What a great birthday celebration!
I'm expecting my camellia to open a few blooms any day now...temps were near 80 today, with 50 mph winds. Crazy. I had to water yesterday. The heuchera and hellebores were wilting!

Hi Zuzu,..hope you had a good birthday outing,..shopping spree as well,..you managed to get a few nice plants,..well done.

Happy Belated Birthday Zuzu,..and a Belated Birthday Card for you below.

You can view your card here

Philip, thank you so much for the wonderful card. I love it!

your most welcome.

What a lovely card! I'm so glad we are all able to enjoy it.

Zuzu, isn't that just the best way to celebrate a birthday - shopping for plants!!

Today has been really cool again with a mix of rain and snow but they have forecast a high of 14C for Sunday so you can bet I am going to outside again. I think Neal called it 'dirt therapy'!
This up and down with the weather is really weird - most of the roses showing signs of waking up again and a lot haven't lost all their leaves which is very unusual here. February is normally too early to prune but I am very tempted!

Zuzu, sounds like the perfect way to celebrate! Glad you had a good birthday

It has made it to 55F with sun and blue skies. The crocuses, snowdrops, and winter aconite are showing color here and there and the last of the snow has finally melted. However the wind is fierce out there! Just came in from inspecting the garden and hunting for sprouts. I'd love to stay outside but that wind is making my nose run and my eyes water At least I'm seeing signs of spring

Spring has sprung here, for sure, especially after high 80's and low 90's last week...which I despised, but what can ya do ?
My roses have all leafed out already...a bit early of course.

Neal: I'm with you on hating wind. It destroys my sinuses and puts me in a foul mood.

Got notice today from Regan's Nursery that my order will be shipped tomorrow. They evidently had a problem on their site with processing credit cards, so I had to call them and give it (my #) to them over the phone. This is my first time ordering from them so I hope what I get is as good as what Zuzu showed. I got another "Pat Austin", one "Top of the World" climber and one "Distant Drums". No more room after this for any more roses !

As I was driving past my place today I saw a bed pillow in the gutter and didn't think anything of it. 2 hours later I came home and saw at least 14 million white feathers blowing all up and down the street. A man two doors down was out trying to vacuum up what he could...which didn't even make a dent in the mess. I asked him what happened and he said the street sweeping machine ripped it to shreds when it came to clean the street. This is even worse than when those styrofoam packing worms blow all over !!!

zuzu said:A friend took me out for a birthday lunch and shopping spree. I bought four Austins: an Evelyn and a Jubilee Celebration to replace my ailing Evelyn and Jubilee Celebration, and two that will be new to my garden -- Strawberry Hill and Boscobel. I also bought a couple of Abutilons and a couple of Camellias because I can never have too many of those.

Happy Birthday!! Sounds like you had a great day.

Mike,
Last week, our temps were in upper 70's, and I looked out the window and swore it was snowing. Big white fluffy flakes were drifting everywhere in our 40 mph wind. Finally realized it was the goose that met its demise in our yard. Amazing how many feathers and how much down comes out of 1 12 pound goose. The robins are fighting one another over the feathers that remain caught in the shrubs. They'll be making some comfy nests this year!
I am really hoping our heat wave passes soon and we get back to normal temps. Too many times, we have bitterly cold weather in March, and if the roses keep growing the way they have this week, I'll be cutting them to the ground in April.
If we don't get more super cold weather, I could have roses blooming in April!

Cindi, it sure is worrisome to see roses trying to grow this early! Yesterday was warm and sunny here and I noticed 'Lemon Fizz' looks like it is trying to sprout. I inspected the rest while I was outside and that's the only one that appears anxious to grow. I so hope the worst of the cold is over- so far I see very little winter damage on canes. If they don't get zapped there should be an amazing show this year.

Neal ..

I usually get some roses actually leafing out at the end of January. I just ignore them, but I think this year is going to be different for us. Night temps have been running about 10 degrees warmer than usual and I don't think we are going to get any more freezing night temps.

The forsythia is showing more than just swelling buds ... early for us ... so I think I may start pruning some of the roses this week. Usually, I wait until the forsythias are blooming. It's just that with the roses so severely deer pruned, I don't want them to waste energy putting out growth that I am going to cut off. Since I don't think any new growth will be destroyed by cold, I am going to go for it.

Here are the six roses I received from Rosemania yesterday. Nice roots.

Score ! (again !)

Zuzu, when you plant these roses, do you remove canes or trim roots? How big are the gopher baskets that you use? I don't think any such basket is sold in our area, so I can't even picture it.
Do Rosemania, Edmunds, Brecks, and Regan Nursery buy from the same growers? Are there any retail sellers that do their own budding now?
My Regan order is coming in late March, Rosemania in mid-March, and Wisconsin Roses are coming in mid April. Just yesterday, I finally got my load of mulch from the tree company. It's a huge smoldering pile, more finely chipped than any I've gotten before. It was so hot I couldn't work with it yesterday. Maybe today I can spread some and keep the roses from leafing out any more than they have.
Temps did get down to 30 last night, so that's good. We'll be back up into the 70s this weekend, so I want to have them covered before then.

Zuzu, those are great looking rose - really very healthy rootstock! Hope they take off quickly and live up to your expectations.

Personally, I prefer planting bare root roses between the end of October and end of November. Then they haven't been in cold storage and still have a chance to root before the cold hits us. Although, I did make an exception again this year (happens every so often) with the three I planted two weeks ago.

The last two weeks have been exceptionally warm but it snowed again last night and the forecast for the next two weeks has lows around -5C and highs of 2to3 with occasional snow showers. And here I thought that I would be able to be in the garden during my vacation next week:(

I also prefer to plant bare-root roses in November, Sunnyvalley,, but Palatine's the only place that still offers that option. My local nurseries don't start carrying roses until January or February, and some mail-order nurseries hold their roses even longer before shipping.

Cindy, in most cases I would prune the canes and the roots before planting. They almost always have some breaks in the canes and roots that have to be trimmed off. In this case, however, I didn't have to do anything because Rosemania had pruned them nicely just before shipping. The cuts were still fresh and there were no damaged canes or roots.

My gopher-proof cages for roses are the 5-gallon size. I use smaller cages for bulbs, and my neighbors have used 15-gallon cages for fig trees and other large plants that appeal to gophers. I don't grow figs, and I take chances with my other shrubs and trees. Most have been safe, although I have lost a few large camellias and lavateras to gophers over the years.

I'm not sure whether they use the same growers, but they use similar growers, mostly in California. There's a difference in the quality of the rose bushes, however. I suspect Edmunds' Roses pays less to the growers and gets a slightly inferior grade. Edmunds' roses never look as good to me as the roses from Regan and Rosemania. I haven't bought anything from Breck's in years, so I don't know about their roses. I think Palatine might be the only retail rose vendor left that still sells rose bushes from its own growing fields.

I can't wait to see my roses from Regan and Rosemania! The Brecks rose orders I received last year were excellent. Normally I take pictures of every order, but the Brecks orders were a late sale deal, (4 or 5 roses for $10!), and I was in a hurry to get them into pots. My 5 gallon pots weren't big enough for some, and I had to bump up to big Rubbermaid tubs. They were not as huge as Palatine plants (but nothing is..) but they were nicer than what I got from Austin or Edmunds or Wayside. Most likely they came from the same source as Wayside, but I believe they had better care in the cooler and during the packing and shipping process. Brecks' regular prices are so ridiculous that I never look at their ads. I've been burnt too many times by all the phony nurseries in that Gardens Alive chain, but some people on garden web posted pics of what they were getting, and I had to jump in.
So far, the Palatine roses I planted last fall are still alive. The green and growing potted roses from the California auction that I planted in late fall don't look so good. Two of them were trimmed by rabbits, but the part below ground is green still. One that looks pretty brown is Hi Ho. This is my 3rd time trying to grow that rose. I knew I was taking a chance planting them that late, and actually the weather has cooperated, so it's my fault this time if it doesn't pull through.
What do you all think about me adding mulch this late in the season? IF I pile it high on the canes, will it delay growth, or will it more likely just cause canker or other issues? Can I really stop mother nature with mulch? We have had too too many late freezes over the years for me to believe any of the new growth will survive. Our last frost date is normally April 11. Last freeze date is usually around end of March.

I am doing something new for me. Usually I buy tomato seedlings but this year decided to try growing my own from seeds. So today I planted my trays of tomato seedlings. I have them on a sunny window shelf with bottom heat. And will also put lights on them. Hope it goes well as I was able to get varieties that one just can't buy in seedlings.

Cindi: Maybe Sunnyvalley" can answer your mulch/freeze question.
Or even Rita...since it snows where they are.