Oh Jeri! I'm with your grandmom too. Wind has also broken quite a few branches here. I hope the plants are OK to bloom another day, but it is very sad.

Yikes! That seems a bit like the really hot desert winds they get in the Near East, many of which have names (and some of which carry huge amounts of dirt from distant places). Devil wind sounds like a good name for this one.

Yes, they are devil winds, and they mark the end of the spring flush. I was hoping it would last a little longer. I can remember when the spring flush didn't begin until the end of April, and in the winter there was ice on the windshield and the car door locks were frozen shut. That hasn't happened for at least six years and I doubt it will ever happen again. We have a tree pruning and weed cutting crew out right now, limbing up the pepper trees way high, taking out some dead trees and cutting weeds that are so sturdy that a weed whacker can't get through the stems. It's predicted that this year will be the worst in regard to fire danger that's been seen in southern California for some decades, and we're forking out big bucks for a six-man crew that will work for three days to make our property as safe as possible since we'll be staying to fight if we should be unlucky enough to have wildfires here. I hope everyone here will stay safe this year.

Oh ya, I had some good looking Evelyns and Jude the Obscures that got really crisped. The Clotiled Souperts fried shut. But what really hurts is the Cinderella Fairy Tale and my Kathryn Morley. They will really only bloom in spring and just a few in the fall. PJPII and Firefighter still opened but got cooked on the edges.

We seem to get a spring devil wind now and not fierce three day long ones around Halloween as we used to. Getting them during our Spring flush is unfortunate. This year it came at the end of April. I was at the Huntington when the American Rose Society group came to visit ( that was a accident, I didn't know they were coming ) and I said to someone who knew the great rose gardens of the US well that we had been fortunate that we did not have a heat wave or hot wind. So I'm glad it came later if it had to come at all.

Mmmmm crispy! I try my best to get out in the early morning and trim bouquets before the outdoor oven preheats. Doesn't always happen though! We don't have the same winds here, but the dry heat crisps the blooms just the same.

Ingrid you are so smart and responsible because this year we really are going to have a huge fire risk. I wish some of my neighbors would do the same as you. With all the rain it just created a lot of luscious growth that is about to become kindling as more and more heat sets in.

Jeri, I'm a big Chandler fan. Isn't that from one of his short stories?

Mine didn't care for the hot and dry wind either. Neither did I!

I lived in Huntington Beach when I was 11 - near the beach. I hated that wind (we called it a "Santana"). You would go out, and if the wind was blowing by the time you got home there would be fine silty dust INSIDE of the house - a lot of it in heaps, by every window and door which were all locked, of course.

Jackie

Melissa, yes -- I believe it is. It's a quote I've always loved because I know those winds so well.

Didn't mind them nearly as much when we got the cold Santa Anas of the Fall (though those were the ones that seemed to take down our fences).

But when I was much younger, I loved the wildness of them. I would take my long hair down, and walk into the wind and let it sort of fill me up with rebellion.

Eek! It's like an old western, baking desert wind and tumbleweeds. All you need is a cow's skull buried in the sand next to your rose garden. Devil's wind indeed! The hot blustery version of a Blue Northern. One minute the garden is fine. The next it's toast (or ice in the case of the BN). Ditto the Raymond Chandler fan club. :-) Carol

Jeri, I love your last post!!!!! I used to adore the wild wind, too! Part of me still does...

The Chandler quote is from the short story "Red Wind" (1938).

We are lucky we don't get such winds over here during the spring and autumn flushes. We do get drying winds (coolish but dry) during high summer, mostly in August, when roses are not in their prime.

Here we had a violent wind storm that did a lot of damage, but it wasn't like the awful thing that they got in California, not by a long, long shot. My roses are just starting to open; only Climbing Old Blush was really spoiled by this storm, since it's the only one in full bloom. I also lost some major canes on two roses that are up on a hill; I see I must stake/support the plants up there, since many were rocking wildly in the wind.

My sympathies to all of you Californians!

We dont have Devil Winds currently, but we have a devil of a wildfire burning on the FL GA line and ASHES snowing down in our yard here from one of the wildfires burning. Its been so dry here this year. We got a little rain the past few days but some of the fires have burned 118,000 acres to date on and they are currently only 12% contained. I was surprised to see all that ash today. Some of my baby rose plants are covered and I have had to squirt them off w the hose. Hazy smoky atmosphere as well. Hope they get it out soon.

http://www.firehouse.com/news/12332126/lack-of-rain-and-winds-continue-feeding-ga-fl-wildfire-okefenokee-swamp-firefighter-news

Not wildfires already?! Sultry, sending wishes for RAIN! If I could, I'd package some of our cloud cover and pass it along to you. Carol

Thanks portland :) I just found out the ashes are actually coming from another wildfire that is local! They say it is half out right now. Sure is eerie out there right now.

How scary, Sultry! I'll check FL news and catch up. I'm so glad it's half out. Local is TOO close. Sending hopes for conquering the other half! Let us know. Carol

Ironically, but fortuitously, it was raining here today and last night the temperature was 44 degrees. Very strange weather, very much the new normal. So sorry about the fires in your region, Sultry. I'm not used to thinking of your region as dry, but then there really are no rules any more. I hope your fires are contained soon.

Thank you Ingrid. The big West Mims Fire/Okeefenokee Swamp and Wildlife Refuge fire has grown by leaps and bounds. We were getting ash from that one yesterday and its 42 miles away. Its pretty much all woods in this part of the state. Still pretty far from us but wow ashes floating that far.. Yesterday, a whole leaf that was white ash landed on my hand. A perfectly formed leaf but ash..ghostlike. I was gonna take a picture of it but it disintegrated when I moved my hand lol.

Whenever the wind is just right we get smoke and ash. I feel really sorry for all the wildlife. It is an important habitat for migrating birds. Some people closer to the fire are being evacuated. They were just letting it burn naturally (like the Yellowstone Fires in 1988) but now its 3 times the size of Miami and getting out of control and encroaching on communities where people live so they are actively fighting it now. They say its too big to put out now and may burn till November! Crazy!

That's what I lived with in Newhall and Encino for years, Jeri. I'm sorry it's now hitting you. Fortunately, we only get a few short spurts of it here along the Central Coast.

Oh, we've always had it here, periodically. It's just more common, now.