Worrying about when mandatory water rationing will kick in, and the Santa Ana winds that tear things apart and dry things out. Otherwise, can't complain.

Stanc, the most frustrating parts of my zone, here on the coast of Southern California, would be drought -- and the increasing scarcity of irrigation water -- year 'round allergies -- Wildfires that burn down entire housing tracts -- and violent desert winds that push all the way to the sea, and dry everything in their path to raisin status, and occasional floods and mudslides.

It's always something. :-)

Jeri

When I hear myself complain about the long winters and cold weather, I try and remember that there are much worse things than what we have up here. Drought and water shortages are such scary things. At least I know that my garden will be alive and well in the spring (pretty much, anyway), with enough rain to keep it going. We are lucky, and I am very thankful.
But yes, Stan, the wait until April IS long, and right now, I have a terrible case of spring fever!
Monday is ground hog day.....hope it's good news:)

Judith

The most frustrating thing right now is a winter without water, after a summer and fall without water. It's more than frustrating, it's actually frightening. I feel guilty now about watering the roses and other plants, and can only hope that the few remaining winter months will bring us the miracle of rain.

Spring will be here before you know it. I should be starting getting ready for seed starting. However, we have had a mouse (mice?) in the house, and the last time I grew seeds with mice, they though I was providing them with a salad bar. This year, I've been hoping the cats might get the idea that those sounds have something to do with them. A couple of afternoons ago, just before dinner, one of the cats walked into the family room with something in his mouth. It had legs, and a tail, and looked suspiciously non-commercial. It also looked like it had been dead for at least a couple of hours, but no reason to believe it hadn't died as a result of cat violence.

So if I don't hear the pitter patter of little feet for a couple of days, I'll assume it's safe and try to buy some seeds. Cats don't have little feet. At least mine don't. If I do hear noises, I'll consider starting the seeds upstairs in the dining room where they can get 24 hour protection.

Pruning will be the first outside thing on the list. That can start around the beginning of March, though there are certain things I'll hold off on until the snow totally melts and I can see the entire bush. Hopefully, I'll get it done this year. I say that every year, and rarely make it through the entire garden.

I'm looking forward avidly to spring as well. It's not that cold here in winter and during a spell of good weather we can get out and work, but good weather has been mighty rare this winter. At the moment the two week forecast is for snow, rain, clouds, a bit of fog, and perhaps the sun peeking through once or twice. It's been a wet winter, which is at least a nice change from the last three years of worrying about drought, though I do think about small mudslides and wonder just how much sodden soil roses can take.

This has been a cold winter by local standards, but our big garden's lows haven't fallen below the mid twenties, which is very reassuring in light of all the relatively tender plants we've put in the garden recently. But I feel like it's been a very long time since I saw our garden green and flowery: last May, to be exact. The garden was drowned in late spring last year by heavy rains, then reduced to dusty gray-brown by the drought that followed, and that didn't end until late October, too late for the roses to leaf out again (especially since the first snowfall arrived about three weeks later). So I'm really looking forward to spring. With all this rain, I'm hoping for a great year.

Melissa

Looking forward to the first hint of yellow on the Forsythia. That is the good time to prune here in the northeast.

I rather like the winter and the pretty snow (I'm retired and don't drive in the stuff)

I also like the changing seasons----By the time fall comes I'm tired of working in the garden---so I look forward to each new change--

By the end of March I can't wait to get in the garden.

Florence

I read in a gardening book once that everone thinks their area is the worst.
I guess for me, it either seems the best or else can be a total disaster depending on the year. For the good part, I can push zones a little because we don't usually get below zero much. Plenty of yearly rainfall unless a drought year, mainly in the summers. We get enough cold for the once bloomers to perform well. Bs isn't much of a problem, because even with the humidity once it is 85 or so, it slows it down. For the bad part, we can get very hot and dry summers, no reliable snow cover for insulation, the wind can blow violently, we can have an early spring and then turn cold again for a week. I have flat ground and have to watch that I don't plant a rose where it will sit in water. So if nothing else, there is always hope,LOL. And plenty of chances to experiment! I don't know what the ideal place for roses might be, but I guess it would be what roses you wanted to grow.

Sorry, I live in rose heaven--Western Oregon. They don't call Portland "the city of roses" for nothing! I love the summer and fall here, but the winter and spring can be difficult. We have been having very cold foggy weather alternating with rain. Yuck. But pruning is just around the corner (Presidents day-Valentines day) and I can start "messing around in the mud". Plus, the addition of a small dose of antidepressant should get me through until April!
Kathy

Asolutely no rain at all since October or maybe September, I forget. But we did get .4 inches of icy snow last week.
Windy all the time. Extreme summer heat.
But the bright side is no humidity so fungus is seldom a problem. And it chills plenty for the once bloomers. Bourbons like SdlM love it here. Loamy sand is a joy to dig, but need lots of compost/manure.
I agree, the West Coast looks like paradise. But awfully crowded and they say the cost of living pretty high there.

If it makes you feel better, I'm all the way down in Texas and we also have to wait until April. Plus we don't have the pretty snow. And there's not as much rain and water is getting scarce.
Not to mention the 2 months of 100 degree + weather.
Still feeling envy?

I think I'd love to live in a zone 6, 7 or 8. Somewhere west of here. Maybe the Pacific Northwest. I might possibly be required to relate to Boise Idaho for work someday. I think it's in zone 6. I wonder what roses do well there?

I'm getting really tired of below zero for weeks on end. I can't wait until April. That's when I get to prune all the dead wood.

Here in central Florida that worst things about this zone for rose growing are blackspot, crappy sandy soil that does not retain moisture, extreme heat and humidity in the summer, dry winters and (new last year) chilli thrips. Constant year round gardening wears you and your bank account out too.

The best things about this zone are no Japanese bettles and the fact that I can go outside right now on February 3rd and pick a bouquet of roses from my garden. That is really great.

7 is good for everything that I want to grow. Some Springs get sudden temperature peaks that cut short the gallica and damask season.

I'm with Kathwhit! I'm in Portland and it IS rose heaven. It's one of the reasons I moved here. I moved from the Bay Area, zone 9, which was great, but water shortages did happen.

I definitely do NOT think my zone is the worst.

Stanc,
Understand the feeling; but think of ALL the things you can grow. I stopped buying the baggged roses after a couple of years because most of them were mislabelled and virused (I had carefully made my list and carefully planted them so the adjacent plants would color coordinate). After that, I made a rule which I kept; go up and buy ONLY ONE bagged rose and pot it up and fuss over it and that seemed to relieve the inner stress of the winter doldrums, LOL. After a few years I stopped buying that even.
My suggestion, go to the box stores or grocery stores that carry blooming mini roses in pots. Drool over them, select the one you would like to later plant outside in the yard and present it to your wife as a gift. The blooming plant will cheer everyone up and later you can separate the plants and plant them outside. Hope this helps.
Jim

Pretty snow?
You are kidding right?
Here in Wisconsin snow looks pretty the first day it falls.
People forget how to drive in it ,forget to shovel it and forget that it last until april.
Stanc

Good point, Jim.
Over the years I've acquired quite a few plants that have to live indoors in the winter, and they do brighten up my existence. Air plants, Sansevierias, angelwing begonias and tender cyclamen are the ones I have now. I can't say that I take good care of them--daily attention to plant isn't my strong point; I prefer things I can stick in the ground and let take care of themselves--but they're puzzles to solve as to maintenance, and the flowers are cheering. I remember one winter in Washington (state), when I begged my husband for SOMETHING green, flowering, and cheap from the supermarket. He came back with three primroses in pots at around a dollar each. They sat on the table in the morning sun and bloomed cheerfully for many weeks, and I felt good every time I looked at them. Plants are powerful!
Melissa

Stanc,

The Wisconsin snow sounds beautiful, but I know after our 0.4 inch snow last week, I wasn't sad to see it melt. At least you get a break from the garden, I am out there year round. And rarely ever even a rainy day to keep me in to do house work, LOL. The Old Europeans must be fabulous in zone 5.
We don't have to shovel snow, just sweep sand. And the tumbleweeds drift upon occasion...

I love my zone, into eveery zone a little rain can NOT fall but it is raining right now and I feel intensely greatful that my selfish habit might be indulged for another year. I will totally forget being selfish as soon as Sutter's Gold puts out it's first flush. The first roses seem to be the most scented and could cure almost any malaise. When MAC and Devoniensis are busting out all over, my spirit soars!
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I only have one alba and two gallicas, now that is a blessing!
la

The picture are lovely, can't wait until spring! And can someone please let me in on the secret of posting pics on this forum?

Lucky here in that I can grow almost any variety of rose. Unlucky in the annual Japanese beetle invasion. Looking out the window at the moment all is snow and ice, but spring will come eventually!

This year the problem here is definitely drought. We have a water supply based on local reservoirs, and the YTD rainfall this winter is about 7", whereas the normal should be 20" by now. Worst rainfall season actually in recorded history in this county! Our water district is talking about building a de-salinization plant for multi- gabillion dollars - if they do that the water rates will be above the moon forever, but they say if they don't....

The water shortage has meant that the deer damage in the garden has continued during what is normally our wet season - in normal years the deer damage stops as soon as the rain starts, as the wild areas green up. So, my emerging Spring bulbs & new growth on the roses is under attack - luckily our garden is so overgrown with large shrubs that there is plenty for them to eat, without really making it obvious.

They are going to decide about water rationing on April 1 - I can't wait!

Other than that this "Meditteranean climate" zone is perfect for warm zone old roses - we have lots of happy chinas, teas, noisettes & hybrid musks, as well as an unhappy damask - Madame Hardy, which is sulking, and has died back to 1 & 1/2 canes, as usual. I moved it last summer to where it will get more sun in the summer, and we did get some cold nights a while ago, so I am hoping it will make more than its usual 2 flowers next Spring - I do love it, but it is a good example of why it is smarter to grow roses in the climate zone they prefer!

Jackie

I don't have a lot of roses so hand watering them isn't a big chore. But those blasted chili thrips are the WORST! Stan, where in WI are you? I gardened in Green Bay for over 20 years before we retired down here. :-)

Greybird--I use Picture Trail photo site and they store pictures for not too much money. They have a button that says "Image URLs" You click on either "clickable thumbnails" beneath your photo once you've down-loaded them or you can click on img src for auctions and out come your photos.
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You click on the image URL, hit control C and come here to the message square and hit control v and that will paste it into your post.
la

The most frustrating part of my zone is mid to late summer when it gets really hot every day.
I feel sorry for the roses having to "live" out there, while I'm inside with air-conditioning.
But it's a small price to pay for not having to go through a really cold, long winter.
I hate extreme cold weather MUCH, MUCH more than I dislike the extreme heat.
So, I can't complain ... but I will when August gets here :-)
Memory is such a short thing.
Kind of like, "weather, what have you done for me lately?"

Randy

The heat...the humidity...blackspot...die back from heat....but thankfully I have good soil here in North Florida.

I would love to grow Gallica's, Alba's and Centrifolia's. Oh!!! And some peonies....I just adore the pictures of peonies I have seen!!

Deb :o))