I CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE. WINTER!!!!!
Clouds, fog, rain, frozen ground, hoarfrost, snow, sleet, more snow, mud, ice.....
Yesterday was sunny, and I pruned, very happily. Today was supposed to be sunny too, before tomorrow's new wave of cold and snow arrived (not that I've noticed that they ever went away). Ha! Instead, a sea of icy fog ghosted up the valley and fought a battle with the sun, which lost. No sun in the week's forecast. We've had snow on the ground most of time since a little before Christmas...continuously in the cooler areas. This is all extremely tiresome, and I wish I could run away for a while.
Melissa

We are still waiting for winter. This past big storm went to the south of us, like all the rest of them. Wednesday looks like another storm that will end up south of us. Aside from the lack of snow playtime, we don't have any snow cover for the plants when it does get cold. I'm not worried about the roses, but the last time we had an open winter, all the lavender and achillea were completely toasted, and a few other things took serious hits.

Now another interesting part of winter showed up yesterday. Some thing was staking out the bird feeder. It may have been as uninteresting as a red tailed hawk, but looked much larger and whiter.

Ingrid, I am ready for a bush full of blooms for sure! This time of year we only get scattered blooms, but it will be nice as the days grow longer to have an abundance of blooms on one bush. And to smell the different fragrances as the days get warmer, divine! I do love all the rain we've been getting, I must say.

Juliet

Certainly ready for it thankful for the little snow and some rain we have had otherwise the dry, dry cold makes for pitiful Spring

I can't wait! I'm south of Mad_Gallica where all the storms are hitting. Looks like we're headed for the most snowfall in history in my area (I'm a little north of Philadelphia in Bucks County). I saw on the news this morning that Philadelphia has already had 56" of snow this year, while Albany has had only 21". Weird winter. We're supposed to get another 12-18" tomorrow night into Wednesday. Arggghhh! I can't believe we have 6 more weeks of winter.

Lisa

I am sooooo ready for spring. No blooms, but the weeds are starting to come up - why do they always have to be the first to emerge? Anyway, I pruned some roses, even though I may regret it because it's too early here, and it's supposed to freeze tonight (rainy today). :(

I am itching to get in the garden, but can think of nothing I can do except draw up more plans to make the garden larger! heehee

As I write this, we are getting hit with ANOTHER snow storm; 6-8" with high winds predicted (sigh). It's been a very, very cold, snowy season since December with high utility bills.

The birds have been hitting the feeders pretty hard this year because of the snow cover; so it's been about my only form of outdoor amusement. A flock of doves visit regularly, along with cardinals, loud-mouth blue jays, and the other regulars. Even the lone woodpecker has shown up for the third year in a row...he gets ALOT of respect from the other birds when he feeds.

April seem so far away...a distant memory of warm breezes. I'm so homesick for the feel of dirt between my fingers and under my feet...and dream of the new 30 roses headed my way.

This IS a very interesting thread. It really makes me see a pattern going on in everyone's seasons. Ingrid, you've pointed out another difference between your climate and mine besides the humidity - you don't get freezes so your spring is already on the move. Technically, our last chance of freezing temps in March 1st, and I'm not looking forward to the next three weeks. Everything in the garden - yes, even the weeds (time for the Halts) - has new red growth, and some have flower buds. I really was shocked to see the buds yesterday. We've had very nice weather since the hard freezes ended in mid-January, and the roses are responding. Poor innocent things don't have a clue that we'll probably get slammed again, and it's breaking my heart. The big snow that hit the east coast this weekend gave us nice rain Friday afternoon and evening but marvelously was not followed by cold - just wind. Reve d'Or looks amazing - all covered in little red tufts. Really, if only we can miss more freezes, these bushes are hot to trot.

I took a 4-day weekend to get stuff done in the garden and am 'basically' finished with my micro sprinkler system. (Just call me Einstein!) That word 'basically' is a big word unfortunately. I still have some tweaking to do. Today I got Aloha out of his big pot that I thought he would live in forever, because a spot came available when I heard there's no such thing as Climbing LeVesuve. I moved some azaleas on Friday, making room for Niles Cochet in my NEW sunny area in the front (decided against Mme Lombard or Wm R Smith since I have both White MC & Niles with no where to go). Niles is finally putting out new growth. I hate to dig him up. Friday was also Souv d'Elise Vardon's moving day from a north spot against the house to the sunny front garden. We'll see what she does. I had the thought to take pictures of all my bushes today just to remind me what February looks like, but I didn't get to it.

My fear of falling is a little less today since stubbing my toe coming in from the garage and going flat on the floor. Survival is a wonderful thing. (It's a long way down there.) Ellie was madly barking a different bark at me while I was on the floor. It was either, "Mommy, mommy, get up! Don't be dead!" Or "Where's my bisquit?" What do you think?

But I have a long way to go before spring is done. Move and/or plant 13 roses. Feed everything, plant all the companion plants and gladiolus bulbs I have waiting in the wings, deposit a few pick-ups of composted horse manure and a few more of pine bark mulch. Might need another 4-day weekend - or two.

Sherry

I'm mentally fully ready for spring and have most of my chores done. I'm in Northern California and we're having an El Nino year. That means WET and it means WARMER so I haven't had a freeze since December!! Normally in January I chip ice off the windshield every morning before work but I haven't had any. Because of the warmth (high 30's to 40's overnight) my roses are all trying to leaf out. I finally pruned them all thinking that if they were determined to grow then they should at least put on growth where I want it. I didn't want to chop off a bunch of new growth.

All the roses are pruned and I did my two climbers this weekend. I watched Paul Z's video's again and just went and did it. Scary!!!! They seem ok.

I've seen growth on most of my roses, including the two bare roots I just planted a week ago!! Strange they'd start growing so fast. I spent yesterday cleaning up the perennial bed (I call it my prairie garden) and saw the high point of my weekend -- 3 basal shoots on Valentine (one of Randy's best suggestions -- thanks Randy!!).

I have NOT fertilized because I don't want to push growth until the threat of freeze is past (it's too early to be sure here) but I doubt it will come again in an El Nino year. I'll wait for the RoseTone until March sometime.

Now the garden looks clean if barren. My mailman told me Saturday that he thought it all died on me and I'd have to bulldoze it. I tried to explain about roses and perennials sleeping. Note to self -- plant more winter interest!! I'm making a list of those things that did stay green.

I moved three roses, planted two bareroots and two from my pot ghetto. I have one more that will move in as soon as it gets more growth -- hopefully by summer. This summer will be the second full year for the garden, so I'm hoping for more rose blooms and that the perennials will fill in.

Debbie

I'm not quite ready. I'm still pruning. I started January 2nd. There's a lot of roses (how'd that happen?) and they are really big. It takes time. I think I'll be ready around the 3rd week in March. :)

Here it is still cold. We had a lovely preview of Spring on Saturday, where the temperatures were warm enough for jumpers rather than coats and scarfs; but Sunday the they fell again and today there was sleety snow falling. I visited an old church in the countryside on Saturday morning, and the grounds were covered in blooming snowdrops. In my garden, the bulbs I planted last Autumn are shooting up. My roses look wonderful. It's a very different experience from Southern California where I would defoliate the plants in the winter to try to force them to rest. By that time of year, the leafs would be rather tattered and poorly. Here, I just let everything be, and it seems that they've made it through the worst of it and are thriving from it. Everything seems free of disease and ready for the sun to warm up a bit. I pruned one branch this year (on my incredibly large collection of 7 roses... lol, all only now starting their second or third year).

I know it won't be long, but I am very ready for Spring. I have an allotment for the first time this year, so while I won't have much of a garden to boast about, hopefully I'll have some beginner's luck with the veg.

Where do u see P.Zimmermans videos? El Nino is in full effect here in Seattle..which means mild mild winter. The sad thing is that the warm current wrecks havoc on our salmom population..too warm water moves the fish to Alaska. I did a mild pruning already..I think it's spring here.

@zyperiris: Here is a link to Paul Zimmerman's great vids.

Juliet

Here is a link that might be useful: Ashdown Roses Videos

oho blendguy - welcome to allotmenteering! Will you be growing entirely vegetables? I have had my plots for 8 years now and the vegetable bit has got smaller and smaller as flowers and fruit are taking over. Check out allotments for all forum - very helpful. As for spring - just yearning! We got chickens last week and are having to trek a kilometer to the allotment to let them out at dawn - OK now as dawn is 7ish but no way am I getting up at 5 so am busy trying to bodge a mechanical door opener using an old-fashioned alarm clock!
Cold, cold, cold and wet - oh for some winter sun.

Ingrid, I'm glad that you are at that satisfying stage of the year where your chores are mostly done and you are waiting for bloom. I am still in the thick of it though I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I usually become a bit depressed around this time. I'm working hard to get the pruning finished, sometimes in drizzling rain. There are mountains of prunings to pick up. The soil is very wet and cold. The garden is an ugly mess. But the pruning is nearly done. Michael will help me pick up the trash. Next month I'll fertilize. There are small signs of spring.

I've been watching the videos too....always seem to need a refresher on pruning. And I can never remember which ones "resent being pruned hard"! Was one of those Marchesa Boccella?

It won't stop raining here; it started in late fall and goes on and on and on (as opposed to the three months last summer in which not a drop fell from the sky). I have onions and potatoes that need to go in the ground, dad nab it!!! Not to mention the expensive bare root fruit trees that we got at a fruit tree sale a week ago that are sitting in a tub of mulch waiting to be planted. They are going to be there for a while since we got another inch of rain yesterday.

I have two orders of bare root roses coming this week; perhaps I will stick them in the tub with the fruit trees!

Sherry - sorry to hear about your fall! I bet your toe was preettttyyy sore too.

Yes, I'm ready for spring!

Lynn

This guy is. This robin has been hanging around all Winter, usually don't see them until the Spring. He's adopted the crabapple tree in the front yard, plucking the fruits as needed. Here he is escaping the falling snow with his feathers all puffed out to stay warm. Oh, and those are canes of Madame Isaac Pereire behind him :)

Eric

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That poor Robin! I guess nobody told him he was supposed to fly South...I've never seen one stay around during winter. He looks totally miserable, poor lil' guy.

Actually I'm not ready.

I'm still scrambling to get caught up with my winter garden work. More importantly, the rains stop when winter is over, and we have three years of drought in a row to make up for. It doesn't look as though we're going to get enough to fill the reservoirs and restore the groundwater, but at least I'd like to have this year be rainy enough to not make things even worse.

I do wish for the weather to be milder in places that are getting hammered. Having grown up in Pennsylvania, I have sympathy for those of you who have two and three feet of snow just now.

Rosefolly

My garden is buried under 24" of snow and there's 10-20" more snow predicted... so I wish it were spring, but I'm not anywhere near ready!

Not really, I am enjoying the break.

Eric, that robin look sooooo cold.

Like greybird, I'm enjoying the winter down time this year. There is SO much to do to get the garden ready for the upcoming rose season, and I decided not to stress about it. I have things to plant, the ground has been too wet or covered in snow ... that's okay. The ramblers look like haystacks and the OGRs are growing over each other ... that's okay, too. I'm catching up on projects in the house, and enjoying the snow through the window as I sit on a radiator. :)

Connie

Thanks for the heads up on the pruning videos by Zimmerman. I just watched them and it was a great refresher. Much easier to watch someone prune than to read about it and look at pictures.

I do wish Winter would finally leave. I am ready!

Ingrid, I am really ready - mostly, I'm really ready to stop putting on layer after layer of clothing in order to work in the Sac City Cemetery Garden. I feel like the Michelin Tire man! But I feel like such a marshmallow just saying that, when I read the posts from the GardenWebbers in the really cold part of the country. I think I'm lucky to be a California child, since I have so little resistance to the cold. My tiny collection of roses is ready, too - they are all leafing out like mad. Cecile Brunner is just going bananas (and the aphids have already found out), and I THINK that 'Betty' is starting a bud! I haven't pruned any of them, since they are all only about a year and a half old, and I learned the hard way to not TOUCH them with pruners until they are older. I also have not yet fertilized them, just in case we get some really cold weather. I don't expect any, I'm just being extra-cautious.

Sherry, I didn't think you would ever have freezes there!

Eric, I think all our hearts are broken looking at that poor little robin...

BlendGuy, it's nice to see your posts coming in now and then. I remember you being very helpful and encouraging when I was first starting on the forum. Let us know how your English garden grows, also your allotment.

Laura

Lynn, my toe is fine, but I fell with my arm under me which lightly popped a rib high up in my ribcage. Not terrible, and if I keep taking Tylenol, not too uncomfortable. I just have to remember to take the pill.

Laura, freezes don't seem to fit the Florida image, do they? But we definitely get them, sadly. Freezes in Florida have been destroying crops since the 1800s. Supposed to get to 30 tonight. I don't think that will hurt the roses. Hope not anyway.

Eric, can't you bring the robin inside? Poor baby.

Sherry

Sherry, sorry about your fall. The weekend I put up my Xmas tree I fell down my stairs..and bruised the beejeebers out of my knee. The sad thing was that I did it to myself..see I put some stuff on the stairs..then there was a hullaballoo outside..nothing happens around here..turns out it was SANTA Claus..on a Fire engine..Well I went galloping down the stairs..and my right foot was like a ski, but the left was on solid ground..I thought I broke something. 8 weeks later I still have a tweak. So my sympathies.

I feel so bad for all of you buried under snow. Listen to the Beach Boys..it will make you think of the warm beach and waves..and you will be happy!

I never dreamt my post would receive so many replies, and it's been enjoyable and fascinating to read about everyone's unique experiences. I feel immensely lucky but also somewhat guilty about living in my benign climate when I read about the ice and the snow and the cold that so many of you are braving. And, compared to some of you my paltry 90 roses are a drop in the bucket in terms of the maintenance required. I really marvel at the hard work people like melissa and mendocino rose, celeste and hoov put in to keep their roses in shape. But come late spring and summer they will have incredible beauty to show for it. And, hopefully, although on a less grand scale, so will the rest of us.

Ingrid

Ingrid, you won't be saying your climate is benign in July, August, September...

Sherry

Well, misery loves company, so I guess I can whine a little about my troubles. Somehow around T-Day I ended up sleeping wrong (I thought) and got a sore shoulder. Should just go away, right? Wrong...and fast forward to January.
After suffering with arm pains running up and down my arm, which were waking up me at night, I finally went to see my doctor. Turns out I have Frozen Shoulder...thank heavens it wasn't a torn rotor cuff which is what my doc originally thought.

So I'm spending 2 days a week in therapy, trying to get the muscles 'unfrozen' so I can be ready to get up-to-par and ready to prune and put down mulch by April. My PT says 'we'll see' when I ask if April is doable.

At least it's not my pruning arm...

No! No! No! I am nowhere near ready for spring.
I am still frantically digging out tree roots, putting down weedkiller, rebuilding retaining walls, burning rubbish, removing layers of bits of metal and plastic, (by the way, did you know that plastic does degrade eventually).
I am also trying to plant at least some of my long suffering Roses, Clematis, and assorted plants that have been in pots for over a year.
What is worse, is that I have gone a bit mad ordering more!
I have already received a delivery of pinks (Dianthus).
I am also expecting various Alstromerias, a large delivery of herbaceous plants and shrubs, and another delivery of roses.
My poor D.H. has hurt his sciatic nerve, so is not able to help me.
I vote that we put spring back by at least another six weeks.
Daisy

I wish I could bring the robin inside. He seems to managing. I did some research, and apparently, this area is within their year-round range...although we usually never see them during the Winter. In no time he'll be hopping amongst the green grass hunting earthworms :)

Eric

I'm with you, Daisy!

Sherry

That cold robin image continues to stick with me. He looks like a juvenile. Maybe he was out goofing around when his flock departed, then he was stuck there in the deep freeze, not knowing where to go. Or maybe got tired and had to drop out of the migration flight. I would bet so many things can happen to the young during their first trip south. At least he has the fruit from the crabapple tree to keep him fed.

Please keep us updated on the robin.

I think in the first pic I caught the robin looking particularly puny and miserable. He's bigger than he looks. I caught him again today hopping around on the front porch eating a crabapple and in the tree foraging. He's pretty active and flies around a lot...so that's good.

It's really inspired me to plant more food-source plants in the garden.

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Eric

Are you kidding??? There's physically ready, as in you've begun pruning and cleaning up beds and mulching etc. Then there's emotionally ready, like if you see one more snow storm and you've leafed through every plant catalog you've received and downloaded all the information you can on the plants you want to grow and you've made so many lists of gardens you want to plant until you run out of ideas and things to do until spring ready.

Well, I know you are in zone 10 SoCal so I should'nt get crazy about it and usually I ignore the posts from there but somehow the word "spring" just jumped my engine. Anyhow, it'll be better in a couple months, March and April are incredible in the southeast with the dogwoods and redbuds blooming, and in May the roses come into full splendor, so I must wait until then. All things in due course.

Wow that was a venting. Whew, I feel better now!

Ask me again in a month and my answer may be different but for now, YES, I personally am ready. My garden is FAR from ready. I can hardly get outside because of the cold and the rain we keep having (I know some of you have it MUCH worse but you have to remember that 20 degrees is VERY cold in Atlanta). It seems like every Saturday has terrible weather lately. But I'm tired of being cold. I'm tired of wishing I could get outside and get my hands dirty. Spring can't come early enough for me. Maybe I should say, "I'm ready for some weather that will enable me to get ready for spring."

For all those of you living in the Snow Zone and really, really tired of reading plant catalogs, etc. (see linrose above), I would recommend getting a terrific book out of the library: "The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire & the Birth of an Obsession" by Andrea Wulf. Anita (cemeteryrose) put me on to it, and it's wonderful! It's nice and long, really well-written, and perfect for curling up on the couch in front of the fire (not that I have a fireplace, it's just my mental image of Life In The Snow Country, either reading a good book or knitting a big sweater by said fireplace, TOTALLY ignoring the idea of the shoveling and bigtime layering that I know goes on).

Laura

Sherry, you're so right - I tend to forget about the broiling hot summer once it's over, elective amnesia I suppose. These days at seems to be about five months or so when it's too hot for me to enjoy being outside during the day, and that's a pretty large chunk of the year. I'm depressed now.

Ingrid

Oh, poor Ingrid. You were in such a sanguine frame of mind, and I messed it up. Bummer! And here I am giggling at your depression - or at least how you expressed your depression. Nother bummer. Does it help that I'm absolutely confident that you'll get over it? Just think of my roses outside tonight, enduring 27 degrees with all their new shoots just a shiverin'. See, now you feel better. It's what I get for bringing up the dreaded summer.

Sherry

Sherry, you can giggle away and I'm joining you. For all of us life is so darn strange, isn't it? We're happy one day because everything is great and unhappy the next because everything isn't. The roses are gorgeous; oops, the gopher ate half the plant. The aphids are gone; oops, the grasshoppers have arrived. But in between, there are soft breezes and blue skies and the roses are blooming.

Ingrid

I've thought before that if I could remember afterward what a really bad cold is like, I'd kill myself so as never to have to face one again. Childbirth is similar: no wonder the gestation period is nine months, it gives you time to forget. Selective amnesia is important for the human race.
The snowstorm forecast for today isn't happening, though it's gray, chilly, and windy outside. Actually the sounds of wind and of the stream roaring in the bottom of the valley are heartening: it's the dead stillness of fog that beats me down. Well, I have a warm house, plenty of food from all the cooking yesterday for my husband's birthday, a slight cold, and bad weather. Also two days ago I walked a lot and worked out my fidgets and bad mood. So conditions are perfect for a book, a forum, or a DVD.
Only thirty-nine days until spring!!
Melissa

Ingrid, you said it so absolutely perfectly. If it's not one thing, it's another, but in between there are some wonderful times in the garden. I hope I remember that when the thrips are here.

Sherry

My property is buried under 3-4 feet of snow with snow walls up to five feet. Early Saturday morning the power went out and stayed out until Wednesday night. That is nearly five days of no heat and hot water, with only one small wood burning fireplace (thank God we didn't convert it to gas!) for warmth. The Washington DC area got slammed by these two blizzards. The Federal Government was CLOSED for a week. That is UNHEARD of. Simply put, we are not prepared for this kind of weather.

So yeah, I am ready for Spring.

Mol, I sure feel for you! Here in the PNW it is very mild.

Boy, now I'm REALLY ready for spring. It feels like I'm living in a snow globe. That's something we're really not used to here in HOT-lanta. (Yeah, I know that many of you are COVERED in way more snow than we have here but for here, it's pretty unusual. I've heard that it's even snowing in Savannah!)

Here's a picture of Sweet Chariot on my back deck. I wish the picture showed all the snow coming down.

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I've been avoiding this post because I knew there was going to be a lot of happy Californians talking about stuff.
Two feet of snow but starting to melt-sooo, it's ice city like one foot lumps on the sidewalk.
The weather reports from Washington D.C. are wild, aren't they? Sorry for sending you our weather, though we rarely get five feet at once, either.
I hope the Cherry trees are alright. I haven't forgotten that one I bought by mistake. Not even the rootstock made it.
They were selling them at K-mart. As we drove home the latin name kept bothering me-I knew I had read it somewhere. The monsters who send those and bouganvillea and Lady Banks Rose to Montana ought to be sent to summer school at a logging camp.
36 degrees on the porch tonight. A front coming out of Seattle is pushing the warm air ahead of it.
I was wishing for an old-fashioned chinook wind. Haven't had any in years. You'd wake up in the morning to a howling warm wind and the snow would be gone in a couple days.