You're supposed to prune?

Porkpal, I'm in that frame of mind too. I'm taking out dead wood and waiting for everything else to take care of itself. A few pesky rose hips hang on instead of falling off on their own, so I'm taking them off too. Otherwise, I'm taking it easy this year.

Toni and Mike, the combination of dizziness from wine and dizziness from vertigo would finish me off for sure. I do my drinking when the sun goes down.

Cindi, thanks for a reason to look back on gymnastics with some gratitude instead of sheer resentment. Now that I think about what you said, I have to agree that even childbirth was a comparative breeze after the pain of pointe shoes in ballet and the agony of gymnastics training sessions. At least I didn't have to watch my posture and look good during that ordeal.

I have been working on my spring cleanups around the garden this past week and a half as it has been so warm. Unseasonably warm for mid late March. I finially got all the roses prunned back for the major spring prunning but I was really annoyed with myself because the roses were already leafed out by the time I was finished. I have a lot of roses. Honestly, this is exactly when I do the rose spring prunning each year, mid late March and they have never been leafed out in years before. So this is unusual but it seems to be a very early spring this year after a warm winter with no snow.

I takes me long enough to get all the roses done but while I was spring prunning I was also chopping back and trimming some shrubs around here plus all my butterfly bushes and my honeysuckle. And now I will have to start spraying the roses with fungicide already this week. Which is an annoyance as it is early in the year. But once the leaves come, they need spraying every two weeks all season.

I just transplanted 9 roses from the west side of the house to the east side. The west side just is not a good place for roses. I lost SOOO many on that side from the 3 years I've been growing roses. I think it's a combination of lack of sun (huge maple tree, plus the sun is only in that area for about 2-3 hours a day in high summer) plus the fact I just plain ol' forget about that area & don't water it well. LOL

Anyways, I was able to count at least 4 dead roses.. all on the west side. Two of them from RU last year.. just so tiny & fragile couldn't survive my ineptitude - one was Memorial Day & I have no idea who the other one was as I was just able to find the order # tag & not the name of the rose tag. I lost another Palatine rose from 2010.. Stephen's Big Purple. I also lost Fragrant Cloud, but that was a Home Depot rose so I should be able to get another Fragrant Cloud easily enough. I think 100% of Cliff's roses survived ( ), so I'm excited about that. Only bad thing is that I used plant tags that I wrote the names of the rose, where I got them, & the year with a Sharpie.. and most of them have faded 100% to either snow or sun. Gotta figure out some kind of tagging system that I can do! Maybe I'll just buy an engraver. I also need to make a master map of who's where.

I also came up with that I lost at least 1 baby lilac (didn't do well at all last year.. due to my fault again!) and probably 2 trees. That's the 4th time I've tried to put a tree in those two spots and the 4th time that the tree has died. So, if these trees *are* dead, I'll just yank the damned things & put roses in those spots. That's what I did last year when I got the 3 roses from Garden Valley Ranch and those 3 roses grew just fine. The two spots where Freyja & Osiris are resting both have things growing just fine. Harlequin & Purple Splash survived the winter just fine where Freyja is and I'm waiting to see how the Golden Rain Tree comes where Osiris is (they're traditionally a later budding tree versus, say, a crabapple).

Watered a lot today. Hate watering. Bleh. Watered for over 5 hours between yesterday & today. And will be working on the chicken coop tomorrow. Yay!!

Thank goodness I don't have to move any roses around this year. It always ended up being a big project if I had to move them. But I like were things are planted now so all is ok.

I'm taking a little break today because it's raining outside, so I don't have to water and I can't do anything else out there when the rain pours nonstop.

The septic work those scammers did in August predictably failed to cure the problem, so I called a different company this time, a father and son operation, and got amazing results. Instead of just fooling around with a hose in the tank and collecting the money for astrojetting, the way the last pair did, these guys followed the leach line all the way to the clog, which was caused by a big root from a persimmon tree. They dug holes every 10 feet or so and had to move several plants, but today everything looks exactly the way it did before.

You should have seen how carefully they dug up the roses, cages and all, and just as carefully planted them back later. They did the same with all of the irises, violets, and columbines they came across. Not one plant casualty after hours of work! Absolutely amazing!

Competence and conscientiousness are rare and precious commodities these days. That father-son pair is quite a find!

I have concluded that most workmen think all women are stupid. The only difference is that some feel obliged to protect women from their own "stupidity" while others see them as targets. You may recall that the pair in August kept telling me there was a second tank and that they would have to tear down my deck to find it and then rebuild the deck when they were through. I knew there was no second tank, so the most they could get away with was a fee for some fake astrojetting and the hope that I would call them back for a major project entailing new leach lines and a new leach field when their fake solution failed to cure the problem.

I ran into this kind of behavior so many times when I had a car and it's the main reason I sold my last car more than 30 years ago and never bought another one.

that's why before I hire anyone to do any kind of work, I do a lot of research for at least 2-5 days before they're supposed to come out & do whatever it is that they're to be doing. That way when they start their lingo bullcrap I can just snap down & say "well, from what I was able to research, it should be XYZ". Usually stops them pretty quick. And luckily my cars are so well built (we have a '11 Toyota Sienna & a '11 Scion xB) I don't have to worry about them breaking down. In fact, I have to get my oil changed next Friday.. have had my van 2 years and almost have 40,000 miles on it already. LOLLLL

I used to run into what I suspect were acts of sabotage when I had a car. I would take the car in for a tune-up and it magically would exhibit a major problem a few days later.

Rita, I know just what you mean. I had to prune my roses last week because they were leafing out so fast - incredible! I usually don't prune till early - mid April, when the ground is warming when the canes still have no leaves. But not this year - even my tulips are blooming! But tonight it's suppose to drop down to the mid 20's - I hope it doesn't do too much damage to all the tender new growth.

Well, I saw forsythias blooming everywhere except for mine, so I'm gonna be pruning this week! Let the bloodletting begin! Most of my roses are leafing out, so I'm not too worried about it. Now if we get a late frost/freeze, then I'm up a creek w/o a paddle.

Zuzu, that's terrible what you've gone through with the scammers...

Cut back leafed out roses taken today.

Southside rose garden today after drastic rose prunning this past week. I have daffs and tulips in here as well as lilies for the summer. Plus lots of Wood Hyacinths towards the back that are showing folliage but the blooms are not up yet.

In the second picture you can see the water in the backround. Can't really see it from the side yard after all the shrubs leaf out. That is Long Island Sound. There is a lovely park here across the street from me and of course the beach.

my forsythia is in full bloom but I have not trimmed yet it was 90 last week and to night we are under a frost freeze warning !!!
so I think I will wait and see if I have any damage then prune maybe this week end

Forcythia is in full bloom here too.

My camellia japonicas are in full bloom, after making it through the winter loaded with buds. These are from the cold hardy 'April' series that was hybridized at the University of North Carolina some years ago. I grew up near there, and my childhood home was surrounded by tender camellia varieties that had been propagated from those in my grandfather's garden many years before. After moving to New York as an adult I sorely missed their early spring blooms. And then lo and behold, the April series was introduced, and I purchased several of them, including April Kiss and April Dawn.

I remember the first year I planted them here, a landscaper whom I hired to relocate two mature Alberta Spruces in the front yard asked to see the garden in the back yard, so I showed him around. When he saw the two little camellias that were less than three feet tall, he said, "Those will never survive the winter here." I explained that these were the new hybrid 'April' series that were hardy to zone 6b (my zone). He said he already knew about them, and was certain that they wouldn't survive in my garden, because two of his clients in the next county north of me had tried to grow them, and they died the first year. I told him our zone was warmer (a point he argued), and I pointed out how I had placed them in a reasonably well sheltered part of the garden. Nonetheless, he remained unconvinced, and told me to prepare to see them die during the coming winter (thank you very much).

Well, guess what? Five years later they're 7 feet tall and blooming their heads off - and not just this spring, but even last spring after we had one of the harsher winters in recent times.

Here are some photos taken this afternoon. Now that the buds have opened, I just hope the blooms make it through tonight's sudden drop in temperature - it's going down to 25.

Oh those are gorgeous Mike. I didn't know there were any types of Camelias we could grow in zone 6.

Thank you Rita. I've only seen them sold at Rosedale Nursery here in Westchester County. If you're ever up this way, you should stop in there. It's right off the Saw Mill River Parkway in Hawthorne, and is one of largest, best-maintained, and well-staffed nurseries in the region. A little pricey, perhaps, but worth visiting when your car is empty!