I finally got my new rose from Ludwigs. We shall see how this post goes. Already it has disappeared once, so the keyboard is acting up again. Rose is huge! Came in a plastic bag that served as a pot (have not seen this type used for a pot before). It was a bit difficult to get out of the bag until the bag finally ripped and I could get to the rose. Looks like they packed the rose in garden soil. Usually they are all in potting soil, so that was a bit different as well. They also packed it in those peanuts that smelled like popcorn. Those stuck to the thorns and made it a bit difficult to get off the rose as well. It was difficult to get out of the box (it was dark inside the box and difficult to see what I was dealing with). Also the main stem was broken due to it probably slamming against the top of the box during transport. Not sure if I will order from them again until their packaging improves a bit.

The rose is huge! Lots of buds (unfortunately on the broken stem) and a flower as well. Flower doesn't really look like the picture on the website but I am thinking it is the right rose (keeping fingers crossed). She is going to stay in her large pot that I placed her in. I have no room for her in my garden and even if I did, I would wait until I could grow her on her own root before I would put her in there.

At least I was able to get her into her permanent home last night. Still have not put my midnight blue's in the ground as of yet. Maybe today that will happen.

Digging in the ground will be good for me. Bad day at work yesterday. If I could I would retire in a heartbeat. So looking forward to the weekend. It is supposed to be nice weather. Hoping I get my yarn from England that I ordered so I can start crocheting the blanket for my parents. Would be nice to get a lot of it done prior to visiting them in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to getting out of here for a few days and seeing them. Unfortunately, should be the time my blooms will be popping, but all of us will survive if I don't get the perfect pictures. Hugs and kisses from them will be so grateful and definately worth the trip.

Been raining here on and off all day, and blowing a gale. Much cooler too... Daughter had to go out and buy some warmer tops. Apparently, yesterday was the last of our hot weather, Jim. Didn't get my sweet pea seeds in for St Pat's Day either, Curdle! I planted last year's at the beginning of November, (oops) and they flowered through to the end of Feb. Will try to be more organised this year.

Mustbe, hope the home improvements continue to go well. I sympathise with you about the motorbike...one of the neighbours has a young daughter(20s) who has just got her licence and so we too have to endure noisy revving at all hours. As our property backs on to the main road we can hear all her comings and goings, along with those of her current boyfriend, whose bike is even noisier if possible. I'm glad your roses arrived, but what a shame about the broken cane. A holiday, however brief, visiting your parents, sounds to be just what you need considering all the work you have done lately, both at home and in your workplace. Your Wedding Cake will be absolutely stunning but I'm sure there will be other photo opportunities.

Oh, Diane! What can I say about yesterday! Well, it wasn't an unmitigated disaster, but it wasn't one of my better Show visits! It started off very well, nice weather and we arrived early to avoid the hotter part of the day. Then my GD saw the adverts for the Dinosaur exhibit at the Melbourne Museum which is next to the Exhibition Building. It took bribery, corruption and much ingenuity to new heights to persuade her that we would enjoy Dinosaurs much more next week.....so we proceeded to the Great Hall of Flowers. The floral arrangements were exquisite....and my daughter' s phone battery was flat, I had no iPad with me, and DH forgot his camera, so not one photo.....aargh (plus a lot of expletives). GD was very taken with some mannequins dressed in ball gowns made up of flowers, so we were constantly inundated with requests to return to see the 'pretty princesses'.

We made our way to the Rose Introducers stand to see the new releases ( bunched in vases)....I am so glad I ordered Dark Desire! Belle Parfume is a pretty mauve with a good scent, and another 'lovely' was A Daughter's Gift, also nicely perfumed. I liked the scent of Francis Meilland, and it was a beautiful flower, but I've read too much about stingy blooms to put it on my wish list. Tranquility and Wollerton Old Hall were also on display, very beautiful, well scented, along with some older Austins, can't remember which. It was a pity the Hall was so hot from the lighting, because a lot of the roses were drooping so I couldn't really make a good judgement on their merits. I took some photos off the hand outs I brought home.

I would have liked to spend more time at the Dahlia, Begonia and Chrysanthemum stands but by this time there were calls for a sit down, drinkies and cakies. In the end I left the others to the face painting fairies, the Disney Dinosaur and the fairies with the crayons and paper, and did a quick trip to my favourite perennial haunts where I bought some purple penstemons, pink and purple Achilleas, blue hardy geraniums and a pink Flowering Currant. I would have liked some of the Epimediums too, but my shopping bag was getting a bit heavy by then :-). I did see Cafe au Lait dahlia in bloom, creamier than I expected from the pics on the Internet, but that might be due to the growing conditions, I think. The various bulb companies had fabulous displays of Tulips, Nerines and Hyacinths, and I was soooo tempted! The sculptures were arranged down the main avenue, and I had a brief glimpse but didn't linger. Same with the sustainable gardens and the Show Gardens...I was really kicking myself about not bringing the iPad when I saw these. I couldn't remember the name of the seed company where I bought my seeds last year, so don't know if they were there and Wagners Roses/Silkie Gardens didn't have a stand this year so a bit disappointing. I would also have liked to see more at the vertical garden stand, and the one with the stackable pots, but by then it was more than time to go! All in all, a bit of a fizzer, but hey, there's always next year :-D I swear, I'll be going alone if my son can't make it! Melodye

Wow! What a show! We have nothing like that here. Thank you for posting the handouts. The show is huge! Looks like they had some beautiful flowers. I am excited to see next year's pictures.

Got to get some sleep. Slept very little last night after the day at work I had. The park which is about a mile from me had a concert tonight in the ampatheatre (or however you spell it). They can only play until 10. The concert was louder than my TV! The place was rocking. Time to get to bed and be thankful I only have another day this week at work before the weekend. Nighters everyone.

Melodye, thank you for going to the trouble to post the brochure photos and the rundown of your day. The photo of the exhibition building was very impressive, and all that you managed to do almost exhausted me hearing about it. It's extra difficult to take a small child along, too--I've done it. I'm especially interested in your purple penstemon and pink and purple Achilleas. What are their names? I tried a new pink Achillea last year (can't remember the name right now), and wasn't too impressed by it, so I'm on the lookout for a different one. Berry Delightful is still a rose I'd like to grow if it ever arrives on these shores. All in all, your day sounds much more exciting than mine is going to be tomorrow. I'm not expecting much. Maybe there will be some new hot tub colors to see--ha.

I managed to prune my butterfly bushes and whack off the last of dead perennial tops before that icy cold breeze drove me inside. We need some spring weather, or I'll never get things done. I'm still working on that d**n manuring, too. I received the weekly Edward's email and noted their featured special annuals (perennials in your part of Australia, I think). I've decided the petunia hybridizers have gone nuts, and joined the craziness of the coreopsis, penstemon, and coneflower hybridizers (and others I've missed). The photo of petunia "Crazytunia Blackberry Cheesecake" was quite pretty, with some blooms having blackberry centers and others colored more raspberry and cream. But that name--Crazytunia?? The petunia I didn't care for, though, was "Night Sky", a royal purple with white splotches and speckles. This one looked like a can of white paint had been thrown at it. Just my elderly opinion.

Got a new book in the mail today I'm eager to read: "Back in the Garden with Dulcy". I've mentioned it before. It is a compilation of columns, photos, and other material written by the Portland, Oregonian, gardening columnist who passed away in 2011. I guess she was very well thought of as a writer and a humorist.

Hope you can take it easy tomorrow, Melodye.

Have a good weekend, mustbe, with lots of sleep and gardening chores accomplished. G'night everyone. Diane

Warm rainy weather caused weeds to pop up now it's to chilly to pull em... lol Suppose to warm up a bit in about a week...

If we start a new thread on the 20th I'll try and refrain from whining about the cold.... :-/ (lol) ;-)

We have a strip of property beyond our fence to those railroad ties... (12" or so wide) Weeds are popping up even though I have that weed barrier stuff doubled up may I add and weeds still pop up through it... So got to take down fence when it warms up and redo it or whatever....Maybe redo and mulch it...

Dipping into the 20's tonight... Tomorrow night 2-3 inches of snow expected...

Jim, I don't really "like" what you just said. I hope everything comes through OK. How many nights do you expect the 20s to be the low (just the one, I hope)? Our 20s didn't materialize, thank heaven, but it hasn't been warm, for sure. Got down to about 30 this morning, and there was ice on the bird bath water.

I'll report later about the great garden show--but we followed it up with a trip to the amazing Edward's Greenhouse. So many clematis there I didn't even try to look at them this time. Got another Apricot Drift. Lots O' roses. I think Austin's Olivia Rose has sold out, but I did get mine. That one's going to be a big hit. Diane

Yeppers snow for us on the first day of Spring... :-/ I think we are going to get 4 straight nights in the upper 20's... A couple days temps will be in the 30's during the daylight hours.... All I can do is hope for the best....

I'm covering our tiny own-root Earthsong as it is getting basal breaks already... :-O

Hi everyone, hope you all had a good St Patrick's Day.

Jim, like yours, our weather has taken a down turn, but only to 50s-60s, with some rain...about 3/4". I hope your Earthsong 'weathers the weather' and those new basal shoots survive. The weeds will be waiting, no matter what!

Diane, I'm sorry that your cleanup and manuring has been delayed by the rotten weather; hopefully it will improve from now on.

i googled those 'crazytunias' and have bought some similar ones here....the deep burgundy with yellow stripes and the pink and green one,( which I'm not crazy about) The burgundy and yellow I bought in Spring 2014, and it has been great. It came back this last Spring and also seeded itself into the pots, flowers are lavender and candy pink, both with white stripes. I hope it will return after winter again this year. I loved the look of Blackberry Cheesecake, but Night Sky left me cold. I wanted to check it for spider mite infestation, lol. I don't think it is an age thing either, it just doesn't look right.

My goodies waiting to be planted are: penstemons Midnight, Sour Grapes and Purple Bedder; Achillea, Purple Mist and pink Frophy; geranium x magnificum and g. Gravetye. I was debating about g. Johnsons Blue but will wait for the catalogue order. Besides the Flowering Currant, I also bought a Weigela Florida Variegata because the Autumn colouring is so pretty. There were a lot of fuchsias which caught my eye but had no time to browse. I really need to get some more screwless brackets before I buy more fuchsias. I looked for the company that supplies them, at the Show, but they were absent this year. I have bought from them online before, so that's OK. The brackets are great...the weight of the pots hold them in place.

The only requirement is the recessed mortar in the brickwork.

Looking forward to hearing about your Flower Show. We have Chimineas at ours :-) Melodye

OT — How to load trash bags without tearing them up.

Some time back a poster asked how others loaded their trash bags with rose cane trash. They may have been on a different forum but in case they were here they can look up this vendor’s product: Lawson Products Easy Bagger 40500. You just insert the plastic sheet into the bag and expand it. It allows you to fill the bag with items that would punch holes in the bag. Once loaded there are two hand hold cutouts for sliding the insert up and out of the bag. You will be amazed how much you can put in the bags using these inserts….

Okay, back to your roses!!!! lol and snow Jim…. lol

1100 comments and still going.....

I'll continue my post at 3:20 AM, now that I'm up (slept soundly for a while in my rocker); as you can see my sleep habits our outrageous. I could do worse things, I guess.

Jim, how awful to have such weather on the eve of spring. Hope your little rose does OK. I'm sure it will, but what a downer. We can still have a toast to spring, anyway. I saw some Design Toscano plaques and statues at the show today, but my tree wasn't there, and I still want him. He's just too pricey a guy.

Melodye, I don't really have much to report about the show. It is going down, down in size and quality. No real plant displays or interesting stuff, But, yes, there were hot tub-spa displays, and gourmet salsa from Cowboy Tom's sauces (whoever that is). Edward's, however, was another thing. I'll return to check out the clematis, but a gazillion perennials were out, the huge rose display, which will sell out as time goes on, and lots of spring bulbs, hydrangeas, and annuals, many blooming (annuals were cold weather types and not blooming, for the most part). I was disappointed in the many penstemon, but want to try Dark Tower (huge) to see if it's an improvement on Husker Red. The coreopsis were types I've known to fail me, except for Cranberry Ice, which I want to try, plus more Mercury Rising. I love the sound of your new penstemon names. I'm going to look for them, but I'm sure the names will be changed here. Purple Mist Achillea sounds wonderful. I would like that one, too. The bracket idea is great. Don't know if I've seen that here, but I don't use brackets.

Toolbelt , thanks so much for the tip, which I'll note. I usually just dump canes in our extra garbage cans, but it would nice to use the plastic bags, too. I've had pretty good luck with the tall upright heavy paper leaf bags that are everywhere in the fall.

Well, I'd better return to trying to sleep. Ha, what luck. Diane

I have just watched last night's Better Homes and Gardens episode and it was centred around the Melbourne International Garden Show, so I have finally seen some of the things I missed. I'll try to post the link but I don't know how successful I'll be :-/

Yahoo7.com.au/bhgtv

wow, it went through. Melodye :-)))))

I learned a little trick from the late karl_bapst_rosenut.... Taught me to use old fashion christmas lights or anything that threw heat then place it inside a large pot that covered a small rose bush and it keeps it warm enough it will not get damaged by cold etc... (Of course water the bush well to keep leaves hydrated...) I use a cutoff plastic 1/8" thick half barrel with holes drilled so not to much heat builds up... (I place a thermometer in it and it said 42 degrees this morn when it was 30 degrees outside...)

Excellent idea, Jim. What about that white barrel above? Aawww, she's no barrel, and she's just helping. My, your grass is green. Ours doesn't look so hot, but getting a little better. I'll have to show my son in law your green grass photo.

Melodye, I'm going to check that link after I've done some chores. Thanks.

Here's the latest on Spring US: Spring is officially here in the Eastern Time Zone at 12:30 AM tonight; in the Central Time Zone at 11:30 PM; in the Mountain Time Zone (where I am) at 10:30 PM; and in the Pacific Time Zone at 9:30 PM. Australians, when does your fall officially start? I'll head out to the patio to watch the sun go down with Coke in hand; then later tonight I'll hit the patio briefly at 10:30 PM. I'll be toasting all of you and your roses then. Maybe I'll do a slow senior shuffle around the patio-haha, too. Diane

LOL...For a second I was looking for a white barrel thinking I have no white barrel...lol Then I read on...lol

Later in summer when drought comes upon us and everywhere our dog Gracie pees the grass will die in a circle...lol..

Diane, I ordered a collected works of Elizabeth von Arnim for my kindle. Cost me all of 96 cents for 1400 pages, kindle size pages though, so probably only 600 'real' ones. There's no Table of Contents, so I just have to read them in order. The first 'story' is in the form of a diary. I am loving it. She refers to her husband as the Man of Wrath, and her children are referred to as the April baby, the May baby and the June baby. I have an awful lot in common with the protagonist! And I love the kindle. So easy to read. I think it was mustbnuts who persuaded me, but whoever it was....thankyou.

Melodye, thanks for posting the link to the Show. I'll watch it later. Sounds fascinating. My achilleas mostly flop, though I remember growing 'Cloth of Gold" decades ago, and it didn't. I have several, including C of G now, but it flops too. Is there some secret?

To all those in the Northern hemisphere, A Happy Spring, and to us downunder, A Happy Autumn.

Jim, nice to see Gracie is enjoying the grass. That's why I don't have lawn in the back yard! Our boy hasn't learnt the correct method! That barrel idea looks interesting....I wonder if it would work if I put one over herbaceous peonies covered with ice bags, minus the the light, of course.... I'm getting desperate here! :-D

Diane, our 'official' Autumn starts on the convenient March 1st, but the actual start is today, the 20th, so I'm celebrating your Spring already :) It's actually morning tea time, so no champagne.... coffee and cake ( chocolate) only, I'm afraid. It is going to be a lovely day...sunny and about 75, I believe. DH and I, plus GD, are going to rake all the leaves that have fallen from the neighbours trees on to our patio and deck ( and into the pool), then I'll shred them and toss them over the garden beds.

I hope you will enjoy the Show segments, as they are quite a comprehensive coverage of the event. It was good to see the sustainable gardens properly, as they provide far more useful ideas for home gardens than the 'concept' ones. The rest of BH&G programme has some other interesting stories which you might find entertaining too. I think it runs about 70 mins in total, but I watched a recorded version that had adverts so I'm not sure. Melodye

High heat issues are an entirely different animal mel...Maybe an air conditioned half barrel...
I noticed the word cake & chocolate in the same sentence Mel... yummm

Sounds like your a bit busy in the garden...Shredded leaves are great!

Titian, missed your post while I was typing mine. A Happy Autumn to you, too. Achilleas are funny things, some will flop if they don't get enough moisture in really hot weather, eg Lachsschonsheit (? spelling) yet others such as Cerise Queen and Terracotta never do, at least for me. Cloth of Gold is one I've never grown, don't know why, so can't help there. There was a really nice white in the Mistydowns stand that I'm kicking myself for not buying. I hope they will have it in stock when I drive up there later this year.

I'm glad you are enjoying your kindle....I need to get a stand for the iPad because my shoulder gets sore when I read too long :(. Melodye

Sorry, Jim, missed yours too. Yeah, that might work...... My portable is a bit big though. Some thought required here :-| M

At 7:54 the sun was supposed to set here, so I ran out to the patio with my Coke and watched. It seemed like it set 10 or 15 minutes later than Google's designated time. Unfortunately, the sunset was less than impressive due to houses and hills blocking the view. If you look to the north, the view is stunning, but the sun doesn't set in the north. I will go back out at 10:30 for the official start to spring in the Mountain Time Zone, and toast the new spring and all of you.

Titian, von Arnim books are on my list to read, and as soon as my current crop of books is finished, I plan to order at least one of her books. I got about six books in the mail today (not all for me, though). In addition to Back in the Garden with Dulcy"(which I love), I received my first "Miss Buncle's Book", plus "Rosemary", the tragic story of one of the Kennedy sisters, and finally, a loaner from my daughter, "The Girl on the Train", which is the best selling suspense novel. I'm also getting "Miss Buncle is Married". These will fend off Inspector Gamache for a while.

Melodye, I think your chocolate cake sounds wonderful. I'll have cookie with my Coke (almost too sweet for me), but I'd like cake better. I had a very unexciting, but busy day, so I'll get to your link tomorrow. Between grocery shopping and cooking chicken curry salad, I threw out manure. when will this end (I think I've said that before; still, the light is at the end of the manure tunnel. I swear I can see it). Then immediately I've got to start pruning. It's crunch time. Tons more transplanting that I'm way behind on, too. I want to sow some radish seeds, and those little things I never seem to get around to doing.

I need to rest a bit, and then it's out for a little spring celebration! Diane

Happy Spring everyone! Although I have another hour and 15 minutes to go. So busy this morning running around when all I wanted to do was sleep. My credit union does a free shred event twice a year and today was one of the days. Got a lot out of my file cabinet and it is gone. So good to get that done. Still shopping for my patio door and late this afternoon, I think I found what I am looking for. Will have to discuss with Lowe's to see the price and if I can get it. I know they will special order anything your request, so I just have to find out if my person I have been working with will be there tomorrow.

Plants still need to get into the ground. When I finally got back from errands this morning, I ate lunch (no time for breakfast this morning) and promptly tried to get through a million emails and then crashed and took a nap. Finally, after the third time the boyfriend woke me up with leaving a message (2x on my regular phone and once on my cell) (bless his little heart--not), I decided to get up. Weather is nice here (sorry Jim) and even now at 8:15 at night, I have my patio door open and am getting "fresh" air in the house. Fresh air is a relative term here where our pollution and pollen levels are usually through the roof.

Still need to get my crocheted cocoon in the mail for my niece but at least it is done and I can start to work on an afgan for myself, until my yarn arrives from England for the afgan I want to make for my parents. I just wish it would get here. UGH!

Titan, congrats on your Kindle! I love mine and I don't have to store the over 300 books I have bought (or used the lending library) to read. YES! I think all of the classics are free as well.

I only use the free app for my computer so there is a button to the left top part of my screen that has three horizontal lines with dots after them. That is the table of contents button. Don't know if you have one of those on the book that you are reading or not, but I hope that helps. Also, you can sometimes see "real" page numbers or the number of pages on the Kindle. The horizontal line at the bottom tells you how far you have read. You can make the font smaller or bigger if you wish and do one or two pages at a time. You might like to download the free app for your phone. Helps if you are stuck somewhere and want to catch up on some reading (getting your car fixed, dining alone, waiting at the MD office, etc). I am a huge fan and never thought I would be.

Mel, thanks for the link to the garden show. Am about to click on it and watch. What a wonderful way to end my day. Looking forward to it.

Enjoy your toast Diane. Thank you so much for starting this wonderful thread. It has been a great read during the worst months of the year. Loved getting to know everyone who posted. It has been great. So what is our new thread title? Hotter than a fried potato? If we all stop posting, I am going to miss this one so much!

Will have to watch the video tomorrow, website states it is currently unavailable. :(

Well one is currently unavailable but I got to watch two and three. What a beautiful place to have a garden show. Loved the Frank garden and the hanging baskets. The meadow garden was also beautiful. Thank you for posting the link, Mel. They were great. Great show. Nothing like that here, unfortunately.

Sorry, mustbe, I can access the link but I can't watch any of the segments...they are 'incompatible with my device'! Bummer! Hope you will be able to get it tomorrow....I'll be really upset if the link won't work for you. Melodye.

Just saw your comment. Whew! Great news.....

Well, I ran out to the patio again at 10:30 with my Coke and a cookie, wearing my coat all zipped up. It's cold, not springlike, even though the day was nice. But it is indeed spring in our time zone. I sat down and did a silent toast to all of you, and to an abundant spring for all of us. I did enjoy my toast, mustbe, and I thank all of you for making this thread such fun (and so informative, as well). We are all rose addicted, garden addicted friends. And that's a good thing (as the Martha would say). I hope one of us will start a new thread for spring and summer, too. So goodbye to Frozen Potato Land, and hello to Spring! Diane

I think you should start the thread, Diane to keep the tradition. It's been great :-)

Thank you, Diane, for getting us through Winter.

Happy Spring all!

Got down to 27 degrees but the good news we got NO snow at all... lol

Yes thanks Nanadoll for this thread! :-)

Even though warmer temps came early this year I'll still be pruning about the same time as most years... I see colder temps coming again later in the month according to our 10 day weather forecast so going to be awhile...

Only made it to 39 degrees today so tonight will be cold cold cold! Get through tonight and tomorrow night things warm up a bit...

Looking at the extended weather forecast again looks like I'll actually be pruning our roses later than most years... Weird! lol

I have our newer tender Easy Does it rose bush covered so it does not get frosted... Do not want to see it get set back as I just planted it last year... ( that is landscape cloth covering it.)

Earthsong tucked under his heated barrel... Spoiled or what...lol

Good heavens Jim thats not frost protection. Thats a plant motel!!!. I bet if you had to build a doghouse it would be good enough for people to live in. My roses need you.

I got brave enough to try and load this again and this time I got thru. Whoopie

Last few times I tied to load this I could take a bathroom break come back leave again to brush teeth come back and it was still not loaded. For peats sake my computer is only five years old. Happy to see you all are still yacking up a strom. Now to read last hundred comments.

Happy spring! Even, though it must not feel like spring for you, Jim and others who are still winter protecting their roses. Diane, will you post the new spring thread tonight?

I have an idea that I can't believe I'm suggesting, because I can be a rather shy person at times. What if we each make a video tour of our gardens during our spring flush? The spring flush will come at different times for each of us and waiting in anticipation will be part of the fun. My garden roses are loaded with buds, so it won't be long for me. It will be a short video, because I have a very small garden. Thoughts anyone? Post a video if you feel comfortable doing so. Everyone on the gardenweb is welcome to this spring party. I'm very excited about this ツ

Here's a tiny bloom from my micro mini, Baby Austin today.

Remember when karl_bapst_rosenut made insulated boxes for all his roses? Wish I could find that thread & pics...

Patty, somebody will be starting a new Spring thread soon I guess???

Great pic Jasmine! I can't seem to load videos longer than 10 seconds...lol... I can post pics of our Spring flush though .....

Is 10 seconds the limit? Aw :( Well, if that's the case, I can upload multiple videos and show you my garden in stages.

LOL Jasmine, no your video can be as long as you wish... I have no luck with videos so will use pics instead...

Jim, I'm sorry you're having such rotten weather right now when it's supposed to be a beautiful first day of spring--I hate to say it, but it was about 70 here, and I worked outside for hours, sort of, since I rested plenty, and got in some good bird watching for the first time this year. Anyway, I hope those roses of yours come through OK, Jim. It's probably the weather gods punishing you for all that nice weather you had last Nov and Dec. Just go back and look at the first posts. I was whining about that Arctic blast, and you were showing us your warm weather predictions. The gods don't like this. You've got to lie low and not say much-ha. I shouldn't have mentioned that 70 for today because now the gods will be after me.

Happy spring to you, too, Jasmine. I think your idea of videoing the spring flush is excellent. I'll just have to have a granddaughter do it for me--heehee. They will be gone on a vacation for a week in June, so I hope that doesn't foul up my video....I love your Baby Austin, Jasmine. That isn't an Austin rose, though, is it? Love the color and old fashioned look to it. How tiny is this rose?

Patty, do you mean it takes a long time for this thread to load, or to get to the bottom of the thread? Do you have a down key that will take you to the end of the page rapidly. That's what I use, and it's very quick. A far as loading the post--it's very fast. houzz seems to store all this in various places that load the posts really fast.

I was hoping one of you brave souls would step forward to start a spring thread. Any volunteers? Melodye? Are you hiding for fear we'll draft you? I'm afraid houzz will give me the boot if I start another of these long things. You know it sort of grew on its own. No one planned this, and it was fun. Let us all know what you think. We can come back in an hour or two and decide what to do, though for you Easterners it might be getting late. Diane

I volunteer! What a wonderful thread this has been.

Diane, Baby Austin is by Ralph Moore. It's named after his great grandson. My bush is only 10 inches tall and 8 inches wide so far. I planted it two years ago.

You're it! Diane

Please see the new thread here: spring-has-sprung

Not hiding, Diane, but I'm afraid you'd have a long wait for MY Spring flush :-D I might cheat and show a few Autumn rose pictures though. Many thanks for introducing this funny and educational thread.

What a great idea, Jasmine; I'm looking forward to all the garden tours, which should get me through my 'winter blues', although I'm ashamed to admit to those, considering my mild climate. Baby Austin is so lovely, and just the size rose I've room left for, after this year's roses arrive.

Jim, the rose motels,as Patty called them, look great....still working on a way to hibernate my remaining herbaceous peony :) Melodye. ps. all ideas gratefully received re peony. M

Pics I found from 2015... Figured I would post them here and once our roses start blooming in late May I'll post new rose pics in the new thread...

Prairie Harvest:

EARTHSONG:

Easy Does It:

D.KO:

Thomas Affleck:

I just love all the photos I've seen of Prairie Harvest, but sadly it never made it down here, but Easy Does It is a wonderful rose in my garden too. Is it still more winter than Spring in your neck of the woods? Our mornings have been cold, (relatively speaking) around 50F, but warm up to mid 70s by the afternoon....nice Autumn weather. Melodye

Love the hand, Jim and the pictures of the roses. Just beautiful!

Melodye, where did get Easy Does It from? HMF doesn't list any Australian suppliers that I can see.

Finally the dogs.......

Rosie (brindle) and Trigger or Trigsby Jenkins to give him his full name!

What gorgeous photos of Rosie and Trigger, Titian. Don't they look sweet cuddled up together!

Easy Does It is sold here as Firestar. I'm not sure if they still stock it, but I know Wagners in Sth Aust and Silkie Gardens in Vic did sell it. Mine was a Bunnings special :-).......it is a very pretty rose, wonderful colour tonings. Melodye

Thanks Melodye. I looked it up under Firestar as well. I'll try the ones you list. I've wanted that rose for a while. Possibly it was Diane who suggested it to me.

Great pics of your dogs titian! :-)

I left our dog out for a bathroom call at 7:45Am this morn and it was only 23 degrees outside... :-O

Temps start to improve today though... :-) I'm trying my best to think Spring but when you go outside and can see your breath and you get frost bite it's kinda hard...lol

Ugh Jim. Got to love CA. Short winters!