This weekend was perfect. Perfection was this weekend. Saturday started cold & windy, but, I got in a wonderful haul after rose shopping. I picked up 4 more Sterling Silvers (I had to limit myself.. and I think I've got enough Sterling Silvers now) plus 4 Perfume Tigers. And a Sunsprite Rose tree for M-I-L (she'll probably kill that, too.. she sees all plants I get her as annuals. I swear the woman has a black thumb.. she killed 2 lilacs!). Went up to Paulino's Gardens and picked up another Sunsprite, but in standard form for me. Got home, unloaded the VERY smelly van (WOW!) and DH & I worked on the back fence shoring it up. Had to meet friends for dinner, got there too early, so went across the street to Home Depot. Now, when I was at Paulino's, I had a goal: find a "typical" (ie: Hybrid Tea looking) white rose that smelled good. Full Sail fits the bill, but not good for my zone (good to zone 7, I'm zone 5/4). Couldn't find ANY white roses that fit the bill, not one! And all I wanted was 1 (count them, ONE) white rose that smelled good and was in typical rose shape! When I was at this different Home Depot, however, much to my surprise, there was a white rose in full bloom that smelled AWESOME! Smells just like Intrigue, but pure white. PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!! Only thing is that it's labeled "Crimson Glory". Therefore, I have no idea on what that rose is until I plant it (maybe tonight). So I picked up that rose and a Sonia, as I had a coupon of buy one, get one free. Went to dinner w/friends, went to yet another Home Depot w/friends near their place and picked up an Ambassador and another Sunsprite. Yay! Gonna have lots of happy colors in MY yard!

So, Sunday, got DH up, got him dressed, loaded him up in the car w/the dogs, and told him to take the dogs to the dogpark while I planted. And plant, I did. I only managed to get in 15 roses in the front, plus the petunias in the front bed and the coleus (Wizard's Red) in the corner bed. Oh, this is going to be PERFECT! 75 degress, slightly cloudy so it's not too bright, wonderful wonderful! I'm watering and playing in dirt and admiring the shiny colors in the massive worms I'm digging up..

and then I check out my iPhone to see the weather for the rest of the week.

WINTER STORM WATCH FOR TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY MORNING? WTF!!!

Between 8-18" for my side of town? http://www.9news.com/news/arti...

Eight to Eighteen INCHES OF NEW SNOW???

Oh, I hope they're wrong. What a disaster. It's getting close to the middle of May!!

Oh Toni, I feel for you! Hang in there. It can't last forever (can it?)

That's just wrong, like washing the car and it rains the next day.

Well, the weather people have conspired and adjusted the totals. So, instead of 8-18 inches, we're only going to get between 1 and 4 inches. A lot better as late last night, they were worried we would get between 1-2 FEET of snow, but now it's been changed. Again.

As I sit here, at work, I look out the window and see the cold, scudding gray clouds scurrying across the pale blue sky. The trees, almost fully leafed, sway in the cold breeze. Spring has been here for almost 2 months and nothing is really showing signs. Sure, you can see robins chasing bugs, or hear a hummingbird zipping along, too fast to watch. But actually warm days? They've almost been forgotten. My roses, shriveled and purple-red with the kiss of frost on their leaves, are straining to grow, as are my other shrubs. The neighbors' grass is still the dull winter green, not the vibrant summer verdant hue so beloved by most in Suburbia hell. Even my wintergold pines are just that, winter gold. Soon, soon, every tree promises. Soon, soon, my lilacs are screaming.

But soon cannot come soon enough for this poor cold soul. I hate Colorado. Even the Canadian border in NY was better.

Very poetic, hope spring gets there soon. Ours was wonderful but I fear it's over.

Well, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. But it was bad enough considering today's the 12th of May. Records were broken all over the place w/the amount of snow for so late in the season.

Here this front yard.

Here's my new Sonia. I can't call it a bloom of mine because it was blooming when I put it in the ground. But I didn't want to trim it down knowing that there was a storm coming in.

And my Sunsprites.

I *can* claim this as a bloom, a lone iris. I have lots of flower stems, but only one opened just to get snowed on.

And a grape hyacinth in my eastern flowerbed.

Closer to my NE bed, which is a shaded bed, are my columbines. They're open and are protected.

Directly across from the columbines across my sidewalk is a row of RedGolds and Sterling Silvers. Only 1 had a bloom on it.

Then my shaded corner. I covered it as I had just put in my coleus' in.

I uncovered it as it's supposed to warm up into the 40s with some rain, and I'm always wanting rain on this corner as it's SOOO protected and dry all the time.

I'll have to recover everything up tonight as it's supposed to go into the 20s tonight. I did manage to put in 2 roses last night when it was sprinkling as I wanted them into the ground where it's a little safe than sitting in a bucket. I'll try to put the rest in tonight, but I kind of doubt I'll manage to put in that many. So, I'll have to put them in my shed for the night.

EVERYONE'S hoping that this is the last hurrah. We've got a very slow warmup coming up, but it should be back into the 70s next week.

We hope. Anyone wanna FedEx me some nice weather?

I'm glad for you and your roses that it was snow but not a cold, clear night that was 8F for twelve hours! Hang in there. I think this has been a tough winter for a lot of people. And maybe not typical of Colorado (given that records were broken and so on).

On another forum, people from lots of different states were lamenting that the wind had been blowing at 50MPH for a couple of days. And I pointed out that I was glad it wasn't 80-95MPH as it was here in Jan, taking out power for hundreds of people, including us.

Today was warm and clear and calm here. And I got the last of the plants I started as seeds planted into the garden. I also observed, with great pleasure that Baronne Prevost now has lots of tiny buds. So I'm thinking maybe spring and summer may actually arrive for those of us in mile high locations.

I feel for you sister...
We had an unseasonably warm April but so far May has been a bear.
Lately lots of cold (2 hard frosts), wind and rain albeit the later most welcome.
Counting the days until I can get in the garden.

well, last night, it snowed off & on. I managed to get another 6 more roses into the ground (more roses in the ground, the less I have to put in the shed!). Digging was pretty easy as the ground was soaked. But, of course, I'm hitting tons of rock and irrigation hose for the old sprinkler system (hasn't worked in years). Didn't get hardly any new accumulation, which is good, and today it was 38 degrees when I went outside to uncover the tender annuals & remove the mulch off of the itty bitty babies in the back (My beloved Blueberry Hill has 2 5-set of leaves, so I'm babying that thing with everything I can, plus my new Musicale is covered in new baby leaves, so I'm taking extra care with that one as well... I don't think Molineux made it. ). Today's supposed to be in the 50s, then up, up, up! Yay! However, now that we've had all this moisture, what roses I do have that have leaves will probably produce blackspot. ARGH! If it's not one thing, it's another.

Sorry to hear about Molineaux. Maybe it's just being a little more circumspect than your other roses? I have given up on roses that died to the ground over winter only to find that in late May they put out strong growth.

As for blackspot, sometimes moist soil, dry air, moderate warmth, and bright sun can - as you know - produce very beautiful roses. I'm betting it won't be long until your rose garden looks like paradise.

My yard has a sprinkler system and I haven't yet tested it out. Watering by hand keeps me close to the roses and other plants that need my attention. I think starting the growing season with damp soil really is a great benefit to most plants since they have all the resources they need to put out strong growth.

(One of the great problems here is that sun and moisture typically occur when nights produce freezing temperatures. Sun and warmth occur mostly when the ground is dry. So it is no accident that most of the successful native plants are either evergreens or grasses. It's one of the reasons I intend to grow more setigera and wichurana hybrids; they tend to stay green during the winter here and develop good root systems. Interestingly, some of the more frost tolerant teas and chinas evidently work the same way.)