Onward and upward. Last month was grueling for many of us for various reasons. In California the month of October was marred by the fires in the northern and southern halves of our state. This month should mark the start of our rainy season here, putting an end to this year's wildfire season. The rose in the thumbnail photo for this month, therefore, is Singin' in the Rain because that's what we'll be doing.
Here in zone 9 the roses never really go dormant and we don't have enough frost to kill tender new rose growth, so we're able to prune roses whenever we want. I've always waited until December. In the last couple of years, however, I've found that December's too cold to spend lengthy periods outside. I think this year I'll start pruning in November.
This is also the month of our annual photo contest. Photos can be entered in the contest at any time in the first four weeks of the month. Judging will begin on the 29th. Look through your photos and choose some to enter in the contest. There are 20 categories and you can enter five photographs in each category. That's a total of 100 photos you can enter if you have photos corresponding to each and every one of the categories. Here's the page where you can submit your entries. Be sure to read the rules first, and please ask questions if something isn't clear.
https://garden.org/apps/photoc...
