Its a cold and windy day in the Rose Garden. The sun is shining brightly, but its only 30 degrees F--- the soil temp is 38 degrees F, very warm for this time of the year and a number of our roses have produced new growth, especially the Fairies, in fact they are producing a large amount of new growth with buds. We have both roses, 'The Fairy' and its climbing sport ('The Fairy, Climbing or as it is sometimes called 'Lady Carolina), both seem to like this weather. In fact they have not only budded, some have and are producing blooms-- go figure.

We are now in the process of pruning the rough cuts we made during our clean up process. We are not pruning to improve the the shape of our roses, but to clean up and or remove any canes that in our opinion will not be productive come Spring. Our budded roses will be the challenge--- we will, in most cases, be cutting the canes off at the bud union keeping in mind that there are always a number of dormant bud eyes at the point were the cane joins the bud union. We have found that if we leave a knobby stub (1/4 to 1/2 inch long) on the bud union, we will be rewarded with basal breaks in the Spring--- if not, we shovel prune the bush. We don't always leave a knobby stub on the bud union; if the roses are very vigorous and always produce an over abundance of canes, we usually prune the cane flush with the bud union.

Its a cold and windy day in the rose garden. The last ice storm not only did a number on our trees but it also broke down most of our roses--- the garden looks like a war zone. In spite of the cold winds we managed to do some heavy pruning. Everything is cleaned up--- all of the debris have been picked up. We also moved one climber ('Sombreuil') to another location, one that has more protection. It ('Sombreuil') should survive the ordeal even though it was broken down to the ground.

We should know by spring what survived and what didn't survive. Guess I'll be checking out all of those new rose catalogues for possible replacements.

Well its another day in the Rose Garden--- perhaps I should say what Rose Garden!!! The roses, Rose Pillars, simple Pergolas and Trellis(s) are all broken down and covered, with the remains of trees and tree limbs and of course the ice. The trees and the roses seemed to explode due to the weight and thickness of the ice. I can only hope and pray that some of our roses survive--- most are broken off at the ground.

Its a cold and miserable day in the Rose Garden. The temperature is hanging at 26 F degrees and its been raining since last evening. The wind is out of the NNW at 8 mph and the rose canes have increased in size by at least 1/4 inch--- all ice. Our Old European Roses (e.g., Gallicas, Centifolias, Damasks, Albas, and Mosses) have not been pruned since they last bloomed (once bloomers) this last Spring and early Summer--- their canes, with the exception of some of the Mosses, are quite long and are now heavily laden with ice; if the canes are damaged I'll cut them back, otherwise I'll wait until they bloom again in the Spring and early to mid Summer--- I hope I don't need to prune away next seasons flowers.