"...No pulling back mulch and scratching in the fertilizer around here..."

You said before you don't shred leaves so if they are whole how does the fertilizer penetrate matted leaves?

It does, this is the way I have been doing things for more years than I can count. Does take awhile to break down though. Helps speed things along if it gets really wet.

We had some of that unseasonably warm weather here for a few days and I was also out doing my garden work, but today it is COLD and rainy...and will stay that way all week. I am worried about my daylily plants that are just starting to emerge....I've never had roses starting to leaf out or daylilies popping up in March so I have no idea what effect the below-freezing temps will have on them. It is going down into the twenties tonight and all week. My daffodils, tulips and crocus are up but not yet blooming, just leaves at this point but I don't worry about them as they are used to it being cold. I keep a journal and the earliest my roses have started to leaf out was the second week of April and that was really early for here. I haven't pruned any roses yet even though the forsythias are blooming down the road in town because we will still have below-freezing temps for several more weeks. This is crazy! It was in the 70's or 60's for nearly a week and now my poor plants are up and growing and now it is going to be so cold and snow is possible.

I know what you mean about all the work involved in pruning the roses. I have way too many, even though I have down-sized from what I originally had. At one point I had close to 300 but now it's probably half that...but that's still a lot of roses. (And a lot of scratches!)
After I get done it looks like I was thrown into a den of tigers...LOL.
I can also relate to the pond-cleaning chore. YUK to the sludgy, mushy black sediment from the decomposing leaves that smells horrible! But it is one of the spring chores that must be done. I don't have fish because I don't want to worry about overwintering them but we always have frogs that come in the early spring and stay all summer.

You showed great restraint in not ordering daylilies. I am not so strong. I ordered a whole bunch over the winter, mostly lates and very lates....and I have YOU to thank for it. You really led me to temptation with all your pictures...LOL

You and I seem to be on the same page about fertilizing as well. I do the RoseTone in late spring too, and then the fish emulsion during the summer. I mulch with shredded leaves but like I said earlier, I am going to leave the whole leaves in the old roses garden this year. All that raking and getting snagged by the thorny canes is a chore I'd rather skip if I can. LOL

Celeste

I have a few roses, but nothing like you have. Same thing here, totally leafed out, and I didn't know what to do. I only cut them back a little, not as I usually do, not much dead on them, I thought maybe I would let them have the initial bloom and then cut back more. Would they need to be covered if we have a frost?
I just put milogranite down for the daylilies today.
It is a pleasure to work outside in the garden for sure.
I just hope that we just stay at least cool until we get well into April.
Cindy

Cindy, I wouldn't worry about a possible frost damaging the roses. I often have roses blooming and fully leafed out in December. So I figgure if they are ok in December they will be ok now. And if you want to skip the prunning now and prune them back after the spring flush instead, that wouldn't hurt them one bit. Might delay the second flowering but that is all.

Celeste, the roses are lots of work as you know but I just love them. Especially during the spring flush which around here is usually in early June. As to getting scratched by the thorns, I am really used to that. I figgure it just goes with growing roses. The fertilizing with Rose Tone in the early Spring and then switching to liquid is something I have worked out and works the best for me.

Rita: Do you use this ORTHO Hose End Sprayer with the dial on top of it?.if so, how do you keep it from clogging up and not work?I have tried to use it a couple times last year and twice this week again with the fish emulsion and it clogs up immeately. and I read what you told some one else, to not shake it up, so I didn't shake the fish fertilizer up at all and it still clogged up and not work,Did you take the screen filter out of yours? I finally just put some in a watering can and put fertilizer on just a few.I am not able to do much yet, but I thought that would be a easy and fast way to fertilize everything, but, it wont work for me.:(

The neptunes seaweed wont go through it either. , :-(

Jean

Rita, you are an inspiration.
Christine

It has been really nice here too, seems like even when we get rain, it is early in the morning & afternoon, so I can still get a lot done. I've been rushing to get my iris weeded early this year before they start budding up. I always seem to snap off buds when I weed. Well, I got finished yesterday, but not without breaking off a bud. At least it was an older one. We got rain Thursday, Friday, & Sat, & I have several tall beardeds with buds after all that rain. Merchant Marine has buds, I'll get to see new blooms there pretty soon, Rita! I went out & bought some tomato plants yesterday. I may have to cover them, but we don't have cold weather predicted for at least the next week, & been at least 2 weeks since we've had a light frost. Honestly, I think it has been at least a month since we've had a really cold night, so I'm going to chance putting out the tomatoes so early.
I wouldn't be surprised to see daylily scapes soon, the foliage looks so tall & lush on some of them. Just an amazing spring. I know I will be sad when it is all over early, but I can't help but be excited to see my iris & daylilies bloom.

Hello Rita,
Indeed work is everywhere. And some idiot didn't put out Preen, so she is getting to weed...again!

I so agree about the roses. I was late with mine too thanks to the weird weather cycle. I too have got to spray! It is awfully early though, but no matter. Has to be done. And today I will put alfalfa around the daylilies and Black Kow around the roses. Busy, busy, Busy!

Bingo! I haven't ordered any daylilies either. Can you believe it? I will order four to replace ones I lost, but that is it. I am very happy that three of them that disappeared early last fall and I thought were gone to crown rot have reappeared. I so hope summer is a little kinder this year, but probably a forlorn hope.

Ah well I knew you would be very busy. I am not planning any new beds this year, are you? Always look forwward to you reporting what you are doing. Take care,
kay

Jean, if I only have afew plants to do I use the watering can. But if I am doing all the daylilies or roses like I usually do I always use the dial and spray. It works for me. Sorry that you are having clogging problems.

Christine, the work here needs doing so I might as well get it done. These things nned doing each spring so nothing unusual going on here except that it is early in the year.

Nancy, the way it was here until Saturday night, it was so warm I thought about buying annuals and tomato plants myself. But of couse it has turned cooler by Sunday and today. So sanity prevails and I know it is too early for planting.

My TB iris are growing and look really good. All survived the winter, I didn't loose any to rotting. But it is going to be a long time till I see iris buds. Even the tulips just started showing buds only a few days ago here. At least you are early with the iris weeding and only managed to do in one bud. Not too bad! And it is always exciting to see blooms on new ones and the old ones too. :-)) I can't wait till you and Kay post pictures of your iris blooms.

Kay, we must have cross posted. I weeded but I have not yet put the Preen out on the iris beds. I had better get that done or the weeding will get ahead of me. Already there were lots of weeds in those iris beds. Everything else is heavily mulched so weeds really don't stand much of a chance getting established.

I haven't gotten out to buy the bagged fertilizer yet so can't spread it around till I do. This year I discovered that it is easier to prune the roses way back like I do each spring if I do it earlier when they are not already leafed out. Crazy year though. What was I supposed to do? Go out and prune them in February? Oh well. It is done now.

I honestly don't know how I have managed to not order daylilies over the winter. Don't know how you managed that either!