Yes!!!! Spring is officially here! Turkey buzzards cannot tolerate freezing weather, and I have finally seen one for the first time this year!!!

FINALLY!!! Yay!!!!

(pretty sad when we use buzzards as a method of weather prediction.)

Hooray! Yippeee! I hope every day of it is perfect.

That's great, Toni! I was thinking about you last night, and how long winter can sometimes drag out. Two years ago it was like that for us; we thought it would never be warm again.

Well, this weekend is supposed to get back down into the upper twenties for the nighttime lows, which is why I'm waiting until Saturday afternoon/Sunday morning to put in the petunias. Then that should be IT. IT IT IT. NO MORE COLD UNTIL FALL.

Yesterday was mid 70s but windy.. today's in the 60s, tomorrow & Friday are in the 40s & 50s... oh will it ever warm up!! Next week should be marvelous, though... can't WAIT! I have 1 (count them, ONE) columbine that's getting ready to blossom.. yay!!!

Yay for warmer weather! Are your roses starting to green up?

Did you know that there is a Turkey Vulture Society? Yeah. Actually, I like vultures. I can sit for hours and watch them soar on the air currents. They're very graceful and they don't flap their wings much once in the air. They just glide. Wouldn't want to touch one or watch it eat though.

Vultures are actually pretty clean birds when they eat.. it's like watching a very very very hungry dog eat. GULP, GONE! and never seen one flap it's wings trying to fly.. just soar soar soar!

In my front yard, I lost about 6 roses. All of these were improperly planted (bud union above the ground rather than 2" below). The latest two, Gingersnap & Arlene Francis, gave up the ghost with the last snow I had (about a week ago). So, tonight I'll be diggin' 'em out. I'll put Fragrant Cloud where Arlene Francis was (I put a yellow less than 2' away, Golden Masterpiece) and I'll put Judy Garland where Gingersnap was (I have a Gingersnap in the back yard). In the back yard, only one I lost was Blueberry Hill, which totally sucks as I may have to order that one (it was a fluke find for me). Everyone else (I hope) did OK and have new leaves almost 100% of everything (except for a Chamblee's DA rose: Molineux.. still no signs of new growth there, but it had a bad trip with the USPS destroying it's box). Think when Roses Unlimited has a sale I'll get it from them.

My rose garden fared much better than last year as well. I lost all three Mevrow an Nathalie Nypels to weather. I lost maybe one of three Jean Bach Sisley. And one of Two La Marne. La Marne was lost to nibbling critters. Oh, and I lost two of three Coup de Foudre and two of three Marina. But it's hard to narrow down the cause. These were undeveloped. And all were nibbled severely in the fall when a hungry rabbit ate the stems all the way down to ground level. Since the garden had more than seventy roses in place in fall (all less than one year old) and I lost nine - most of which were $5 bands from a fall liquidation at Ashdown, I feel that I did much better than the previous winter when I lost all 16 gallons I bought the preceding fall from ARE.

Much of it I attribute to the (miserable but) steady weather that grew gradually colder, and then ever so gradually warmer; and to the ample moisture we got.

My roses did good through the winter. I feel very lucky. I'm at the border of zone 5b and 6a and most of the roses are hybrid teas. They all (only 28) made it through the winter fine even though I didn't mulch or protect them at all. Due to finances, we just didn't have the money to buy mulch. But everything made it through and is doing good. We have a Silver Spoon that struggled last year and it's still struggling (will probably put it out of its misery) but that isn't due to the winter. I might replace it with Bolero.

I was expecting several losses. The rose-gods must have been looking out for them. Or I just plain got lucky.