I'm happy to be planting four bare root roses I ordered from Palatine, on this mild March afternoon. This is the perfect time to plant them in the lower Hudson Valley's 6b climate. I do the usual routine of placing them in a deep hole, filling in with equal parts native soil, peat moss and compost, then covering them with a mound of soil, with a moat dug around them for watering. In mid-May I'll uncover them when the weather calls for some cool overcast days. This is La Rose de Molinard, and I have a couple of Westerlands to intersperse between the purple clematis in one of the courtyards. Should be a nice color combination.

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It's about time you resurfaced ! lol
You got very nice specimens from Palatine.
Do you have to mound cover all your roses in winter or just new ones ?

Glad to be back. It was a long hibernation this winter, and the snows only melted last week. Hopefully no more snow will fall, but our last frost date is still six weeks away (May 15). With my roses I bury the bud union a couple of inches below the soil line so that I don't have to mound them all, but I do typically mound the first--year plants for their first winter. Otherwise I take a very Darwinian approach to them. I've found that it's easier to occasionally replace a lost rose than to cover them all. That being said, there are a couple of prized tender specimens I baby every year.

Nice to see you here again Mike! Hope you will be adding a photo eventually to the database for Rose (Rosa 'La Rose de Molinard') since we are lacking!

I have a clematis Polish Spirit planted with my Westerland, looks so fabulous, I need to remember to take pictures this year.

Sue, you take the best pics; please post 'em!

Sounds great Mike! Glad to see you back here. Can't wait for pictures in the spring!

Mike! Glad you're back. We've missed you.

Now if we only knew where Neal is.

I've been saying that for a while. Where did he go?

Today was the first real exertion I've expended in the garden in a year. If anyone remembers, last summer was unbearably hot, rainy and wet in the northeast. I grew up in the humid south and am used to hot sticky weather, but even I stayed indoors last summer most of the time. I was SO looking forward to the autumn, but that's when I broke my foot running away from a big bear in my back yard, so I wasn't able to do anything for months. Then the long winter of our discontent came, and today is the first mild day we've had. So I spent the entire day in the garden with Sprite, my husky, digging holes together. But now I'm beat! So I just sat down with a cold bottle of chardonnay to chill out and get caught up on all things plants!

Oh yeah...I remember...you broke your foot being chased by a bear! Not many people can say that! I'm so glad that you got such great looking plants from Palantine (they're always great from there) and that you've started your spring season! So what are the other 3 roses you got?

Just two Molinards and two Westerlands. I used to order 20 roses at a time, but baby steps for now...

Mike, it's great to have you back! Have you and Sprite completely recovered from your bear-induced injuries?

Thank you! I just had my fourth set of x-rays last week and unfortunately the bone never healed; it's as broken now as it was six months ago. But I have a very respected orthopedic surgeon who assured me back in December that if there was no pain when she released me from the stabilizing boot, there was no reason for her to perform surgery to screw the bones together. So when I finally got out of that #*@& boot, there was no pain, and no need for surgery. I had a follow-up appointment with her last week and she said there was no reason not to do whatever physical activity I want to do, whether it's gardening, hiking, or exercising on the elliptical machine. So I was ever so happy to be back working in the garden today after such a very long time.

As for Sprite, her injury took a very, very long time to heal. But I'm happy to report that she finally stopped limping in January, and her mood improved. It was obvious the pain had led her into a depression... no smiles, no playfulness, just slept all the time and limped around the house. But once the limp went away she began playing with her toys and smiling again. It was such a relief. Today she accompanied me around the garden, chased a few squirrels, and even helped me dig a hole for a transplanted Gertrude Jekyll. Later we sat down on the upper hill in the back garden and looked out on the Hudson River together, with me scratching her ears and her leaning into me.

Happy to hear about the perfect day, for you and for Sprite.

It was indeed, Zuzu. We paced ourselves, since this was the first time either of us had really spent much time outdoors in a long while. We even took our lunch break together, and shared some chicken salad from the deli.

Beautiful girl! Do you have any kitties left? I'm down to my last 10.

Carol, I wish it was as exciting as it sounds, but the truth of the matter is that the bear was outside in my garden while I was inside, and surprised me by standing up on its haunches at the house window next to my desk and a mattress on the floor that I was sleeping on that we moved downstairs to accommodate Sprite while she was in a cast recovering from an injured ankle. The bear scared the daylights out of me, and Sprite started growling at it and then started running through the house to go through her pet flap door to confront it. I jumped up from the mattress next to my desk to back away from the bear and to chase after Sprite, turned, lost my balance on the mattress, got caught up on the carpet, fell, and broke my foot. So yes, it was a bear-related injury, and it sounds so much better when I say I was running because of a bear in my yard. But the embarrassing truth is that I was safe inside, just clumsy!

Zuzu, I still have my dear friend Topaz, who is about 19 years old and is probably going to outlast everybody. He's like the Ever-ready Bunny, just keeps going and going. Last year he developed a syndrome where he had constant myoclonic seizures (continuous minor muscle spasms in his face and neck). My vet prescribed a traditional medication that controls the seizures, but makes cats very listless. Not a good trade-off. So I did a lot of research and found an article published in a British journal of veterinary science that described a new treatment that controlled the seizures better with no side affects at all. I shared it with my vet, who was pleased that a patient's owner would care enough to do the research (little did she know me), and we switched to the new medication which has worked wonders. He's as good as ever now. Still blind in one eye, and half deaf, but going strong.

Oh, dear. I put the chardonnay in the freezer to quick chill, and forgot it was in there. I just took it out and tried to pour a glass, and now have a chardonnay slushy!