My roses are pretty much in full flush and the two roses that have previously been decimated by the curculio weevils look pretty good. I have been checking all the roses daily and so far I have only seen and killed about a dozen weevils. I check all the buds closely too and anything with holes gets snapped off.



This is Caramella, well over 6 foot tall, not quite at full flush


Just finished planting a row of 5 different eating grapes. I made a small raised bed on the left and planted with various annuals and perennials and them mulched the pathway.

Your garden is just beautiful!

I trimmed another 20 or so roses tonight. I think this will be the last year I order from Palatine. As of so far, the only confirmed dead roses I have that I'm 100% sure that are 100% dead are Palatine roses.. which is weird. But, I'm sure that DayBreaker is dead and I lost Moody Blues. Roses I pick up locally seem to survive amazingly. I'm getting tired of dead.. I think that, when I pull dead roses out, I'll just replace them with non-rose plants. Various shrubs, perennials.. that kinda thing. Tired of the thorns, tired of the dead. Got about another 150+ roses to trim.. depressing that I've already filled a 65 gal garbage can 1/2 way with dead canes (I put the canes in & then smash them down with an 8lb pounder so that it flattens out).

Sue ...

I don't know when curculio season starts for you down there, but they usually come up out of the ground up here some time in May. As long as the garden is not infested like mine was, hand picking works just fine. They breed in the species roses down in the park below my house. It takes them a few weeks to find my roses, but when they do, it's almost as if they put the word out and every curculio up here just has to come to my garden. That's why I continue to dis-bud once they appear. At least now, I get a full first flush ...

Your garden is simply beautiful. I don't know how you keep up with it. I spent hours outside today and it doesn't look like I did a dang thing ...

Toni ...

I agree about replacing the roses with other perennials. If the roses are not giving you joy, they don't belong in your garden. There are too many other interesting plants.

Smiles,
Lyn

The only part that right now is hard to keep up with is the unplanted area, weeds grow too fast there. The planted area just takes a bit of pruning here and there and then winter cut back and clean up.

That's fantastic, Sue.

I think my garden would be easier to manage if I were not gardening on five levels ...
The weeds seem to jump out of the ground on four levels while I am working on one level. I'll never catch up ...

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn - Just getting tired of having to trim everything down to the dirt every single year.. and I mean everything. Now I have bluebeards growing everywhere (volunteers), and I love agastaches.. but the amount of work I'm having to put into the roses, the fact it's hard to weed inside them due to the thorns, plus the price of the plants themselves (perennials have a 1 year warranty most places, but nurseries won't warranty a rose or give a warranty til only October) as nurseries are getting more & more expensive with roses (understandably, but I really don't want to be paying $30+ for a rose that won't be around next year perhaps). I can grow buddlejas, penstemons, salvias.. don't get me wrong, I think I'll still have roses. I just won't do the entire yard exclusively in roses any longer.

I've had years where one type of plant didn't do well. Two years ago, a hailstorm destroyed all my daylilies and hosta. That year, I noticed the roses more. We've had bad winters or late freezes where roses didn't do well, and then I focused on iris and daylilies.
This year I'm hoping maybe the iris and clematis give a good show. Everything else is pretty beaten up by the wind, that cold snap, the 102 temps.
Toni, this may be a salvia/iris/lilac year for you.
That heat and wind on Sunday killed a few of my evergreens, just that quickly. I guess they are kind of sensitive in the spring?
Sue, I have also found that intensively planted flowerbeds are much easier to maintain than lawn. The general public doesn't understand that. People have asked me how much water I use, and how much I work in the flower beds. They just don't get it when I say "way less water and time than you spend on your lawn".
Lyn, I can't imagine carrying plants, tools, hoses up and down 5 levels. I guess you don't need a stairmaster!
It wears me out to pull my wagon up the gentle slopes in my garden.

Cindi - Every year is a salvia year. I love the fact that they're SOOOOOOOOOO carefree. They grow, survive my neglect, bloom like mad, spread like weeds.. they're wonderful! I think I'm gonna get more of the May Night & Rose Sensation.. a mixture of those two just looks stunning IMO. And yes, evergreens are at their weakest in the early spring because they're waking up and need the moisture more than ever to pump out those wonderful pollens to make our noses run & our eyes itch. Which evergreens did you lose? I'm guessing arborvitaes. They're the worst when it comes to being fried by the wind. And I love the fact that my one neighbor has a small patch of grass about 12x16 and spends about $50+ more a month in watering than I do my entire yard! My irises are finally starting to send up some stalks here & there.. but I think this is gonna be a good year for the lilacs, that's for sure! I have a number of them in bloom right now, Common Purple, Dappled Dawn, Beauty of Moscow, Miss Ellen Willmott, Mount Baker, Ludwig Spaeth, & Charles Joly.. waiting on Sensation, Primrose, President Grevy, President Lincoln, James MacFarland, Saugeana,... I think a few more but can't remember off the top of my head. And I also love spiderwort. Another carefree plant. I think I'll get more of those. Doesn't seem to matter the variety, they all seem to do well for me! Sweet Kate, Concorde Grape, Blueberry Sundae are the types I have right now.

Toni ...

>>>Lyn - Just getting tired of having to trim everything down to the dirt every single year.

I don't blame you at all. I'd hate that, too. I've been lucky that I don't have to deal with die back, but it's always something. I have lousy soil ...

>>>don't get me wrong, I think I'll still have roses. I just won't do the entire yard exclusively in roses any longer.

I am no longer in "collector" mode and have just added some repeats of roses I really like and that do well up here. I actually enjoy working with them more, now.

I'd love to have bluebeards in my garden, but with my soil, they would probably croak.

Cindi ...

>>>I have also found that intensively planted flowerbeds are much easier to maintain than lawn

I've never figured out how to move around in intensively planted flowerbeds. Sue advised stepping stones ... yeah, right. I am such a klutz, I miss the stepping stone and stomp on a plant.

As for tools and hoses, I have a set of tools down in the garage and another set in the garden shed on the house pad level. Each level has it's own hose. It's hauling mulch material, soil and rocks up from the street level that gets to me. I am sooooo tired of hauling stuff up those stairs.

The biggest problem is time management. More so, now, than when I started. I am older now and poop out sooner, so I don't get as much done. Maybe others don't notice, but I do.

Smiles,
Lyn

Your lilacs are ahead of mine this year. Mine are just setting leaves. It has been an especially hard winter and late spring here.

I understand your frustration with roses, especially when you are cutting back winter die back . I am sure that your gardens will be beautiful either with roses or with mixed plantings.

grrrrrrrrr

Gives you time to vacuum up all of that cat hair ...

Smiles,
Lyn

- And ruin the decor?

Need that cathair for insulation from the cold...

70 degrees on Friday.

This is what I get today:



*grump*

Something's been telling me not to trim my roses.. I trimmed the minis but over 80% of my main roses I haven't touched.. still buried under a foot of mulch (or more). This is probably why.

Winter again? What a drag!

OMG, it feels like spring here finally. I have been babying my moved, potted surviving roses and starting to plant. Clearing a space to plant and digging a hole amongst the rocks is the challenge here. I have space and sun, so they should be happy once I get them into the ground.

I am hoping for some spring weather before it turns hot and humid. My viking blood overheats easily.