HI PAUL! Nice to hear from you!

Out here in SoCal, all sorts of buds set to pop.

Jeri from SoCal

I'm hoping my Reve d'Or will become a house eater too (sort of). I don't think it's even a year old but she's already had three blooms with more buds coming along this spring and is growing really fast. For a rose lover this has to be the best time of the year - watching everything start to grow and bloom.

Some of my roses are still not showing any real sign of coming out of dormancy. We're still a bit behind. The forsythia has begun to bloom though.

Robert

Most of mine sprouted leaves these past two weeks. I have a few that just started. I was telling DH, our spring this year is late. Forsythia just blooming now, usually it does in February. But that is good. Less chance that buds will get zapped by a late frost.

Paul, please post photos when the roses bloom. I would love to train an MAC around my windows but have been a little afraid of doing so - how do you support it? Also, I'd love to see ZD along a chain. That must be beautiful!
Anita

I have 2 MACs that have eaten my garage - they are huge at the top but bare at the bottom, because they are in deep dark shade until they get above the roof line. Anyway, a couple of winters ago in a storm the huge top of one of them (about 15 feet wide x ten feet high) fell off the roof, over the back fence, and landed in our neighbor's yard. The main canes probably would have broken, except that providently our neighbor had a large metal child's climbing jungle jim about 5 feet from the fence, and it supported the weight of the rose, so none of the main canes broke. It is way in the back of our property, so we didn't even know about it until we got this phone call....

I went into their yard, and with me on top of the jungle jim, and my husband on the roof of our garage with a block and tackle (literally - he is a contractor, which sometimes comes in handy dealing with monster roses!) he managed to winch the rose back to where it belonged, and of course we pruned it a lot. To answer Anita's question, my husband supported it with 1/2 inch metal cables, which he attached to our garage. It has not escaped since, and the Spring following its adventure it bloomed like mad.

We have another large MAC which is climbing up a tree in an area that has sort of reverted to forest - we don't support it at all - it climbed all the way up to the top (over 20 feet) of the tree by itself, and has now gone sideways at the top and is climbing on two other trees also. It is blooming now, and is a gorgeous view from the second story windows of our house.

Jackie

Paul---I read with great interest your plan for Zephirine Drouhin-------several years ago someome posted a picture of Zeffy on chains and posts like you described and it was a glorious sight to behold.

Can't wait to see yours in bloom.

Needless to say---I love Zeffy----

Here is the northeast we have to wait a couple of months for blooms.

Florence

Paul, what a glorious sight that must be! I too am curious as to how you're attaching MAC to your house - trellis, those doohickeys that attach to the house andthen tie the rose onto?

We'd all love to see pics!

cemeteryrose and duchesse nalabama.....I bought some of those doohickeys from Lee Valley that you supposedly attach with putty to a brick wall and the little cups have a ring you run a tiny wire through and then tie the rose to that....Well for one thing the rose would be about a quarter of an inch from the wall at most and only in your dreams would something like that hold up a MAC......:).....So I put that device in my garden shed and I'm sure it would be nice for a clematis or something one of these days.....what I ended up doing was buying a couple of black trellis's about 30 inches wide and 9 feet tall, I used screws to screw them into the brick mortar and I used spacers to bring it about 4 or 5 inches away from the wall.....Each trellis is on one side of the window about 18 inches away from the window.....above and below the window itself I have a green vinyl wire fencing that connects from one edge of each trellis so I can train them from one trellis to the other.....the trellis is the side frame for the window and the fencing is the top and bottom frame...I'll post a URL for a page I found onetime that explains in detail about how to use the fencing only or you can use the fencing along with the metal trellis's like I did.....I'll post pictures when it blooms out.....I just pruned it a few weeks ago but I only got around to tying it up a bit more today....by the way I'm only using one MAC, I'm training it from the right side of the window towards the other side of the window and the other trellis like I said but I'm also training it to the right too.....its already going reaching up and around my shed on the side of the house.....of course it doesn't look as big as it did before I pruned it but looks better I think and I'm looking forward to it blooming soon...

Here is a link that might be useful: Using fencing for support

jacqueline3,,,,Winches? Tackle? 1/2 inch metal cables?......Hey now that's what call some serious support....:)
But no joke your roses sound like humdingers.....I'd sure like to see a photo if you have any handy.....

zeffyrose.....Here is photo of what they looked like last year, the Zephrines.....I'll post some photos from this year as soon as they bloom....The first time I ever saw a ZD is when I saw that picture of yours and showed it to my wife.....I knew then that was the rose I was going to use for the swag for her...Thanks

Here is a link that might be useful: Swag

That is a very cool system of attaching. Thanks for the link with the pictures. And your Zeffy swags are so lovely. I'd never seen such a pretty ZD either until I saw Florence's here.

Thanks for sharing; I enjoyed looking at your pictures.

Paul-----I just read you blog on your home page.

What a wonderful outlook you have on life---

You made my day !!!!

I'm looking forward to this years display of Zeffy-----

The foxglove are also beautiful----

Can't wait to see more of your garden pictures.

Florence

Took these pictures today of the swag, arbor and fence......The pictures looked kinda washed out for some reason but it was the best I could do, I wish I was a better photographer.....

Zeffy thanks so much, I'm so glad you enjoyed the stories and the pictures....Kinda weird, my foxgloves are kinda late this year for some reason and some look like they may not flower till next year (but its too early to really know for sure) but if so maybe its cause some of them just didn't get enough of a cold treatment this winter I guess....looks like some will bloom and some will wait till next year to show their blooms....Hey they don't tell me why they bloom when they do and I don't ask.....:)

Paul from Alabama

Here is a link that might be useful: April Roses

Paul, you have beautiful yard, and those great fences are going to a wonderful waste of money :)) when Lamarque, et al get huge and cover them - but they're sturdy anyway, and you'll know what's underneath is gorgeous. ZD is already gorgeous, and I can't wait to see your MAC.

I have to tie up my year-old Reve d'Or, Duchesse d'Auerstadt and E Veyrat Hermanos. Gee, I don't know how to get started, so I'm procrastinating. I definitely need a helper. I have a baby Lamarque aiming himself at an arbor that's not there yet. And a teensy Jaune Desprez in a pot that will go on my garage wall - hopefully, like your MAC.

Keep posting those pics. They're lovely!

Sherry

Sherry,, glad you enjoyed the pictures......The fences?....Well some ideas we have in our gardens are better thought out than others, I won't mention any names (me),but it is pretty, the black fence up under all them roses.....:)

Speaking of MAC's and "procrastinating", funny you should mention that....We had something called an "inline wind" or some such thing here awhile back during a storm and guess who put off tying up all them MAC canes that had crept or should say "shot" up above the roof? Yours truly....:)......The wind broke off about a 1/3 of the MAC, as it broke a main cane about half way up the wall....best I can figure the wind whipped all them canes "somebody" put off tying up till they just broke off...Dragging a big old section of my dear MAC out by the road was hard but one good thing came of it, my mother and wife had some humongous flower arrangements for the house....We filled every vase we had with blooms......:).....I hope I have learned my lesson, I think so, no more procrastination when it comes to tying up MACs.....:)