We have lots of Brandford Pears here around town as street trees. Any minor storm really messes them up and lots of damage to them thru the years. I do really love when they are all in bloom, it is so pretty.

I have been working on my spring cleanups around the garden this past week and a half as it has been so warm. Unseasonably warm for mid late March. I finially got all the roses prunned back for the major spring prunning but I was really annoyed with myself because the roses were already leafed out by the time I was finished. I have a lot of roses. Honestly, this is exactly when I do the rose spring prunning each year, mid late March and they have never been leafed out in years before. So this is unusual but it seems to be a very early spring this year after a warm winter with no snow.

I takes me long enough to get all the roses done but while I was spring prunning I was also chopping back and trimming some shrubs around here plus all my butterfly bushes and my honeysuckle. And now I will have to start spraying the roses with fungicide already this week. Which is an annoyance as it is early in the year. But once the leaves come, they need spraying every two weeks all season.

cece...

We have a new co-moderator and to Chelle!

A very tough time Cece. All the best.

Our cornealian cherry tree is in bloom, also forthsyia & daffidils in front of a stone wall along the street. The daffs scattered around the property bloom later.

Sounds lovely, Lucy! A stone wall is always so beautiful!

Ours, New england type without mortor runs along the street.

IMHO, the very best kind!

I love stone walls!

This morning I took a stroll in the neighboring state park and admired the wildflowers growing around the foundations of long-lost cabins. They seem to enjoy the extra protection those short walls give them.

Bloodroot.



Daffodils still blooming on their own after 30+ years of naturalization.




Our Magnolias are blooming now, and frost is predicted for tomorrow night. Luckily, they're a type that will rebloom.



Here are those tulips from Mackinac Island.



Love this Trout lily.


...and this red-flowered Trillium.

Bloodroot and trillium say Spring so well!!

Our shady garden plants are not up as yet. Inspite of the batch of worm weather most of the garden except those daffs & earlier spring bulbs are not in bloom as yet.

Southside rose garden today after drastic rose prunning this past week. I have daffs and tulips in here as well as lilies for the summer. Plus lots of Wood Hyacinths towards the back that are showing folliage but the blooms are not up yet.

In the second picture you can see the water in the backround. Can't really see it from the side yard after all the shrubs leaf out. That is Long Island Sound. There is a lovely park here across the street from me and of course the beach.







My little 35 gallon in ground pond in the back yard all clean after I bailed it out of leaves blown in all winter and refilled it with clean water.



The big in ground pond in the front yard is a 350 gallon stocktank.




Really small flowered daffs bloom in front of the pond.



York Minister Daffs bloom along the walkway.

Lovely, Rita!

Did you put in the pond yourself? Beautiful!

Lots of daffodils blooming in the front yard.

I had the guys that do all my hardscape and my stone terracing work do the ponds from my design. I could never lift those big rocks. But I did the designs and picked which rocks were set where on that big pond.

Really lovely!

Rita, do you cut your roses back that much every year? Have most of them been there awhile?

Mine got pretty leggy last year; I'm wondering how much I can safely remove at one time. (??)

On those really big canes - do you usually see a bud to cut back to? I didn't really see any on the ones I've cut so far.

Lovely daffodils.

Yes, I cut them back like this every year, each spring. I leave them tall over the winter and prune them SEVERLY as they leaf out in the spring. I don't pay any attention to how much I am taking off, it could be feet. I just want them cut back low for spring. This way they never get out of hand tall during the growing season. I prune after the spring flush also but no where near as much as spring prunning. These roses are now about 18 inches tall. And I do this to all my roses, shrub roses, floribundas and hybred teas. Only thing I leave are the climbers and the roses back by the garage where I am trying to get them to become tall bushes.

I have all my roses in my rose beds 12-18 inches apart. So I have to prune. But I love the look as when they bloom they are a mass of blooms, you can not see any ground between them.

Closeup of prunned roses.

Rita,
You have a fabulous garden. If I every get back east (Someday) I would love to see.

Thanks! I have been working on this garden for more than ten years now. It has been a lot of work getting what I wanted here but I just love, love, love my garden.

Forcythia in bloom.



Terraces gardens in back yard near my kitchen door. This garden area is a stunner in early summer as the daylilies, lilies, ris, roses, catmint and annuals bloom. I have the daffs there but I want to put in more spring bulbs in this area this fall. I plan to add more daffs, some tulips and a bunch of Chionodoxa. That very front bottom terrace mid part gets Portulas planted there for the past two years and I intend to do that again this year.



Front yard woodsey area. And the front yard pond again.

Very, very nice Rita!

What do you keep in your ponds, I would like a small one like the 35 gal.