Hello all ...

I thought it was time to introduce myself to this forum as I have been lurking here for quite a while and have met some of you on other forums.

I don't live in the Midatlantic, but live in the mountains of northern California in a climate that does not have the coastal influence found in what is generally thought of as the Pacific Northwest climate, but I've picked up a lot of tips by lurking here.

I am a very novice gardener who just happens to know a lot about roses. How that happened is another story which I am happy to share, if anyone is interested.

When I joined ATP, I thought I could pay my dues by sharing my rose knowledge so I could learn how to garden with other plants. I don't even know the basics of gardening ...

I've been working on creating a garden in an area that has far more challenges than I knew I would face. I've noticed you all share readily and have been able to tweak a few things as I 've worked to fix many of my novice errors this season, but I think I need more than a little help going forward .. I know my garden will never look as lush as those of you gardening in a more friendly climate, but I am not ready to give up.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn I am delighted you're making an online home among us here in the MAG! And I for one would love to learn how you came to know much about roses while feeling you know little about gardening.

But in any case I enjoy your company and wish you the best in your challenging garden! I'm very interested in how that develops.

When I was gardening in Weed, CA, which is perhaps a somewhat similar climate and terrain to yours, I made the mistake of thinking there was not a gardening community locally. When I left, though, and had to get rid of stuff, I found that there was one, and wished I'd learned how to connect with them much earlier. I'm sure they could have helped me with some of the challenges there. There was even a Yahoo email group!

Maybe there is something similar in your area. Or maybe you've already looked!

Welcome, Lyn, we are delighted to share our forum with you! :-)

My parents grew up in Sonoma County in California, and my grandmother lived for many years in Laytonsville, quite a bit north of Sonoma. The hills were everywhere, and I recall how beautiful it is! I love the mountains over in the Shasta area--just gorgeous.

Would love to see photos of your garden and hear your stories!

Hi Kyla ...

Thanks for the welcome.

I'll answer the novice gardening question last.

I did join the gardening club up here a few years ago and found out it is more of a social club than a gardening club. Most of the members of the club know more about gardening than any of the speakers they have had at each of the meetings, but it takes time to get to know them because they are slow to get to know new members.

I'd love the link to that Yahoo group. Anything to help.

About being a novice gardener who happens to know more about roses than any other plants or any other aspect of gardening. I don't consider myself to be a rose expert, I just bring something new to the table simply because I was trained by the true experts. My rose life started in San Diego, which is rightly called "Rose Heaven". I owned a condo and could only do container gardening, but it was my start. I ended up growing only roses in that garden because everything else I grew got stolen. They left the roses behind ...

Then I met Kim Rupert who has a depth of knowledge of roses that even the true experts value. Kim had so many people "picking his brains" he kind of weeded out the people who were truly interested to those who just wanted quick answers by giving them a reading list that covered the history of roses, the classes of roses, the botany of roses, the lineage of roses, the rose industry and more. I bought all of the books and read them. No, I didn't understand them in depth when I first read them, but at least I could understand what Kim was talking about ... I also ended up meeting people who play in that rose world and now grow test roses for four other breeders including Kim.

That kind of rose knowledge only gives me an edge, but Mother Nature always has the last word.

It's a different rose world than the average gardener is ever exposed to while they are learning about roses. I learned to see the plants through the breeders' eyes. There's a lot of good information I can pass along to help others grow good roses, but I never take it to the same level of discussion unless people are truly interested in that kind of thing. Nor do I think I know it all because I know so many people who know a whole lot more than I do ...

As for being a novice gardening, it's both a blessing a and curse. I didn't know I couldn't create a garden on this property, so since I had been gifted with over 100 roses as a housewarming gift, I just went at it. I am still fixing a lot of those novice mistakes.

I haven't killed any roses, but I sure have killed a lot of other plants. I have a lot to learn.

Smiles,
Lyn

Cat ...

I live in Weaverville, which is an old gold mining town in the mountains between Redding and Eureka and get the valley influence in my climate rather than the coastal influence, which for the most part means it gets a whole lot hotter up here during the dry summer months ...

This is a post that I put up on the Rose Forum that shows the progression of the rejuvenation of the roses Mrs J, the previous owner had planted.

http://garden.org/thread/view_...

I am planning to make a rock garden in the street bed ... some day.

The front of the house is deer territory and this year, the deer ate almost every deer resistant plant I had put out there, so I get to start over.

I'll try and post some other photos later. The sun is out and it's time for me to get outside.

Smiles,
Lyn

don't do roses but I would love to read about what you do. Thanks for joining us.

Hi Lyn!! I started out my gardening days with roses and am very happy to have some one here that could answer my endless questions about "what do I do now?" when I have a rose problem. This year I lost quite a few bushes when we had an EXTREMELY cold and windy winter. They are a lot of work and I'm getting to the age where I can't get it all done, but I try.

JB ... thank you for the welcome. I am happy to share what I know about roses because I consider that paying my dues so I can ask all of my novice questions about other kinds of plants. I truly need the help.

When I complained to Kim, my rose mentor, about how much work I am doing in the garden, he asked me what I meant. I told him, it wasn't the roses. Roses are weeds and easy to handle. It's the rest of the gardening process that has me baffled. Of course, he laughed.

Teri ... ask away. Maybe I can help you reduce the amount of work involved in caring for your roses. I am getting to that age, too ... There's a lot of misinformation about what is required to grow good roses out there. Keep in mind, I'll be picking your brain too. If I don't have the answer to your rose questions, I know a lot of people who can help me get the answer. I am not an expert, I just learned about roses differently than most people and have handled a lot of roses.

Now, I have to learn how to create a garden that contains more than roses and weeds.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn, in response to an earlier post of yours, I'm sorry to say I no longer have the URL for that yahoo group. I can't even remember quite how I found them! but if it comes to me I will for sure pass that along.

Garden clubs tend not to interest me either; organic gardening seems to be a whole different approach to what most garden clubs involve, at least in my (limited) experience.

Kyla ...

>>>Lyn, in response to an earlier post of yours, I'm sorry to say I no longer have the URL for that yahoo group. I can't even remember quite how I found them! but if it comes to me I will for sure pass that along.

Thanks, I appreciate that.

>>>Garden clubs tend not to interest me either; organic gardening seems to be a whole different approach to what most garden clubs involve, at least in my (limited) experience.

I don't think that was really the problem. It's just that I wanted to learn about gardening and like I said earlier, this was more of a social club, so it wasn't a good fit.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn, I didn't say it well at all, but that was exactly what I meant! that gardening clubs, in my experience, tend to be social clubs and not full of people who are passionate about gardening and learning and teaching each other....

Isn't that the truth ?? I've been a speaker at a few garden club meetings when I lived down south and really I could have sent a tape because few people were truly interested in the presentation. They just wanted to catch up with what was going on in each others' lives.

In a small mountain community, it makes more sense that the social aspect would be important because no one really lives near each other.

Everyone there was an experienced gardener and there was rarely any kind of discussion about gardening.

I am having more fun and learning more here than I did in the couple of years I was a member of the gardening club ...

Smiles,
Lyn

Hi Lyn - !! You'll get to hear me cry when we get 12 inches of snow in January. You can balance us out weather wise

you mentioned stealing plants but they left the roses - thorns have a purpose!!

Hi Diane ....

I may have my own snow in January, but we have only gotten 12" a few times at my elevation, but I'll readily agree that it doesn't get as cold here as many of the people on this forum experience in their climates. It's still cold enough for me ...

I think the thorns were part of the reason the roses were not stolen, but I think their reputation for being hard to grow was another factor.

My neighbors and I agreed that we thought our containers were stolen to be sold at one of the flea markets in the San Diego area. I am thinking roses might have been are "hard sell" ...

Smiles,
Lyn

They probably would have had to dig up the roses and were too hurried or lazy to do that. What pathetic people we have to deal with sometimes. Very disappointing.

Teri ...

I do know people who had their whole rose garden dug up one night ... what a horror story. I was living in a condo, so all of my plants were in containers, which made them easy to steal.

My current garden is my first in-ground garden. Oh, the mistakes I have made ...

Smiles,
Lyn

makes me remember when I had a print shop with my mom; we had lots of potted plants along a wall that divided the front counter area from our art dept. The plants got aphids or some bug and I took them all out back to water etc. And, by the end of the day all the plants were stolen! I was glad they had bugs!! served them right for taking them

That's so very sad, Diana.

The good news for me is that the thieves started me on my journey with roses ...

Do you thing we can start a Q & A thread on this forum ? You all seem to be far more experienced gardeners than I am and even with our current climate differences, many of you have gardened in other climates than the ones you are currently gardening in today.

I feel more comfortable asking my dumb questions here than on the general ASK A QUESTION FORUM. I really am very much the novice gardener in so many ways.

What do you think ?

Smiles,
Lyn

Go for it!