. Good thing. Waterlogged. Should have gotten those big nursery trays w/drainage holes, shortsighted on my part. So I'm hauling them around until and if they get stronger.

Just for myself, it goes with the territory, and if it isn't one thing it's another. People had power outages yesterday, streets flooded, my bigger worry is a looming family crisis and losing my fans in the heat, can survive without the ac but not the fans for long. On the plus side, I'm thankful I have them.

My timer for my lights felt hot and wouldn't go off when it was supposed to, must not be thinking straight, felt hot, always something. All small inconsequential things that are cumulative

But w/beetles coming and all the rest of it, I will admit to feeling what's the use?

I hear ya. I know when you have a plan and a timetable in mind its hard to be setback by mundane things like the weather. Then again, like buford, I'm enjoying not hauling out the hoses and watering every other day. And I try to look at the plants that are doing well because of it like the echinaceas, daylilies, phlox, etc, etc.

My advice is for you to go your celebrations and enjoy yourself. Then come back refreshed and renewed, maybe toss a few perennials and annuals into pots to enjoy right now while you are waiting for your garden dreams to materialize and kick back and relax, it's summer!

You're the one with the beautiful pergola on your deck and Awakening. I was showing my son how beautiful it was, so wish I could have something like that.

Sometimes when my plans are foiled, I'm not happy about it, but I'm kind of a fatalist, figure it's not meant to be at least for now, will push so far then back off.

I try to do just what you say, was so upset all day yesterday over a family thing, so tried to keep busy and did some rose cuttings among other things.

Thanks for the encouragement to whine! I have a gallica that is literally lying flat on the ground, has been for so long it looks like a ground cover rose. You should see the dirty-wet-tissue blooms on my white rugosas. I have an alba that is so top heavy it is crashing into the delphiniums next to it and flattening everything in its path. I staked a few of my delphiniums before this last downpour started (last night and still going strong!) but no amount of heavy duty staking is going to keep those 6-foot spikes up. In addition to being soggy, it was windy yesterday and my tree rose in the pot blew over.

More rain tomorrow and Sun. predicted, just in time for our Father's Day bbq.

My whine about rain must be: there isn't any! :(

I feel your pain as normally here we get around 40 or so inches of rain a year and sometimes it seems that we get them 10 inches at a time!

However, you all must be getting all our rain as we haven't had any in quite some time and I'm lugging the hoses and buckets around constantly and still not keeping up and all my blooms are fried (I guess it doesn't matter whether they are fried or drowned - they are ruined the same). We are going on vacation in a week and I'm worried about getting some kid to water my plants - all 10 billion pots!

I can't imagine being a farmer or rancher and depending on what comes out of the sky - either too much or too little - to help you feed your family........

Lynn

Lynn, that puts it in perspective. My business partner's family runs a dairy farm, and this weather has been he** for haying.

LOL.....

I TOO SHAL WHINE;^)

After all week of preparing the garden for my daughters high school graduation party tomorrow, it's raining right now, we got a whopper of a storm last night and...

The Rugosas look like used toilet paper,
The young Austins are laying on the ground,
The Austins that shatter quickly are surrounded by a million sopping wet petals,
'John Cabot' dropped about 30 million petals,
'Quadra' dropped about half a million petals,
The mulch is floating in some of the beds,
I still have weeding to do in all the beds,
The fountain is overflowing and filled with petals from 'Quadra',
Petals were washed off of 'Dainty Bess' which just started opening yesterday,

I could go on and on, but how would that help...:)

Just ranting,
Thanks,
Rob
BC:)

We have no rain and will have no rain. The blooms that looked gorgeous at 7 a.m. when I left for work in the morning were fried when I came back at noon. What will it be like in July when the water restrictions begin and it's even hotter and dryer?

This doesn't change the sympathy I feel for those of you whose gardens are drowning and plans are being spoiled. Extremes are rarely fun and always seem to require extra exertion. Why can't life be perfect? Whine....

Ingrid

Bob, so sorry about your setback and frustration. You have worked so hard, and we just can't control the weather. Been like that here, too. But I don't have a celebration like yours coming up where I long to have everything as near picture perfect as possible. The few white roses I have all got their pretty faces dirty and beat down by the rain.

As to whining, I guess I just have some days when I feel whiny and out of sorts. And today has been one of them. I do try to count my blessings in spite of it, I really do.

I will confess to the sin of envy. I envy California rose growers even though no place on this earth is really paradise. Apart from the water problems which I feel for you about and certain things roses anywhere are prone to, you can grow so many roses I will never be able to here. Better get used to it and quit complaining.

But get this, we have the whole mighty Mississippi, water water everywhere, and they're trying to raise our water bill by 30%. There have been many public complaints; I just gripe to myself and worry where it will end.

Philosophy may not help here, but let me give it a try. In my experience, even prolonged bad weather usually doesn't kill a lot of plants, so they'll be there to bloom again. I lost a good part of my roses' spring flowering to drought, heat, and wind, but the plants all lived and will flower again.
If one group of plants isn't doing well, I admire something else. Right now the lavender is very satisfactory. The bay laurel, box, and yew all look good, and the self-sown mullein is as handsome as can be. Much of the garden still needs weeding and mulching even after days of work, but there are patches of beauty here and there, and I let my eyes rest on them often.
I think Henry Mitchell said something to the effect that the purpose of the garden was, not necessarily to be perfect, but absolutely to be wonderful. My garden for me is wonderful, even with all the weeds and the drought and the unfinished work. (I have a cold this morning and don't feel like going out and dealing with it, either.) It helps that it rained early this morning. It was just a light shower that won't do a thing to water the garden, but it'll settle the dust and cool the air and perhaps discourage the flies that have been driving me crazy, and I certainly hope cool the house down: yeah! And those clouds will keep the blazing sun away, for a while.
All you victims of flood and drought, I hope your weather changes for the better soon. Rob, congratulations on your daughter's graduation! This struck a note with me, as my daughter just finished elementary school.
Melissa