My aunt moved from Riverside, CA to Bastrop, TX and says Texas is not for wimps! She truly loves Texas with all it's weather changes. One day I am going to see it for myself so tell me when the best time of year is and I'll go to see my aunt and Antique Rose Emporium.

Kitty,

April! Right as things are beginning to warm up and the weather is beautiful. Cool clear days with a nice breeze, a warm but not stifling humidity; it's great! October is also a fantastic month to visit.

If you are so inclined, May 3rd the Chambersville Tree Farm is dedicating a new garden. I believe a few Gardenweb members will be there to participate and meet up.

Josh

Annnndd, the weatherman says we're in for a WEEK of mild weather now, highs up to 75, whoohoo!

And I thought I had a tough environment in which to raise roses. It doesn't even come close to what you're describing.

Ingrid

Josh, my Mom is a Ft.Worth native. Nashville weather is the same as yours except Mom says you all get more ice.
It's not easy...especially as most of mine are in pots.
I am really hoping I haven't killed Earl of Eldon....
oh dear.
Susan

I can sympathize with you, Josh. In Michigan we can have 4 seasons in one day, lol. But i'll bet most places have their weather challenges. Just remember you're not alone and we're all pulling for you and your roses!

If the Gulf Stream warming cycle failed, we would all have a whole lot more to moan about in the UK......although, it has to be said, as a nation we are generally rubbish dealing with any sort of extreme weather - a few inches of snow and we grind to a halt. We are, however, an island with a great many river systems (and a history of building on flood plains and even right on these rivers) and a failing flood defence strategy - massive flooding is becoming an annual occurrence.

However, I do have a terrific wheeze planned - we are planting alders in a quincunx pattern in our woods and have a mind to attempt some inosculation and extensive tree training to make a living platform on which timber planks can be laid. Apparently, this was a building method in use in medieval Europe, as primitive flooding survival in lowlying (and fertile) river valleys (such as the Yare valley, where our wood is situated....and is horribly vulnerable to tidal surges). This appeals to me on so many levels - alder can survive standing water and will inosculate, we have acreage to experiment, it costs nothing (I have already sown 2 sorts of alder)....but mostly, it is truly fantastical. I hope to be able to bore on endlessly over the next few years as the woods overtake my allotment as the site of shambolic weirdness and garden insanity.
Apols for a thread derailment....but it does illustrate how innovation can result from adversity....and makes a change from the usual endless English wingeing and carping about our wet and grey (but astonishingly green) country.

Camps,

When I was a teen osculation meant kissing, so I just had to look up inosculation via wikkipedia and google images. My favorite image was of a living bush with a man sitting in it.

As to whining, I still am. It will be the end of March before I can do outdoor gardening. Until then any activity will be indoor projects. Yuck. But I guess we all have climate issues. It creates a kind of fraternity (sorority?).

Cath

Texas weather is just something one needs to get used to and be prepared for startling changes. Had a big leak in my horse barn thanks to 16 degrees - so big wet mess to take care of in my grooming room and repairs to be done, but 2 days later, it was sunny and like spring. By afternoon, it was misting rain and getting warmer - 70 at 7pm! Keeps life interesting. I did bring my newest Vintage babies, very special ones, in the greenhouse with the heater and heat lamp - they never missed a beat but neither did the others outside. I know I am a wimp but I do not understand how you people up north survive these winters! You have more guts than I do. My gardening buddies and I are already salivating about spring and digging in the dirt - something I do intend to do this weekend - sun is supposed to be out and weather mild. I really do like a change in the seasons, even if it is every other day. My area gets about a good month of really cold, inclement weather in January - big freezes can hit in February, but by then, milder weather is coming. Now is when we get lots of rain......and it generally stays mostly cool thru the end of May. I already see tiny new growth on my 1 gallon rose bands - they are really wanting to grow. I just hope we don't get another summer like 2011......105 every single day for 3 months and no rain!
Judith

Ooo, I'm already looking forward to February. My babies in 2 gallons did fine through this past icy weather. The newest guys in one gallons stayed on the porch & are fine, too. They're pushing little green leaves, also.

I brought the cuttings inside, just in case.

We had to fix a well leak, too. Looking forward to the next week of soft weather. Got some holes to dig, wildflowers to plant, trees to prune & a big pile to burn. Gosh, I hope we get somewhere near-normal rainfall this year. Didn't get much this fall & very little so far this winter though winter isn't a big rainy season.

Well...I had to look up TWO words in Suzy's post: I didn't know what "quincunx" meant, either. My vocabulary is richer by two words. I've seen inosculated trees, if that's the past participle, but didn't know there was a term for it.
Suzy, best of luck with your project: it sounds great!
The weather has been fine here: the warmest winter I've seen since we moved to Italy in 2000, though it's due to cool down starting this weekend, and just as well. The roses have never stopped blooming, and--thank God--it hasn't snowed, aside from one moderate fall back in early December. Yet we've had abundant chill hours. However, with all the rain in the fall our neighbors' big field below our big garden has had a large landslide. The drop at the top is about three feet, and the slide spreads in a wide lateral crescent. At the bottom the earth has gone over and through the thin belt of woods that separated it from the paved road below, leaving only the oaks standing, though up to their waists in soil. The forward edge of the slide is at the edge of the road. It's all rather depressing. I think farmers could accomplish something planting lines of trees, oaks in particular, and hedges, but nobody does.
Melissa
P.S. I'll add that the weather, generally good for the plants, is not equally favorable to my mood. I could use some sun. And probably some frost would be a good thing, keeping the pest population in line. Also I'm afraid the fruit trees will begin flowering if temperatures don't drop soon.

This post was edited by melissa_thefarm on Sat, Jan 11, 14 at 0:37

It's been a very dramatic season in NJ, too. A week ago, freakish nighttime lows got to the zone 7a minimum (0F), and today, there's a projected high of 63F. Frost returns with Sunday night's low, but not returning again until Wednesday night's low. All the rain today will hopefully get rid of the last of the snow lingering in random piles, but then we'll be left with our usual wet-and-brown Winter. Meanwhile, online nursery sales are keeping me in a Spring state of mind.

:-)

~Christopher

This post was edited by AquaEyes on Sun, Jan 12, 14 at 11:25

this upcoming week is a face I love, of winter in Texas. sunny and 60-70! THIS is why I live in Texas...actually, not, but this is when I do love Texas. The winters, in general are nice. Just trapped in Chicago in this storm, and couldn't believe the snow. I have never seen snow like that in an urban environment. We were flying back from Italy, melissa-the-farm. And had pretty nice weather in Venice and Rome. Oh, I loved loved loved the citrus growing right out on the streets, orange trees, etc., in Rome. Now THAT is a climate I envy!!

wheeze = a clever idea or joke
quincunx = an arrangement of five things in a square or rectangle with one at each corner and one in the middle (I almost could have guessed this one but not really.)
inosculation = join, unite
shambolic = chiefly British : obviously disorganized or confused
Apols = I figured it out - shorthand.
wingeing = You stumped the dictionary with this one. Perhaps a typo.

My mouse and my brain were really getting a workout from your wheeze...which I think is a fantastic - not fantastical - idea.

Weird weather here. Days and days and days on end of chilly, cloudy wet. Then an 80 day that made my tiled porches puddle with wetness from the air that stayed for two days without drying...and since I think it's still there today, that makes three days. Yesterday was lovely in high 70s. Then around 6:00 a storm/front rolled in and through, giving lightning and thunder boomers and a deluge for about half an hour. At the first clap I dashed out to the porch to move my one-gallon things outside on the patio (brought in for the supposedly hard freeze we had on Tuesday night which didn't go hard, I think, since my new rose shoots are fine and roses are blooming but which zapped part of a hydrangea), so they got a nice drink but if they want sun, I'll have to move them. Not sure if they want it if you know what I mean.

Since I am still pretty much housebound and have converted to Paleo eating, I have had to convert my kitchen also which at first was a drudge (cleaning out my pantry, fridge and freezer due to six months of non-habitation), acquiring Paleo foods and cookbooks, and then air-tight jars and shelves for all the new flours, nuts, seeds and such.) So I got to do a little bit of redecorating in the kitchen while inside, and I feel really good with my accomplishments. Bluegirl's remarks reminded me that the old me would be out digging and planting and blowing about now, but I realized yesterday that this period is a time for re-domestication, so that I will have cooking (maybe not cleaning) fully ingrained (OH! no grains!) in my psyche so I will truly be able to multi-task at some point in the future...gardening and cooking.

Today it's a beautiful one, sunny in the low 80s.

Sherry

P.S. I dearly hope Suzi had to look up at least one word in what I just wrote, but I'm hoping in vain, I'm afraid. She is probably already completely Americanized and is obviously way too literate to be stumped. :)