This past winter hasn't been too bad, by zone 4 standards.

We had some good snowfall in December and even some sub-zero windchills for a spell in January, but February was virtually snowless for us, whereas the rest of the country it seems got the snow usually meant for us. It was weird to see the mid-Atlantic and warmer states like Texas getting snowstorms, while we sat up here wondering what happened to winter. Today and yesterday it was up to 50 degrees here, which might as well be 80 degrees to us, and I saw plenty of nuts out and about in shorts and tshirts.

Obviously this won't last because there's still plenty of weeks left of winter here.

I decided to take advantage of this freak warm spell and go out and clean up the yard of all the tree limbs and branches that fell from our last storm, and while working in my garden came upon Shailer's Provence, with fresh green leaves looking like it had on a summer's day. All 350-plus other rosebushes looked like rosebushes normally look in March in zone 4.....BARE and brown, with some dieback. Shailer's Provence is a small plant that was a sucker last summer but I did not cover it up and it has had no snow on it for most of the winter. And its planted in a very windy, exposed spot. The leaves are soft, supple and fresh. This sure is interesting, and got me to wondering if anyone else in cold zones grows this rose and if so, do you find it to be particularly hardy?

(If you don't grow it, you may want to search this one out!) Because it was just a sucker last summer I have yet to see a bloom and there aren't a lot of photos of it out there.....I would love to see pictures if anyone has any to share. I haven't seen its blooms, but I'm already impressed by this rose. I can't say that I've ever seen

fresh green leaves on a rosebush up here in March!

Celeste

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