What a breath of fresh air! Thank you!

In Southern California, the sun is shining for the moment, and it is not raining. It may start again, though, so these images are inspirational!

Jeri

Beautiful! I have never seen Kuroshinju before, I will have to do a little research. I love that color. Thanks for posting. If it makes you feel any better about the lateness of your summer, my roses are still sticks at this point. We haven't had any sun to speak of (and hail last night). Every day I get on my hands and knees and peer at them to see if there has been any sign of life. Sigh.

My new-this-year, own root, band of Kuroshinju just bloomed for the first time and it is every bit as beautiful as Beth's picture. Knocked my sox right off !!!! Thanks Beth !!!

Susan

Your flowers are very pretty! My family lives in Ca. and have still been getting snow up to this week so I hear you on the weather!

Beth, I hope you get a summer soon, since you are so bummed out by the current weather. I normally don't mind rain, but I like my summers to BE summers. It has been cooler than normal in Southern CA, as well. We rarely get temps above 75 lately and we are at the start of June!!!! I remember growing up to June, July, August, September and October being mostly bright blue skies and very warm. It's hard to know what kind of summer will unfold, but it seems like it will be late this year. Keep the faith and know that at least in CA, we have a long bloom season.

Juliet

I'm sorry for you. We all need summer to come. We're having nicer weather now - not hot, but nicer. I was SOOOOO cranky before the sun started shining. It's amazing how we need summer.

OTOH - your roses and irises are beautiful.

I love your Charles Austin, cl. Eden, Kiroshinj..and Night Owl. I would love to see a bush shot of your Night Owl since I bought one this year to grow in a pot. I know that mine might not survive the winter and that it won't look like someone's in California would look. But I'd love to see a shot.

Take care and take some Vitamin D to improve your mood. :)

Carol

Your pictures are gorgeous! Thank you!

I am also in No Cal, and have lived here forever. I CAN remember once when it rained (hard) all the way until the END of June! That was in 1965, however. I was a teenager then and did not care much. Now that I have a garden, it is frustrating that it is not only rainy, but cold and dark every day. Personally I have gone into winter mode - we have fires in the fireplace every evening, and I feel compelled to start making stews and baking - not all bad.

On the good side re roses, my once bloomers, most of which would be done by now, are still blooming. My Veiechenblau is gorgeous - just blooming and blooming. So is my de la Grifferie - I love that rose!

Jackie

Beth, I live in a similar climate to yours on the other side of the valley between Redding and Eureka.

I agree, this cold spring has just been too long ! At first I was grateful for the rain in May because that meant I didn't have to stop working on a major project to go deep water the other parts of the garden. I am a beat-the-heat kind of gardener up here because I HATE the triple digit summer heat, so between rain storms, I have been working outside and have almost got one of the street beds hand weeded and heavily mulched with the high hopes that it won't be so difficult to maintain in the future. However, the spring grasses and weeds in the other street bed are so tall, they make the house look like it has been abandoned. (That bed is the next big project).

Only two of my roses have any blooms and very few at that. The irises have exploded, but with all of this rain, the blooms are a soggy mess.... no joy.

This week, I just have not been able to get motivated to work as hard as usual, but the forecast says it will be warmer by next week. Like you, I think this may be a very short summer.

I, too, need some sun. I had a long project list, but this spring sure has made me shorten the list.

I just hope I get some bloom before the curculios become active and migrate back to the garden and I have to disbud the whole garden again. They didn't breed in the garden this year, so I haven't seen any damaged buds. I checked the species roses growing in the park across the street in the park and they haven't even fully budded out and have no bloom.

Day temps are supposed to go up by 20 degrees next week. There might even be some sun.

Thanks for posting the photos of your roses and irises.

Smiles,
Lyn

The weather has been an issue in lots of places I suspect. It has gone from at least comfortable to frying pan here. If one is so inclined, one can go to the local water parks to cool off. My roses can't just get up and do that. They are frying in the heat after being beaten by high winds and rain.

All your pictures are nice no matter what. I am curious about the Charles Austin. Does yours repeat bloom reasonably well? I had one at one time, but it never would repeat. It may have been an age issue.

It sounds like it's been one little misery after another all conspiring to bring you down. Your roses and irises perked me up, though.

I am crabby for days if I have to figure out something new on my computer. I admire you for learning the new stuff!

I hope the weather warms up for you soon.
Renee

Your roses are magnificent. I am going to copy down the names of some of them since I am not familiar with them.

The weather here has also been terrible, and I can understand your disappointment. Day after day I go to work, get a weekend, and the weather is bad. I am so glad that you have given us such beautiful pictures to look at.

Sammy

I always love seeing your photos and hearing about your roses, Beth. This has been a crazy, frustrating year, and I'm sorry that it's impacting your enjoyment of the garden. Add to this the camera and computer difficulties, and you have a LOT going on.

Here, we had a cool mild spring with adequate rain and sunshine. A late freeze set my modern roses onto a schedule known only to them, with hybrid teas opening huge flowers almost within the bounds of the pruned canes. Now, with the second flush beginning to bud, the canes and buds are finally rising above. The OGRs came right on time, with full bloom on Memorial Day weekend as usual. Unseasonable heat arrived that Sunday, lasting for four days, and my garden is now full of thousands of brown, crispy dried roses ... just in time for our daughter's wedding this evening. I was only able to harvest a large bucket of flowers from this huge garden of mine to add to the florist flowers (thank heaven for the wholesaler! We would be sunk without the flowers we bought on Thursday).

My wish for my garden is that the heat didn't do what it did last summer, when I had such a disastrous year propagating. We ONLY had heat this time, not prolonged drought, so I think I should be fine.

Gardening is humbling. Just when we think we have it all planned out, Mother Nature informs us that she is actually the one in charge.

Connie

Our climate is changing too. We haven't had many mild days in the 60s 70s and 80s in the last two years. It's either cold or really hot. Gardeners are more alert to these changes than most people. Your beautiful flowers have managed to hang in there. I hope better days are on the way for everyone.

Beth, I hope your photos lift your own spirits as much as they have lifted the rest of ours. They are gorgeous!
Tell me about Kuroshinju. It's color is to die for. Is it fragrant? I checked HMF and they don't seem to have a source. Where did you find it?

Kay

Beth, I'm so sorry for everything you're going through, especially the pain of your arthritis which can ruin even the best day, and of course the cold only makes it worse.

I don't know any details about your dog, but it's not always a given that every dog is the right fit for someone. With your pain in moving around and the despair that its actions cause you perhaps you may want to rethink about whether this will be a workable relationship. We have a rescue dog that has take much work and patience (and a great deal of frustration on our part), but at least he doesn't harm anything in the garden (we live in the country and have no fencing so he's always on a leash when outside).

Your pictures are gorgeous, and your roses are such beautiful varieties. The irises are exquisite, with my favorites being Lacy Linda and Indiscreet.

I wish you all the best and hope that sunny weather sets in soon.

Ingrid

you need some more roses to kill

The garden may be messy and weedy and overgrown but the blooms are still gorgeous, Beth! Take heart, the bad weather has put many of us behind, it will improve and the dog will grow up. And through it all the roses will continue to bloom for your pleasure!

I have been wondering where you were! Sorry it's been a bad yr.. Even on a bad yr., your roses look as good or better than many.. Thanks for posting...

Beth - I thought about your post as I woke up this morning, to look out to see it was POURING! Our weather really just is crazy. I've lived out in California for 30 years now, and I never ever remember a late spring this cold or rainy. I do know that your roses and irises are absolutely stunning, and made my day - despite the lousy weather.

We live in a spot that catches extra rain. When Ukiah 45 minutes to the south gets 40 inches we'll have 60. I agree that it's been a tough winter. My garden has grown rankly and the rain makes the roses fall over the pathways. Some roses caught downy mildew badly. I go out to work between showers and come back in the house soaked. One thing I can say though is it is a lot like last year and last year my summer garden was beautiful all summer. The mild temperatures kept things blooming instead of shutting down in the heat. It was my reward for enduring the cold spring.

So sorry, Beth, for all your miseries. I can really feel for you as we are experiencing similar but not as cold weather. If it ever warms up, it will be fungus heaven out there. One more thing to look forward to, huh?

I hate computer frustrations! Did your new camera come with software to crop/fix photos? Mine usually do come with something adequate. It really is difficult adjusting to a new camera and new software.

As for the dog, in our old house, our two dogs tore the yard up--just by chasing each other and digging. In this house where we have been for 15 years, we decided not to have the dogs unsupervised in the yard. We had a dog run at first, but I hate dog runs. They seem like jail to me. So, they stay inside with us and get two good walks a day. It keeps us in shape and the yard intact. But--Lacy is a squirrel nut and the minute I take her out there, she tears across the yard to the tree. She believes a straight line is the shortest path to a squirrel! Now, if I could just get them to stop eating compost . . .

Anyway, it MUST get better soon, and very soon, as my son is getting married with an outdoor reception next Saturday. Let's pray and hope.

Funny things, your photos show only beautiful roses, not the grief behind the scenes. Looking at them, one would think everything is just fine and dandy. Hopefully, it will be soon.

Thanks everybody! I meant to start answering you guys on Saturday, but got way-layed; then Sunday spent the day trying to finish up some more of the photo-tweaking and that took ALL day. Then, it had let up raining a bit, so I went out and took more pics of what still looked decent. That added over 100 more to be tweaked. Geez. I'm kinda glad it rained all day today so I couldn't get out to take pics today!! LOL

Carol, you are so right about us needing summer. We need that sunlight to get out of the winter funk! I do take Vitamin D plus lots of other supplements. As far as a bush shot of NIGHT OWL goes... unfortunately there's not a whole lot to see! It's a whimpy twiggy thing that only puts out a bloom every so often, and certainly isn't much of a climber. I think mine is barely 3ft tall after 3yrs.

Jackie, I can understand rain into June, but freezing cold temps is just too weird. Hmm... my VEILCHENBLAU doesn't look like it's going to do much. It had a handful of blooms awhile ago, but I think it's done. I never did get around to deadheading it or fertilizing it.

Lyn, I know what you mean about those spring grasses and other weeds. I've been putting off doing several beds that are overgrown. But then with this weather, it's been really hard to even try to get to them! And you're right, the forecast looks good for the rest of this week... FINALLY!!

Bustopher, my CHARLES AUSTIN doesn't repeat all that great. I may get two really good flushes. But the blooms are usually really pretty and a lot of them.

Connie, sorry your roses were all crispy for your daughter's wedding. That must've been really disappointing. But at least you had the florist roses. I hope the wedding was wonderful!

Kay, KUROSHINJU is a great rose. I got mine from Hortico many yrs ago, and I believe they may still offer it. It's always got gorgeous velvety dark black-red blooms on it. The plant averages about 3-4ft wide and 4-5ft tall. Ya know, I don't remember ever checking the scent on it. I'll have to try to remember to do so after the rain is done.

Ingrid, this dog we got is turning out to be a royal pain in the butt. I had no hand in picking her this time. My husband and younger son picked her. I wanted to wait a bit, but they felt she was such a great dog, they didn't want to pass her up. She can be a very funny dog, but being a border collie mix, she's rather high maintenance. I just wanted a dog to keep the deer out of the yard. She's become more of a pain than the deer. I just came home to find a rug all shredded in the front walkway. I could care less about the rug, but she makes such a mess and digs up the gravel in the walkways. The people at the pound said she was about 1 1/2yr old, but my son thinks she was younger. I know it takes time for them to grow out of stuff like this. Maybe once the weather is better my husband will take her for walks and do some things with her. Right now it's just hard to do anything. She probably has cabin fever just like we do!!

Seil, you're absolutely right. Everything just takes time. But sometimes I just get impatient. I'm getting too old for this crap!! LOL

Kathy, no kidding about the dang fungus. Looking at the garden yesterday, I see more powdery mildew than I've seen since we moved here 11yrs ago. And I'll be danged if I didn't see some frickin' RUST on a few roses. I used to never get rust, except on the grassy weeds. Yuck... The new camera may have come with some Photoshop program, but I can't download it onto my computer due to having the Lenix program UBUNTU loaded instead. It uses other programs not made by Microsoft. The GIMP program is very much like Photoshop, but it's just slow. But, my son says it just could be my old computer. I have a Sony system that was waaaay superior to anything that came out at the time. It's now almost 9yrs old. I want to get a new computer, but just can't right now. Gotta finish paying off some home repairs and car tires, and the friggin' roses I bought this winter. Then, my husband wants to either fix his POC (piece of crap) old motorcycle, or get a new one. That's not cheap. And the younger son needs dental work and we don't have insurance for him.... it just goes on....

Thanks guys for the compliments and encouragement. Sorry that I didn't answer everyone individually. I'll try to post some more pics in the Gallery later on....

It's not only depressing sometimes, but weird weather can be downright dangerous. Here in Illinois, it has been overcast, very unusually chilly, wet, and windy.

Then a high pressure system moved in Saturday, and temperatures soared to record highs. We went to Chicago Saturday & they'd had a marathon, and one person collapsed and died after crossing the finish line. Heat stroke.

I've heard so far of at least 3 people in my town that got sick from working out in the heat this past weekend. It's just so dangerous when your body is acclimated to 60's and 70's and then temps soar into the mid 90's.

Gotta keep this in mind when we look at our roses.

Two years ago we had 42 out of 45 days of measurable rain Starting late may running into early july.

This year we had 22 out of 31 days in may that had measurable rain.

A year ago it barely rained and my garden and I gave up.. loosing plenty of plants, with temps in the 100's on a daily basis, untypical for maine.

Weather cycles , about the time you feel you can adjust to it, it will flip. I know for awhile the great feel of global warming had spread to the northeast, with kinda of a giddy feeling to us cold zoners =P.. with milder winters we were starting to push zone 6 even here, in the last 5 years we have set snow records and cold records in every part of this state, with average snowfalls over 100 and even longer than normal winters. BTW people blame that on Global warming as well..

I not a complete fool to say there is no such thing as global consequences to human activity. I just think some of the extreme arguments to weather cycles is hard to trace , its a complex and ever changing system. People overreact, so a mild winter , a cold one, a hot summer, a cold summer. In 5 years it might be different.

There is a bonus to cooler temps, less watering, and roses dont nearly crisp as fast.

BTW the heat doesnt come on in my home unless its 40 or below =P... All that thick blood we have here I guess.

Silverkelt

It has been hot and sunny where I live in Maryland for the past two and a half weeks, with possible triple digit temps expected later this week. No rain to speak of since mid-May. I think the California weather is just taking a vacation on the east coast for a while, that's all. No complaints here. :)

I just saw on Yahoo news that it snowed in Hawaii!! Now that's really weird!!

Hope you feel better soon Beth! I liked your pics! :-)

WOO WOO Beth. I think our wait for spring is over. Weather for the next week looks awesome, and we'll be into our normal 90's next week!!

I know I know! I love it! Finally!! I had to laff yesterday tho. When I came home from work and was backing in the driveway, I noticed the roses next to it were all FRIED! It wasn't even hot yet. I guess they've been so used to the 40 degree temps, that 70+ was too hot! Oh well, the next round will adapt. Now I just gotta get out there and deadhead!!

Silverkelt, I'm with you. I don't believe in all that "Global Warming" crap. I think it's just "Global Climate Change." And that is not brought on by us. The earth is always changing and it's just that right now, it's doing so a lot more aggressively. I seriously think that we are all in for a major happening by the end of next yr. When the planets align, and the polarity flip-flops, all sorts of things will happen all over the earth. We may not survive!

Beth, I just saw your post and want to say that I am so sorry that your spring wasn't that great. BUT your rose and iris photos are!!! I especially love Charles Austin and Janet. Thanks for posting. Hope the weather will be more to your and your roses liking in the future!

Christina

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams