Jeannie, I think this has been a weird winter and spring all over. I suppose you might think it's a fair trade to sacrifice a few rose bushes to save many others from the moles. That's not a bad silver lining at all. Happy growing this year!

Sherry

Miserable moles? They are good for the soil

Jeannie,

Congrats on the MIA moles. I've never had them in my yard but have sure read a lot of horror stories about them from others. Even Mole Stew recipes!

And you wanted to buy some new roses, anyway, didn't you??

Happy spring - surely it's coming!

It's rainy and cold here too, after a wet cold winter. My worst losses were newly planted baby Teas and Chinas and some marginally hardy salvias, but everything else lived, and most of the garden has grown vigorously. We have loads of grass, which is good as I'm using it to mulch the beds (it's pasture grass). This is one of the advantages of having a lot of once-blooming old roses: they're perfectly happy with a cold winter. So are the lilacs and peonies and clematis. My culinary sage seeded abundantly this winter, and I can hope that the cold will have discouraged at least a few of our various pests. All in all, not that bad a winter. But we didn't have six degrees.
Melissa

Mole stew recipes...oh my. Laughing hard here.
Melissa I seem to remember that you lived in Olympia. I lived there for the first five years when I first moved to Washington. We moved to Mason County so that we could have some acreage and a barn. The temperature here is about 5-7 degrees cooler and a bit more rainey. Not doable for us financially to buy a small farm in the Olympia area.
Is the weather in N. Italy equivalent to Olympia? Curious.
Whenever you post about successed you've had growing roses in Olympia I write them down. Thank you.
Jeannie

Dear Jeannie,
I noticed your location and wondered where you were with respect to Olympia. As you get further away from the water it would get colder. I hope that when I talk about my Olympia gardening it is helpful to you; you have the possibility of growing some really fine roses, though I imagine you know that already. I absolutely adored my once-flowering old roses in Olympia, which bloom here around the time it's getting really hot--not so great.
Here in Italy we live in the northern foothills of the Apennines. We have chilly, dark, wet winters, glorious springs, and hot dry summers. The summer heat we get is the most consistent difference between here and Olympia. We also get more snow, though that's variable. We can grow a lot of the same plants that people grow in the Pacific Northwest: old roses, lilacs, peonies, clematis, hellebores, spring flowering bulbs, barberries, yew and box. But I can't grow acidophile plants; while I can grow plants that require summer heat, such as Tea and China roses, that were marginal in Olympia.
It's nice of you to say hello. Good luck with your gardening!
Melissa