Dear Sherry,
Every garden I have ever made has improved over time.
I'll admit that that's partly because I discover and correct mistakes, and that as I learn more I make fewer mistakes. You may find yourself correcting a lot of errors, but since you like gardening, correct them you will--and your garden will become more and more satisfactory to you, and develop its own personality--a reflection of your personality--as time passes.
To answer your question, if I don't get run over by a truck or something in the meantime, I firmly believe that five years from now my garden is going to be much better than it currently is: more mature, more in harmony with its physical environment, with solutions to current problems or puzzles found and carried out. It will have a much greater variety of plants that I will have found, and my trees and shrubs will have had years in which to grow and fill in all the currently empty space in the garden; the soil will be better. Who knows: in five years I may simply move out of the house and go and live in the garden, if I can find a good spot for a tiny summer house.
I called my younger sister in north Florida yesterday and she said that this has been the coldest winter she can remember. She's a lifelong Floridian. You'll feel a lot better about your garden when the weather improves. I now have several sunny days under my belt, and I'm far more energetic than I was two weeks ago when we were still living in the land of darkness.
Have a good spring, and happy gardening!!
Melissa
P.S. I don't think Florida's ugly in February; is that a matter of taste, or does it have to do with the landscaping styles you're seeing? Could you plan for a garden that also has some winter interest?

Sherry, I've seen pictures you posted of your garden/yard. It looks wonderful and will only get better with time. Of course you'll find some mistakes and you'll end up moving some things. You'll find some roses that, in your garden, don't live up to the hype and they will depart--making room for others already there or something new and promising.

I've had my current garden for 9 years and started roses in it right away. None, not one, of those first year roses are left in my garden. I have much better ones now. I like my garden MUCH better than I did 5 years ago, but it's still not all I want it to be. Maybe we shouldn't strive for perfection--only one step better or more satisfying than last year.

Try not to worry about the future. A wise man once said something like, don't worry about the future, there is plenty to worry about for today. Besides, I think there are many of us here who would love to visit your garden, see what you've done and learn from what's happening there.

Melissa & Atlanta, thank you so much for the encouragement and kindness. Melissa, to me Florida in February is ugly because everything (well, a whole lot) goes brown (grass) and bare (we have a lot of deciduous trees here). Things freeze and we're not supposed to cut them back until now so they don't freeze again, so all that dead stuff hangs around. February is a bedraggled month here TO ME. The redbuds are starting to bloom but not many yet. The azaleas haven't started yet. Maybe you wouldn't call it ugly, but it's not normal lush, green Florida. I do not like winter (!) which is usually mostly sunny here (a good thing), but this year with so much rain (a good thing) we've had days on end of cloudiness. I drove through the Country Club after the January freezes. Wow! Those very high end landscapes were decimated. I'd never seen anything so bad, and except for some clean up of debris, they've been living with that for 2 months - vast half-acre brown front lawns. Things come back, thankfully, but so much of our landscape can't take 20 degrees. The roses have had leaves but they're small and new now so not much of a presentation. One of the perils of having a garden in the front yard. I'm searching for non-acidic evergreens but haven't found any. Most of the azaleas I planted in the front have died and the rest are slipping away despite acidifying attempts. I'm trying to pack in companions now, so we'll see.

Atlanta, it's so true about first year plants. I have very few - maybe 3. You're right about maturity bringing improvement. I was looking too much at the possible downside of maturity in a poorly planned & executed situation. Hopefully, that does not describe mine. Who knows what this year will bring. It occurs to me that I have several roses in the front that were in their first year last year so it's not fair to judge them yet (though they're doing really well).

Have a great day in your gardens!!

Sherry

Sherry, five years from now, some of it you will like and some it you won't. But your garden won't be static until that time anyway because you will add and subtract stuff each year. We change our minds about colors and schemes all the time!

I read an article on landscapting that said landscape plantings (I think they were talking about shrubbery) need to be redone every 5-10 years. Many times they just outgrow their spot or get ratty. I can't wait to have to dig out some of the shrubs (hollies!) I have had around the house for years!

I am in the process of building up my rose collection with new beds so my personal concern is that I will be creating a monster that I can't take care of. I certainly don't think I'm going to have more energy 5 years from now :)

Always keep in mind if, along the way, you find you don't like the way something turned out or a plant gets too big, you can get out your pruners and/or shovel! There are times when I have had a bed I didn't care for, but lived with...then woke up one day and realized that I didn't HAVE to live with it! Cleaning it out and having a blank slate, once again, is a nice feeling (and gives you a chance to get more plants!)

Lynn

Sherry dear, I do so understand how you feel. It's easy to become pessimistic, even fatlistic in the winter in a rose garden. I do it all the time. What I remember though is that gardens are all about change. Isn't that one of the most wonderful things about gardening? The progression through the seasons and the years. Things die or change and it's all really Ok. We just go on. A mature garden that's been worked in and thought of for a number of years is priceless. In five years I know yours will be better. I can't wait to see where mine will be.

Lynn & Pam, thanks for doing my rational thinking for me.

**I certainly don't think I'm going to have more energy 5 years from now :)
One of my biggest concerns. Don't mind the thought of tweaking BUT...

**having a blank slate, once again
No way, Jose!

**your garden won't be static until that time anyway
**gardens are all about change
My emotions want to get settled in and comfortable so they're resisting the concept of change. I think it's because I'm only recently a 'gardener' and don't have it in my bones and my psyche yet. This will be the 3rd year for much of the front garden and the 2nd for the rest. If patience is a virtue, I am a most unvirtuous woman! Now the change of Spring is something I think I can handle!

**A mature garden that's been worked in and thought of for a number of years is priceless.
Beautiful thought, Pam, and I do believe you.

My comfort rose, Le Vesuve, is now in the front and back gardens, so I will be able to find consolation wherever I look, I think. I'll never be too far away from it. Maybe some others will step up this year and be my muses. Louis Philippe is always faithful. Hmmm, some people call a rose like this bulletproof, but using a relational perspective, I think faithful is a better word. I think I mostly have roses that won't betray me but rather have it in their being to please me. My poodle is that way. You can see in his face and eyes that all he wants is my happiness, asking for nothing. Perhaps my garden is growing into that. Now that I'm thinking of it, that's what my dream is...a faithful, giving garden, wanting nothing more than to please. Of course, my commitment is to build strength and health into it and provide all that will enable their faithfulness. And winter is a time of rest - maybe a necessary thing for them. I shouldn't be so critical of their resting but should allow them this time, confident that they will be stronger for it, forgetting what the neighbors might be thinking but never forgetting to be faithful in return.

I think the winter stole my relationship with the garden and broke the emotional connection. I can't say it well but without my heart in touch with the plants, there's only despair. I really didn't know that part of it, but it's real and only a little hokey. These roses that are with me now are great roses that will mature well, I'm sure, and as you say, if there are any that aren't quite right, that can be fixed. It's important for me to maintain confidence and trust in the future of these roses. No doubt about it, winter is a time for faith.

Sherry

Sherry - You and your garden have been an inspiration to me, I envy your skill and dedication and I dream of someday having even a ghost of a gem like yours..... and you have given me so many gems of information, and I have gotten some of your recommendations, for my own meagre rose-garden.... Please, please don't let a temporary dip in temperature get you down, because very soon everything will burst forth with everything you have dreamed of, gorgeous fragrant beautiful roses, and maybe more, ... soon we will be moaning abt. having to deal with the BS, and the weeds, and thrips, the heat, and what else.....but you do the best you can... it's just like raising children you never know what the outcome will be, you just have to enjoy the journey and hope for the best.... sally

Bless you, Sally, you only made me cry a little, but it was beautiful. Thanks.

Sherry

Without knowing about my garden funk, DH just emailed this to me. What a DEAR husband!

{{gwi:234452}}

Sherry

Sherry,
I do think it simply takes time for the gardener to learn that 1) the garden won't break; and 2) the gardener will have periods where gardening just doesn't have any appeal, but enthusiasm will return the first warm and sunny day. You can count on it. Your passion for gardening is just in hibernation at present.
About ugly landscaping, our garden was quite unusually ugly this winter as well, as all the foliage on the Teas got frozen in December and has been hanging on ever since. There's nothing as ugly as frozen rose foliage: it's the color of mud. So I can see how you could be surrounding by unusually dismaying landscapes this winter. Do you have room for evergreen shrubs? Could box be adaptable? Rosemary? Native holly (Ilex vomitoria, I think it is)? Also there's pyracantha, for example, but it's terribly thorny and gets big. Or.....Daphne odora???? I'm sure there's something out there.
Keep your chin up,
Melissa

Sherry,
Yes, you will like it in five years because you'll keep changing it to make it what you want.

Yes, if hurricanes and drought come, or other things you can't control, you'll pick yourself up and keep going, because you are a gardener and love making beauty where you live.

Spring is coming, friend, and you'll feel better when it's warmer. Gean

Sherry, I was also thinking that shrubs like boxwood and other greenery would give a sense of order and stability to the garden in winter that will give your eye something to rest on. I'm lucky that sea lavender blooms almost all the time for me so I have a lot of that blooming right now, also boxwood, columnar junipers, cypresses and, fortunately, most of my teas and Mutabilis are still green and blooming somewhat. Five years from now your garden will be glorious, with thousands of rose blooms. Replanning and moving roses around in order to make everything "more better" is really part of the excitement of gardening. Now may be a good time for you to take a clear look at the basic bones of your garden and see where you can incorporate winter interest. I have rosemary blooming now, and lavender-colored lantanas. I know different things will do well in your area, and they don't have to be huge things. My boxwoods have stayed small for years. You're a very intelligent lady and you will continually come up with solutions that make your garden better than the year before and the year before that. Trust me on that. It's certainly the firm expectation I have for my garden and I'll do everything I can to make it happen. Yesterday I ruthlessly rippedd out two shrubs that were shading Charles Darwin and Lavender Simplicity. Some small perennials with take their place. It's always going to change and it will always be for the better. And, we're fortunate enough to have the wonderful people on this forum to cheer us on, help us with priceless information and lift us up when we're down. It's all good.

Ingrid

Sherry - I know exactly how you feel. After what seems like the longest winter on record (it actually was the snowiest winter on record here), we can finally venture out to see what awaits us. We yearn for beautiful buds, fragrant flowers, and spring surprises. Instead, we see sticks.

It was quite a shock to me to finally walk down to the main rose garden. I have a lot of roses in front, but I also have a lot of evergreen shrubs mixed in, so it doesn't look bad at all. But the back rose garden - ugh! I wouldn't even have the heart to go down there if it wasn't for the beautiful evergreen Mutabilis.

As I said, it was a shock - nothing there but sticks, and I can't even remember what these sticks looked like in bloom. So discouraging. But I know that I need to wait, and this summer, it will be my pride and joy. But it does reinforce my opinion that I need some evergreen there. Like you, I have been trying to figure out the perfect evergreen for that area, and am still unsure of what to plant. However, I need to figure this out soon because I don't want to look at only sticks next year!

Sherry, our attitudes will change when things start budding out. :) And once again, our gardens will be the apple of our eye. ;0

You're all wonderful, ten times over!

Melissa, boxwoods are a no (they're all over the place here). I did plant some 'Soft Touch' Ilex Compacta, desperately hoping my neutral pH won't kill them. I think they'll be like 3x3 balls of tiny leaves if they survive. The others you mention (rosemary & lavender) get so big here - not enough room, but definitely good suggestions. "1) the garden won't break; and 2) the gardener will have periods where gardening just doesn't have any appeal, but enthusiasm will return the first warm and sunny day." Excellent words!

I planted some things today. Two double salmon hibiscus 'Jane Cowel' along the white fence near Anna Olivier & Perle d'Or even though they will get HUGE (hack, hack), a strawflower, two Marguerites - rose and yellow, some glad bulbs. None of which will add to the winter garden. :(( I fed the front and got about have of it composted. Just putting the dark compost down makes everything look better. Budeyes are swelling all over the place.

Thank you, Gean my friend, you're always so positive - except for the hurricane part. lol That's such a big no-no here. Our insurance rates go up if you even whisper it - or the company drops you. :(( But you're so encouraging.

Ingrid, I like reading your lists of excellent plants. I dearly wanted two 'Sky Pencil' Japanese Hollies, but I can't get my pH low enough in a million years. If these Soft Touches work, I'll be getting more of them. They're not unlike box except a deeper green & denser. You know, when I had my rosemary, it never bloomed, and I had it for a year and a half before it died. One day you'll have to gently ask your plants if they like 60% humidity and torrential downpours a couple of times a week. If they say yes, let me know!

holleygarden, do you have Hermosa? Run go check it out if you do. Mine are loaded with buds, just starting to show dark pink/red. I have buds scattered around on other roses. It was a wonderful day - maybe 70. Cool enough to have long sleeves on and pants. A neighbor came to visit my next-door neighbor while I was out there. She told me I have a beautiful garden. I thanked her very much, but why do I want to argue with her? It occurs to me that others don't think it's as bad as I do - even the sticks, probably. And I guess they know what time of year it is.

Thank you everyone. I feel much better for all your kind words.

Sherry

It's like a marriage. Both you and your garden will have your ups and downs. If you think and plan for the long term, and keep working at it, it's a lot easier to handle.

Whave hoovb said! I think so many issues can be avoided if we try to make a long term plan. I have personally been so bad about doing stuff on the fly......"gotta get these roses/plants in the ground".....so in they go, without much thought to the long term. Hence I have some weird color combinations and strange placements that I would like to change. And have been changing, slowly. It's just hard to remove mature plants!

Years and years ago, when we first moved into the house, we had a plan drawn up by a landscape designer and I followed it for most of the bed/sidewalk/shrubbery/tree placement. I STILL like the general design. It can be very helpful to have a professional's expertise. I would like to do that again; however, I'll have to wait until I have an extra nickel or two!

Lynn

Sherry I have just finished my garden inventory. I like to do it once the weeding and pruning are done (and they are, hurray!) so that I can see clearly and assess what I am going to do. I have one dead and one underperforming rose to remove. I have eight to plant. I have rooted cuttings to plant. I have roses to reposition as better ideas occur to me, or as a true understanding of their eventual size penetrates my consciousness. This last is a recurring problem for me; I often don't visualize scale accurately. This kind of editing happens every year. Perhaps there are gardeners who are content with previous decisions, or whose judgment is better than mine, but many are like me. You may be perfectly content with your garden in five years. Well, perhaps not perfectly -- you'll still see plants you must have. Or you may want to continue making changes. Either way is fine.

Have fun!

Rosefolly