Yes! Exactly! I was out doing yard work today. Most likely what's got me so ready for Spring. I was planting some bulbs, and still have much to do! It will be here before you know it!

I know exactly what you mean! Winter is long and dreary! Spring is definitely the time I look most forward to, especially anticipating the upcoming rose season. I love every aspect of it from the pruning to when the new growth begins, the planting and preparation, then finally the long awaited first blooms of the season, and the lovely array of color and the fragrances! It’s a wonderful time!

I'm so with you, Alana! Last season was a total lose for me because I was too sick to even go out and look at my poor neglected roses. I can't wait to see them this year!!

Is it spring yet ? I always start heading to the Grange every week just to see if there is anything available . That is why I have so many delphiniums, it is the earliest plant that they carry lol.

I am not looking forward to the constant weeding though

Well its winter here but somebody forgot to tell my weeds! They are growing despite the cold. As bad as they are I've had to go out and pull even in the mud and snow or I won't be able to find my beds come spring! And yes it deters me from placing those last two rose orders!

I know , what is up with the weeds? They are thriving while everything else is frozen.

It looks like a ton of rain on the way
and maybe some snow so no weeding this week.

Each year as I get older and have more planting beds , I long for a yard boy, or even an old man to get me a jump start on those pesky weeds

If it’s not too cold out on Saturday I hope to get out for a few hours. It’s just so hard to get motivated when my bones are frozen!

I think my gardening year has already begun... unfortunately...

I'm so glad that weeds have been mentioned because this is obviously an international thing going on here.. never have I known so many appear so early...

..these are Rosebay Willowherb roots, the green tips were coming up everywhere and so I got busy digging up what I can but it's difficult to get right to the bottom of them... here are a few juicy selections dug up today that I'm sure members want to salivate over [not..]

..and some people grow these as ornamentals called Chamaenerion angustifolia... - are they mad?.. if you don't know them, they spread by root runners... everywhere!..

Oh, Yeah....did you say that SPRING is near???? I cannot wait either. Got behind last

spring because of foot surgery, however, all is well so far. I still lots of trimming down

asters and Annabelle hydrangeas. Don't mind, though....it's definitely therapy for me.

Have two rose orders done and still want more....life is short.

Does anyone have problems with the rosette disease?

Thanks for the warning Marlorena. I'ld be growing it for the name alone if I ever came across it - for some reason it just speaks to me. Now i know not to listen.

I don't have any problem with RRD , cross my fingers, yet! Thank goodness!

Yes! Weeds are horrible this year. I still have grass alive too, geez, just die already! I guess they didn't get the winter memo. Our weather is still as wacky as ever, we saw 70 degree weather, right after Christmas!! It was cold, then..bam! 70 degrees. January and February used to be our coldest weather. Which we are supposed to go back cold. SC weather is crazy! Loco! That's what's got me Spring crazy ! SC LOCO WEATHER! LOL!

I love Fireweed. Willow Herb.

I also cannot wait !! It is like an itch you can’t get to . I’m ordering and hoarding random garden ornaments but can’t wait for spring !! I wish our garden centers had stuff now but it’ll be a month or so . Sitting on my hands till then. If it doesn’t get cold soon I’m going to give into pruning . Someone take my pruners please ! Haha

I feel the same way Lily! Better hide my pruners! I was actually looking today and chiding myself, afterwards, I know it should get back cold. We shall have to wait and see.

I looked up fireweed Shelia, it is pretty. I actually love pretty weeds myself.

Well, our snow apparently included steroids for the weeds. The snow melted and the weeds are actually thriving. I have my work cut out for me! :)

Yes, I wonder what's going on with the weeds! Must be all this rain, atleast for me, and all the snow? For everyone?

Once my plants have emerged, those weeds are going to get a THICK layer of mulch! Winter hasn't been harsh enough, I guess. Just can't do all of that chopping

anymore....don't want to.

I'm glad others are revved up, but spring can wait as far as I'm concerned. We're coming to the end of the end of the dreariest holiday season I've ever lived through--not disastrous, just dreary--and I've been working steadily and dully in the garden. I have plenty of work to do in the next two or three months. Once we wrap up planting, much of which has been boring hedging shrubs, I'll get back to pruning and cleanup, finishing what I can before spring bursts in on us. The weather has been good/bad: good in the sense that it's been way sunnier than usual, with pleasantly cool temperatures; bad in that it's very dry, bringing comparisons with the leadup to the dreadful drought of two years ago. Please, not again.

I really, really want just to go somewhere that's not here at the farm where I've been stuck so long, and that comes before thoughts of spring. All the same, I am looking forward to seeing the garden then. I think the results of my labors will show and there will be some nice things to look at, especially the mostly-planted Dutch Bed, and the Lilac Allee.

I too, am just chomping at the bit! I think I'm going to start my winter hard-pruning exercise next weekend, which will take a handful of weekends. I've been "trying" to keep the garden weeds under some control - I left them last winter, and about died in March trying to catch up with them. Now that the days are starting to get a little longer, day by day, my optimism is starting. I have 5 baggies of rose seeds stratifying in my fridge which I'm very curious to plant this sprint, to see if any of them take. Then of about 30 cuttings I took, maybe 1/2 of them are still alive, and I have hopes of having a few of them survive.

Melissa, any possibility of a vacation? Or does that not work with time and/or money constraints?

Well I succumbed and placed my last floating rose order. I nearly froze my fingers weeding the other day. I don't need anymore lawn ornaments but this was just a little one I found a week ago. These are all handmade. I am hoping to get a bench from them this spring. I could have bought it the end of September but I was just recovering $ wise from putting in my new patio garden. The price will probably be double now!!

Ikayetwv5, that is so cool. I love unique yard art .

It is colder than usual here (you will all laugh - highs in the low 50s F, and lows in the high 30s F - we are cold wimps!), but I think Spring has already started. My narcissus (we grow them outdoors here) are all up and blooming - looking and smelling great. All other bulbs are poking out of the ground by several inches - I had to pull up zillions of oxalis in one bed a few days ago, to allow the emerging bulb foliage to get some sun, as it was under a one foot tall blanket of oxalis. It was all coming up pale green or yellow, but after only 48 hours of not being covered, has greened up already. The iris are also showing new leaves emerging.

We have also been too dry, but the weather people are insisting that several storms are on their way, and that starting tomorrow we will have several days in a row of rain. So, yesterday I ran around putting time release food pellets on some of the roses, hoping it will be well watered in. We shall see about the rain - I am ready for it, and typically it warms up during storms, which will be nice also.

Jackie

Can’t wait!! But it’s already January and we will pruning in a few weeks :). But my main effort this year will be raised beds.. I have to make four of them and I am very excited about it.

Jackie I think your getting my weather. I must have your sixties. I'm more than happy to trade. I don't like the weather doing this crazy stuff.

Ikayetwv5, love the yard art!

Melissa, I'm sure you'll be ready for it when it gets here! It's still a few months away, and I, like you, have tons to do before it's actually here. But I am still very much looking forward to it!!

I have just a small amount of tose seed in the fridge as well Karen! I hope you get something good. I have one plant from last year left. It's a once bloomer, so hasn't bloomed yet, but I look forward to it.

My nectarines and blueberries are blooming! It hit 80 F yesterday—-such strange weather here. I started trimming my basil plants, and then realized I’m only setting them up to burn when the freezes come back. It really feels like Spring, but I know it isn’t. And I feel like I’m answering some primitive drive to dig in the dirt. I’m chomping at the bit to put in plants. I’ll start some seeds and try to stave off the impulses. :-)

oursteelers, there have reasons I've had to stick around, but I'm hoping for a few days away in January, maybe February. Our planting season is fall, and there's a certain urgency in getting things in the ground so they have time to settle in over winter. I took today off--no digging, at least--and am feeling better about life.

Lots of enthusiasm here, I see. Our sarcococcas and winter aconite will be blooming any day now.

Primroses start to show up in February but they're meant to be house plants. Although I do plant them out when it gets warmer. Pansies are always the first outdoor plants to be available here. Usually in March sometime. And of course I never can resist them, lol!

As for weeds...UGH! They are epidemic! I have never, ever had weeds like I do now. A few purslane and dandelions but controllable. Not anymore. they are rampant and varieties I've never seen before. It's very daunting because because I just don't know how to get a handle on them. I never got out last season so all those weeds are still out there growing in this crazy too warm for January weather. HELP!

Malorena, that isn't, by any chance, some kind of Loosestrife is it? Since my delightful "Master Gardener" neighbor planted it in her yard (and she should have known better) I've been battling it like crazy. It's on the invasive plant list for Michigan! What was she thinking!

Hang in there, Melissa! Things should perk up soon.

Ooo, Karen, can't wait to see pics of your rose babies!

Ikayetwtv, love the bird art!

Jackie, too cold there, too warm here, what is going on?! I have some things starting to grow here WAY too early. Even a few roses have tried to sprout some leaves. You know that will all be toast when the bottom falls out of the temps on us.

Sadly, this is the first year I haven't looked forward to spring because of the rabbits. I can't fault them because they have nothing to eat other than my plants because of the drought. This was supposed to be an El Nino winter but so far it's been dry, although rain is predicted. Every rose bush that is not enclosed has been eaten bare up to about two feet and I've had to remove some shorter roses that I knew would never be tall enough to grow beyond their browsing range. The garden is ugly right now and growth has been halted because of the lack of rain, but if we have normal winter rains (although I know "normal" is a thing of the past) I still have the hope that there will be a somewhat flowery spring. I really need to plant more perennials since quite a few that I planted have been eaten. I now know that milkweed, penstemons, lavenders and mimulus are not to their liking, while sages and basils seem to be on their menu. Nepeta was partially eaten but has now made a come-back. It's not an exact science except for the penstemons which the rabbits will not touch.

Writing this has convinced me to order more perennials right now, thank you!

Everything is coming up way too early here too. My first breath of Spring Shrub is lightly blooming as is a yellow Jasmin. Spring bulbs are coming up. Last year we never got back cold enough to hurt but a few of the once blooming warm Rose's. Such as lady banks and fortunia..I was hoping to see there blooms this year...we shall wait and see...

Seil….. I won't have Purple Loosestrife anywhere near my garden... it grows wild in ditches around here and I hope it stays there.. I've got plenty enough of other stuff... your neighbour should have done some research... I think this was imported to you from Europe originally [sorry about that, retrospectively]…

My Daphne bholua shrub opened a first flower today, and an Oxslip is enjoying the mild weather, rather isolated.. nothing else has come up yet..