2013 has already come and mostly gone. I hope that it was a good year for everyone and that 2014 will be a brighter year!

Not my image, but here's a "White Christmas" from HMF http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

Well, my new little rose bed got stomped on thoroughly by the tree cutting guys, but with the discount they gave us for paying cash, I can definitely afford to replace them! HUGE tree that needed removing. I was having second thoughts about one of those (thorny!) roses anyway.

well to day we went from snow to rain back to snow now sleet I hope every one has a great night !! I wish mother nature would make up her mind The weather man said its going to be 40 by morning !! I hate sliding into work !!

Gloria - you want my cold? Guaranteed to just make everything into a sheet of ice.. I've watched it drop at least 30 degs since 1pm today.

sorry Toni we are supposed to get to around 40 today and warmer Thursday then BAM down to the low 20s for the week end LOL

I have buds on each of my roses, but we are expecting below freezing temps each morning for the following five starting Friday. Since daytime temps will all be above freezing, hoping they aren't all lost. I am spoiled with having December blooms every year.

My roses look like a mess from the week of deep freeze we had already. But warmed up now again. Still they are pretty much done for the year.

I Haven't been on the rose forum in months, came over because of the rose week thread that Debra called me over to.

Mostly I hang out on all the different various chat threats.

Chat "threats" - how apt!

My life is not very exciting! I yack about what I might cook for dinner, what I watched on TV or books I am reading. I even yack about what I bought in the supermarket that I might have for dinner. Now that it is so late in the year, I don't yack much about the garden as the garden is pretty muck done for the year. But in the warmer months I yack lots about the garden.

and we get nice slow cooker recipes and information on the exercise machine. all good stuff.

Oh yes, usually yack about the exercise routine and always yack about whatever I might be cooking in the crockpot.

Today on the daylily chat thread I was yacking about my errands today. Told you that my life is not very eventful. But I like it this way.

Nearly a 50deg difference in high temperatures from yesterday to today (official)



So many of my roses were putting out new leaves & starting to grow again... and then BAM! this. It started snowing around 830ish last night & hasn't stopped. Super bad thing is that this is powder snow, not sugar snow. Powder = super dry & cold. Sugar = not as cold, very wet, mushy. The big fat flakes (like me!).

And my crockpot has a nommy turkey veggie soup in it. Good soup for a cold bleh day like today!! Left over thanksgiving turkey, carrots, celery, gold potatoes, & a zucchini! NOM!

Great catalog (annoying ad in the center) from Tulsa Roses. http://online.flipbuilder.com/...

Nasty weather with this weather front moving south.

That's a great catalog! What an impressive selection!

Rita,
Then there are some of us who would not mind having a slightly less *eventful* life.
Our cold blast is coming in tonight, so yesterday I scrambled and planted as many of the new bareroots as possible. Whew did I ever dig a lot of big big holes. The plants from Palatine were HUGE but the ones from Pickering didn't take long at all...little holes, flexible little roots, easy. Sad I also planted a few trees and shrubs, and even those went in faster than the Palatine roses.
What didn't get planted may have to winter in the garage.
To use Toni's phrase, I mulched the snot out of the roses after planting. Five tractor buckets full, and I had only covered the newly planted ones. My mulch pile from early this summer was just starting to decompose, and the center of it was frozen!
I intended to mulch other beds today, but real work got in the way. If we have a solid week of single temps, I may have problems planting my bulbs! I've always been able to plant clear into January but this year is just strange.
Already we're back to zone 6 temps. I'm a little worried about all those nice green canes on the roses. Most of them still have green leaves. The ones from Canada were dormant for sure--Palatine's had green canes, Pickering had brown canes..... I tried to attach a photo but once again it disappeared into the depths of my computer. Sigh. Tomorrow I pick up the new computer so maybe it will be easier to handle.
Toni, your soup and snow sound positively cozy!

well all my roses are sleeping and have been for a few weeks !1 but we just had a dandy thunder storm with lightning and all lots of rain !! Glade it was rain and not snow

In the summer and nice weather my life really is about my garden. I just LOVE my garden, couldn't do without it. Plenty of flowers to brighten each day plus I grow lots of yummy veggies to eat fresh from the garden.

Winter I spend mostly inside as I really don't like winter. But I watch TV, read books and I exercise on my Gazelle Glider because I don't spend much time out in the garden once it starts to get cold.

Cindi - Girlie girl, you need to take a break & slow down, at least for a day or two!!! And I'm glad that you mulched the snot outta those roses... I didn't do a good job of mulching this winter and now it's too late. I just hope that everyone was buried deep enough... with this brutal storm that we just had, everything was so happy and then BOOM. Dead dead dead. Gonna have a LOT of winterkill this season. Super bad thing is that my butterfly bushes had started to put out new leaves?