Spring's around the corner

10 years ago

I can feel it in the air. The sun feels nice and warm. All the early spring bulbs are blooming. When the weatherman on TV say that 30 degrees is "cold", that's usually a pretty good hint. It's time for me to take my winter protection out of the rose beds. Late last fall I put down 18" of shredded leaf mater in all the beds. This weekend it all gets removed and put into the compost pile and the soil gets some fresh air and sun. November was fairly chilly, December was warm and wet with January and February cold and wet for the most part (MANY mornings in the teens and low 20's). This spring is supposed to be cool and wet. As long as we don't have any more hard freezes the garden should look half way decent come early May. We'll see.

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Ken (N.E.GA.mts) 7a/b
Original Author

10 years ago

I'll be at Rose Day for sure. I finished up the HT's and Florabundas today. Will get started on the mini/miniflora's tomorrow afternoon. I have to be very careful around all the bush's. Many of them are starting to grow new basil breaks.

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Comments (9)

jim1961 Central Pennsylvania Zone 6a
10 years ago
Awesome Ken!

The roses will start waking up in about 4-5 weeks here...
gibsongirl74_gw (zone 6 CT)
10 years ago
I don't think my plants ever really went dormant this year. What a crazy winter in New England. I am not complaining. I'm new at rose growing and so I was hoping for a "real" winter in order to test the hardiness of some of the things I planted.
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Patty W. zone 5a Illinois
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
So nice to hear spring beginning down your way. It won't be long now. But in the mean time their talking about a crazy blizzard for northern Illinois coming on Tuesday. All the big snows have missed us this year. Maybe our luck has run out.
Sara-Ann Z6B OK
10 years ago
Sounds good, Ken. Spring is definitely in the air here. My roses are about a month ahead of schedule. I think it's all good according to the forecast, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.
reesepbuttercup
10 years ago
Very spring-like here as well. It was in the low 60's today! I took a look around my yard to see how my plants fared and I already have one rose waking up. Hopefully the weather stays mild and we won't have another hard freeze. I also picked up some body bags at Lowe's today. Just couldn't help myself.
seil zone 6b MI
10 years ago
Sounds wonderful, Ken! I'm eager to see that green line move north! My bulbs are just starting to poke their heads out of the ground here but I have noticed that it is staying light later and later into the evening. Now if it would just stop snowing, lol!
Buford_NE_GA_7A
10 years ago
I am hoping for a good year. We've had LOTS of rain and fairly mild temps, but enough cold for the roses to finally go dormant. I do see signs of my roses waking up. I have planted one whole new bed and I'm working on another. And waiting for roses that I ordered to come in. I still have a lot of work to do. Hopefully the weather this weekend is cooperative. I've already pruned some climbers. Ken, are you coming to Rose Day? I have your Barrone Prevost for you! It's next Saturday.
jjpeace (zone 5b Canada)
10 years ago
I have to wait at least a month or two. It has been a mild winter and I am hoping for a good and early summer. I don't want to jinx myself but usually if the winter are mild, we would have a wild unpredictable summer here. Either we will be having a cooler summer or a very hot summer.