How did this happen? Already the fifth of the month and we're still posting in the March thread. We're having some rare rain here today and it's much appreciated. Thank you, Mother Nature!

The thumbnail photo is Easter Basket.

I posted to the March Thread because I did not see any April thread!






My front yard after pruning down the roses. Really pruned them back something fierce this time because of all the heavy amount of winter damage. This past February was brutal cold here, we had all sorts of record low temps. Plus the snow, the snow stayed and didn't melt until recently.

It's time for some brainstorming. We will be "Celebrating Roses" the week starting April 25th. We need two or three new articles for that week. Some of the best older articles will be repeated, so we won't need as many as usual.

Some of the topics that haven't been covered yet are: differences in rose fragrance, the most fragrant roses; popular hybridizers (Ralph Moore, the McGredy clan, Pedro Dot, etc.); the rampant spread of rose rosette disease; pros and cons of the craze for Knock Out roses; rain-resistant roses; extending the vase life of roses; thornless roses; and many, many more topics we haven't covered. Once again, I'll beg for an article about rose/clematis combinations.

Remember that the articles ideally should be illustrated lavishly, but if you don't have enough photos of your own, you can use anyone else's from the database or from other parts of the site without asking for permission.

I hope you get a lot of great articles. I don't seem to have any ideas as of now.

Too bad, Rita. Maybe you'll think of something.

I have the feeling that most of you are ignoring me and hoping I won't notice.

I'll do the Rose/Clematis article. If any of you run across nice pictures of Rose/Clematis combos in the database or forums, please let me know.

@Calif_Sue, @CindiKS, @porkpal, @gemini_sage, can't I persuade any of you to write an article? Maybe on fragrance or on the spread of RRD?

I've been thinking about it, and thought I had responded. I'll work up something, and let you look it over.

Great!

I thought throwing a few photos your way would get me off the hook.
No promises, as work and now potential physical therapy are taking a lot of my time. I may do something simple.

LOL Sue!

Do one on "Extending the Vase Life of Roses," Sue. It's useful information, but there's not much you can say about it. A paragraph or two should cover the topic nicely, and there is a lovely photo of a bouquet in a vase in a prominent spot on the Rosa parent plant page.

I wish someone would write a short article explaining just exactly WHO Cecile Brunner was !
I've googled the name a million times and have yet to find any info. on who this chick was and why they named a rose after her.

@Rita: How do you get inside those raised beds to tend to your roses ? You must be a tiny lady !

@Calsurf73, Mike

According to Modern Roses ll, Cecile Brunner was the daughter of a well known Swiss breeder, Ulrich Brunner.

Smiles,
Lyn

I can work on an article on smelly roses... mainly because I love smelly roses.

Cool!

I started pruning my roses 2 weekends ago. I got about 60 of them pruned in the front and have little leaves everywhere! I think we'll actually have a real spring this year! I can't wait for the lilacs to start their show... I'll be doing more pruning this weekend provided I don't get any more snow. My forsythias are in bloom, so it's time, it's time!!! Yay!! Having to prune all the way to the top of the mulch.. really horrific winterkill this year. Those 3 weeks of negative temps we had in Dec really socked it to them. But all that extra mulch I put on them last year (got that 24 cubic yards brought in.. ended up putting most of the roses under a foot of new mulch) saved them all. I didn't find a single dead in the front yard! I still have to go through the roses in the back.. that's where I'm expecting to see the dead ones.. but I need to do a major pruning back there.. everything's winterdead from the mulch up.

As much as I detested all that snow we got, when the temps reached -18F, it was a life saver! After cutting the dead tops off, most of the roses look like newly installed plants.

Calsurf73 said:
@Rita: How do you get inside those raised beds to tend to your roses ? You must be a tiny lady !

I just climb inand around. True, there is not much room!



The Iris Reticulata is bllooming around here now. Love these little guys.

I've got a cute little garden on our apartment patio and I love it. This week, however, I noticed these, planted at our "LA house," in the mid-nineties! (Our "kids" and new grandchild live there now so I visit often!) No idea what they are except old! And fragrant, nearly wild from continued lack of much attention! (I bet they got a tiny bit of much needed rain last night!)

Pretty rose, Julia!
Zuzu, I'll write on RRD. I've been to plenty of seminars on it, and I've already written a few articles that I can revise and illustrate.
We're getting more storms tonight. We had temps of 29 last week after days in the 80s, and then winds of 85 mph, and the roses I cut back froze! So, I'm cutting back even more now.
we'll my phone's beeping, saying a tornado is nearby. Great...
Toni, here's my current favorite lilac