Seriously cold winters are good for reducing the population of everything from Japanese beetles to deer. Also, the humidity tends to drop a lot when it gets cold, so the cold isn't nearly as nasty. Yesterday it was around freezing and humid, and the cold just went through everything. I can handle zero a lot easier than that.

Strictly from a rose perspective, I like cold winters because the in the ground roses were selected for them. They can handle pretty much anything that is going to happen out there. The garage roses are much easier to deal with when it's cold. Warm winters keep them from going dormant.

Besides it's fun to see the expression on the cats' faces when they turn from the porch door in disgust.

I think we have a shot at a normally chilly winter this year, and am hoping for a benefit from it in the reduction of pests. We certainly are getting plenty of rainfall, and I hope it continues on in 2009, though not at the moment as the ground is sodden after weeks of rain. It's finally going to let up for a while and we're supposed to get some sun. I'm fine with that, but with temps supposed to get above 50F and no frost I'm afraid the Teas may be fooled into thinking it's spring. But we have a whole winter ahead for it to get cold.

Melissa

Cold winters are good for my roses because I don't have to water them and all those once bloomers are getting ready for their annual spring display.

Ann, reading about the buck moths made me think of several traumatic encounters with saddlebacks I had as a child in South Florida. (The worst was when one fell in my bangs on the way to a friend's house--it stung with every step I took!) I did a quick Google to see if the accursed things were related--and found them listed as living in DECIDUOUS trees. That means--they AREN'T killed by winter! 8-0 Eeek!

And Io caterpillars feed on roses? Has anybody ever encountered them?

Here is a link that might be useful: Kentucky entemology facts

Rationalizations. The only good things about winter are that I have time to plan for the spring and plenty of time to build my anticipation of spring, Otherwise, I bake too much, eat too much, let the cats in&out, in&out and make longer and longer lists of roses I want.

Caterpillers and roses:
I don't have a lot. I've had a few of the nest formers that have gotten into the roses from a cherry tree up wind and also from a boxelder.
The saddlebacks are in this part of the world because there have been a few questions here (maybe every second or third year) but there are never a lot of the bugs. They just get attention because they are so memorable.

Catsrose, with this rain, how are you convincing your cats that outside is a good place?

I think wintertime is a good time to catch up on paperwork, as well as for pruning the roses and everything else that needs cutting back or putting to bed (herbaceous peonies, dahlias, buddleias, snow-squashed pittosporums and rosemary...). And of course you need winter if you have hellebores you want to admire. Ours are developing buds right now. It's a good time to read thousand-page novels as well, especially if they're in a foreign language.

Melissa

I am very fond of several plants that like a bit of chill. Apples for one. European OGRs for another. Peonies, lilacs -- the list goes on.

Severe, sustained winter would be another story. I grew up in a zone 5b/6a region of western Pennsylvania and gardening is quite different there from gardening in Bay area California. No citrus, no olives, no figs, no pomegranates, no tea or china or noisette roses, no pittosporum, rosemary grown only as a house plant or annual. Every climate has its limitations and rewards.

The real advantage of a bit of winter for me is that it is a break in the garden routine. I don't really need or even want my garden to be in bloom twelve months of the year, and I certainly don't want to work on it all year round. I like having a vacation from garden chores. I come back to the garden as refreshed and renewed as is the garden itself. Here where a year-round garden is possible, I deliberately take a break late fall anyway and let the weeds develop as they will. Then in December or January I set to the winter clean up, weeding, pruning and "dormant" spraying as I complete each section, to be followed by fertilizing and mulching. Very satisfying I find it, too!

Rosefolly

A cold winter will keep me indoors with my seed catalogs and some books on conifers plotting to convert some ordinary junipers to landscape plants by grafting other junipers onto them. Regarding stinging caterpillars. Io caterillars like willow, I used to catch them and raise them. If you won't keep your garden TOO weed free, you can treat caterpillar stings with plantain leaves. They grow in every gravel driveway in America I think, and as they are edible (don't taste all that great though) you can grab a leaf, chew it up and smear it on the sting immediately. Plantain is also analgesic, so it really stops the pain. The only caterpillar sting that didn't respond to it was a puss moth caterpillar, but they have an even worse reputation than the cute little saddlebacks. Donna

Sorry, Ann, but I'm not with you. I really really really hate to be cold, and it is 8 degrees right now. I cannot believe it --- 8 degrees.

I have been cleaning, laughing, working puzzles, watching TV, but all the time I have felt betrayed by our weather. We took a walk yesterday, and I was wrapped up in a nice big coat, but I was miserable. Tulsa should not be 8 degrees.

I can envision your glass half full, but when it comes to weather, I see mine as almost empty. My school is out, I can do many things outside usually in the winter, but this is awful. -------One good thing, there is no ice nor snow.

Sammy

I second Ann's question about the cats. You can get them to go outside? For any reason? We have two that will not let the woodstove out of their sight from late November until March. One will grace the front porch but he weights 20lbs and has a nice thick coat. How do you trick the feline world into believing that winter has redeeming qualities?

Kate

My cat always hopes that the weather will get better, she continues to check every 10 min. Goes out through front door, sees it is still bad, returns, waits for 10 min, decides it is probably better at the other side of the house, goes out through deck door, doesn't like it, returns, and it goes on and on. The worse the weather, the more checks are required. Probably Catsrose's cats are the same. :)
Olga

Cat doors? I had a cat who underwent a personality change, hugely for the better (his flea allergy also disappeared) when we installed a cat door. If you place it above ground level with a platform for the cats to leap up on, then possums and skunks can't get in.

I AM glad I've lived all my life in various zone 8s, when I hear all you cold weather folks talk. Today I was out in a t-shirt planting roses, although I must say that's not standard for the first day of winter. Nice, though.

Melissa

Melissa, we have cat door. Our cat uses it ONLY if we are at work. When we are at home, it is OUR DUTY to open doors for her. At least this is how she understands it :)
Olga

Even though it's been below zero for days and -20 windchill yesterday my cat still wants to go outside, but it's out and right back in. Even though she is spayed she still craves being outside, but only for a few minutes at a time in this weather. Our little chihuahua starts shaking just looking at the door. He can only be outside for a few minutes or his paws would frostbite. I worry about pets and even wild animals in these conditions.

Here the cats that go outside end up as dinner. Neighbor down the road spent $500 on some sort of fancy kitty and a coyote ate it. Very expensive way to support the local wildlife.

If a cold winter means it rains here, then I'm all for it!

It is -15F as I type this in Minnesota. My tender roses have now died above the snowline. This is actually good -- it helps keep them the size I want.

I have lots of JBs. I don't think the cold zaps them. And every 11 years we get plagues of caterpillars.

Cats get killed by cars here. They prefer to run along the streets where the snow is cleared, but they can't get out of the way of fast-moving cars. Many others get eaten by coyotes or raccoons. Once in a while I find cat parts in my garden.

It's not a good idea to let house pets roam.

I second the cooking and eating a lot part - but living alone, heating with wood, shoveling mountains of snow, means LOTS of winter "cross-training", so I seem to hold the line on surplus hippage.
The rose list now....that's another story. See my post about the Ashdown layaway....
I do let my two hunter cats outside. They rarely go out between hard frost and spring thaw, but since their mission in life is to hunt moles in the lawn they are allowed their long "winter off". The dumber one, Frankie (because what else do you call a skinny Italian cat in a tux?) always thinks he wants to go out - yesterday, I opened the door for him, and watched him do a "wild kingdom type antelope" imitation through more than a foot of snow, turn around in midleap after about thirty feet, and streak back in. The smarter one, Nike (name for the huntress, not the shoe) just sat in the sunroom and watched him make his very embarassed entrance. And old Duke (other than one scary,three-surgeries-to-fix-the-wound exception has been an indoor cat for 11 years, just switches position on my bed and ignores them both.
By the way, all three cats get the same vet attention, preventative treatment, etc - I find altered/neutered barn cats a cost effective way and environmentally friendly way to control the previously mentioned lawn critters. My late husband spent more than the cost of their annual vet trip on nasty poisons that were never as successful as the cats. And based on the animal parts that are left around for show and tell, they go after moles, chipmunks, assorted small rodents from the woods - and in Frankie's case this summer - a spectacular red squirrel. And as far as birds, I have many types that come to snack on my blueberries, and in five years I have only cleaned up feathers once. And these barn cats are very lovable, the farm they come from always has kids around playing with all the animals, so these aren't the wild dangerous creatures some barn cats can be. Nike gives Duke a hard time about his spot on my bed, and on really cold nights all three of them seem to declare a truce and tuck in around me.
And I have never lost a rose to rodent damage....

Word around here is that it's going to be a wintery winter. We've already had two and a half feet of snow, with more scheduled to come right after Christmas, which is very unusual. And my huntress cat Olivia, who will disappear for weeks at a time during the summer while I'm gone to Florida, living off her prey, is the fattest and furriest I've ever seen her, like a tabby-and-white arctic seal. Does anyone know whether that notion that animals get heavier coats before an unusually cold winter has any truth to it? Because if it does, my cat's coat is forecasting drastic weather.

Melissa

We had a bad cold spell which kept the cats in. Then it was warm, but we had lots of rain (which we needed) so they just sat on the deck under the overhang. Now it's cold again. Cold/sunny they like because they go and find a sunny spot and curl up.

I'm lucky I have a fenced in yard that the cats can't get out of (well one manages every once in awhile, and then it becomes a game between us and him to block his exits). But neighbor cats can get in (and then can't get back out) so that sometimes causes a ruckus. And then we get the occasional dead or live chimpmunk being brought in the house.

We have a pet door, but my one skittish cat doesn't know how to use it, so we are at her beck and call. She's also deaf, so she'll sit in front of the door and let out an ear piercing shreik to be let out. If it's warm, we just leave the door open. If not, she then stands outside the door when she wants in and lets out the same howl. Sometimes down in the yard, she'll come across a bug or a stick that she thinks is a snake and shreiks like she's being murdered. I've had neighbors ask me what we are doing to our cat :)

Buford, Live chipmunks are a prose of my life. I even bought a special trap (much bigger then the one for mice) to catch them inside my house and release somewhere in the woods. My cat brings this "toys" almost every day and releases them usually in the kitchen. Chipmundks are really quick and they don't want to leave the house, so this trap is the only thing that works. I put some fruit ot nuts inside and usually within an hour or two they are inside the trap. Fall is usually the worst time when she brings them in abandance. Once when we went on vacation for 5 days (our friend was coming to feed our cat) When we returned there were 5 or 6 chipmunks happily living under the dishwasher. I guess she was very lonely without us and wanted more entertainment :) I don't think it is easy to go throught the cat door with live chipmunk, but it works for her.
Olga

My cat, Cecile, (who recently died at the young age of 20), believed that the weather conditions were better from one door to the next. Having 5 exterior doors at our house, she always gave us plenty of indoor exercise on rainy days. She would want out and go to one door to find it raining and head for another. By the time she found there was rain at door #5, she would head back to door #1 to make the rounds all over again. Only after I became totally annoyed with her and could no longer accept the fact that "animals are dumb brutes," would I quit going from door to door with her. Even the Persian cat who never goes out, gets it, that if it rains it is time for a long nap, not traipsing from one door to the other, but the dog has the same problem. Yes, Virginia, dogs are dumb brute.

Olga, we have the chimpmunk trap too! We had one behind the enterntainment center once (he would come out at night and eat the dry cat food) and one behind the china cabinet (who I found while vacuuming and finding what I thought was mouse droppings.

We magaged to get both out, but then bought the trap just incase. On one of them I was up early in the am and I saw him creeping towards the door. I made sure the cats weren't around and opened the back door for him and he scampered out. The other one was a wild goose chase.

Chipmunks are good eatin' according to most local cats.
Early on, when we came back to the farm to work on the house after a long cold winter, an extended cat family had been dumped here. The mother cat, (#2, she tried harder) and her sister (who earned the name #1) stayed with us (as did the cat who became known as Idiot son of #2). #1 was a hunter and one day we watched her bring a still alive chipmunk to her sister (#2); her sister downed it quickly.

One neighbor, about a mile away has a major chipmunk and squirrel problem. He hates cats and his wife won't have an outdoor cat. So, they have rodents.

Elf cat (number 11 who came later) used be be a good vole cat, but when she got older (14) she became a pensioner, and now it takes a prybar to get her away from the woodstove.

The dawg does eat voles and moles right now, and we have some black snakes who work the mole runs.

Winter is giving us rain. So far this month, seven+ inches. The ground is sodden. This may be a major help in keeping trees alive. But IF we had mulched around the rose canes, the rain plus the temps in the 60s at the surface would be a disaster for canker.

Our lowest temps so far are just below 10F and the Chinas and Noisettes are holding on to their latest season leaves. The teas have dropped their leaves. It's nice to view from afar, right now, knowing that I don't 'have' to do anything right now.

Now that the minutes of daylight are getting longer, I wonder if that's going to be the reason that Cherokee Rose will start to set bloom buds.

In the coldest winters, it means a shorter jb season. It also means we can grow lilacs. You don't see those in deep south. I love lilacs.

Gives us a break from the intensive "care" that roses seem to need. Although I am semi-organic and research carefully to get the low-care varieties. Rugosas, austins, and some floribundas. The only "babied" one is tropicana VID a couple from vintage gardens, and own root they are surprisingly hardy.

We have a "yard cat" that adopted us and another family. I suspect he sleeps at their house, but he eats plenty here and hangs out in our yard most of the day - he is the best mouser I have ever seen. He was abandoned after a neighbor foreclosed and moved. (nice huh? - makes me SO mad) He spends much of his time outside though he hates rain. doesn't seem to mind snow. His coat is SO thick now.

We've had a couple of indoor-outdoor cats here. While we had the first one we never noticed gophers, but that may well have been because I wasn't gardening as far out from the house those days. She died in advanced old age about ten years ago. The second cat we adopted from a shelter but only had her a couple of years. We suspect the coyotes, though it could have been a local bobcat that got her. She did get a couple of gophers but traps are effective too. After that we swore off cats. And yes, we are having trouble with rats and ground squirrels from time to time.

No poisons in the garden -- we have a dog, and we would not want to poison any wild predators that are on our side. How ungrateful that would be! And how counterproductive, too. Tom saw a gopher snake once, and we hear owls from time to time so we are not all alone in this.

Rosefolly

Well, I was agreeing with the cold winters are good part until recently. I was getting very nostalgic about snow and missing my old home in Upstste N.Y. I was dreaming of crisp air and blue skies with the post card pictures of snow clinging to bare branches. We went for two weeks to visit family for Christmas. All the way up there I couldn't wait for my dreamy vacation.

Last Tuesday we decided to flee N.Y. while we could. I was never so glad to see the Florida State line as I was the other day. I love it here......(remember I said that in the middle of August)! Mutabilis is in full bloom, along with many of my camellias, and others are cranking up with lots of buds.

Sandy

Cold winters are good for catching up on GW and on reading. I'm roaming through a fav: Elizabeth Lawrence's "A Garden on One's Own."
My cat is only allowed ONE turn out the front door and in the backdoor. After that, it's "go take a nap, cat." She is 16 and never was all that great of a hunter. I think kittenhood as an indoor, city-kitty ruined her. She thinks rodents are amusing play toys at best. She used to bring them to us still alive like we should play "fetch"!
Even the black cat who comes from next door to taunt my cat doesn't get all the voles in my yard. Neither do the blacksnakes that breed in my mulch piles. I'm plagued with the varmits.
-Stephanie