It will be sad to see someone leave my part of the country. It's always good to get input from someone from the same or similar growing zone.

I wish you the best in your move. I lived in the Seattle area for a while many years ago and thought it was beautiful. I've seen many beautiful roses growing out there (in the Puget Sound area) and know you'll enjoy the new roses you'll be able to grow.

Happy New Year to you and to all here on the ARF.

Good Luck Gean with your new home and rose garden. I look forward to hearing about the roses you grow.

Gean, since you bring it up, I don't think I've said the year until now. Twenty - ten. Not bad, except that it's the year of the big six-oh. Now THAT's weird!! Can't wait to hear "the rest of the story" as you leave AL and get settled in WA. Talk about life-changing...have you seen those huge zip codes?

Happy New Year to all of us. May we grow with the flow and our roses as well.

Sherry

Leaving a garden has to be sad, but dreaming of all the new roses you can grow has to be exciting! I often wonder how different my garden would be if I could just start all over.

Good luck on your move. Hope nothing gets broken!

Sherry - six-o! Oh, my! Isn't it funny how the internet is - the way you talk, I thought you were in your 20's! :)

And Happy New Year to everyone here. I dream of my roses looking as beautiful as some of those here that have shared their beautiful roses. My thanks to all who give so freely of their knowledge.

Oh, gosh, Holleygarden, is talking like I'm in my 20's a good thing or not-so-good thing? Perhaps it's my goofy sense of humor that threw you off. One would hope that an additional 35 years would make me sound more intelligent and mature, but maybe that's expecting too much. I've always wanted to LOOK younger but sounding younger is a little different. Oh, well, sophistication has never felt like an achievable goal for me, so I guess you read me right. Or maybe it's just that I am afflicted with diarrhea of the mouth/keyboard. You gave me a good chuckle with that one.

Sherry

Best wishes, Gean, for the New Year. The PNW is such a beautiful area. That will be so much fun to plan a new garden.

Gean, if it helps at all just think you can have a personal walk through and see my roses first hand rather than from pictures. Duquesa still has some decent looking leaves after temps in the mid teens.

The albas will be glad to show you their full splendor, Chloris in particular. All twelve by twelve feet of her.

Sherry I think the thing that threw us off was how much energy you put into your garden. Only a person who could at least convincingly say something like Sherry 5-oh would have that much energy.

Every one have a great new year, I am looking forward to really getting some garden design layouts done this year so that everything comes together better.

Lance

Sherry - I thought you were much younger because of all the enthusiasm you impart over your roses. I've read your posts and seen your pictures, and you seem to get such joy out of your garden.

I, by contrast, sometimes feel I need to rush or be further along in my garden and I relate that to my age. I have never felt that from you - just a love of the flowers that are growing for you. :)

Lance, I like your take on it. It makes more sense than mine, and I guess that must be what you meant, holleygarden, but if you had read my posts in 2007, you would have known I was an anxious person in a rush. The people on this forum are great at teaching patience and accepting the reality that gardens aren't overnight accomplishments. I still look at mine and shake my head (parts of it are so unacceptable), but you don't want to hear that attitude all the time, so I focus on what's good as does everyone on the forum unless we have a problem. You really can't rush - you have to give yourself a break, wait on the plants and enjoy what's there now. Plants grow the way they grow - period. And hopefully, my body will last as long as my enthusiasm. I'd like to be doing this in 10 years and beyond, but what will be will be. I kind of think gardening is for people who are settled inside, and the sooner we get to that place of ease and contentment the sooner we're happy gardeners. Now that sounds like it's coming from a 60-ish person, right? Oh, gosh, let's change the subject.

Sherry

Do you say TWO THOUSAND TEN or TWENTY TEN?

The thing that bums me is that I have finally gotten the beds all in and have done all the hard work. I was looking forward to coasting for a couple of years, letting everybody grow and just playing with perennials. Repeat this ten times, I am not whining, I am not whining, I am not whining.

But it makes me tired to think of starting over. Maybe I'll just go to Lance's and admire his roses. I could get excited about that. I am not whining, I am not whining, I am not whining.

Thanks for all the good wishes, everybody and I hope all of your rose gardens bloom and bloom next spring, which officially starts in 79 more days

- Sherry, I'll trade you some clematis for some of that energy of yours! Did you say you're going to be sixteen this year??

Twenty ten - it's fewer syllables. Or maybe we'll just be saying TEN like we did ninety-five or seventy, etc.

You're not really whining, Gean, you're calculating the serious expenditure of blood, sweat and tears - again. Counting the cost is not a thing to be taken lightly especially for a mere wisp of a woman. You know what's ahead of you, and still you are going forward, albeit tentatively at the moment. The fact that you're even considering it is a testament to your strength of character and courage. Courageous people don't whine. They plan a winning strategy - in your case with a slightly higher pitched, weepy voice, that's all. Go for it whole hog. Make it the best garden ever!!!

Gee, am I a good BSer or what?? :)) Now go forth and multiply!

Sherry

From time to time I think I would love a chance to start over with what I learned in this garden, but with a slightly smaller place (and more natural rainfall). Something around a half acre would be so much more manageable. Sometimes -- right now, for example -- I feel a bit overwhelmed by the size of this place and its many challenges. Gean, I think what you are facing is an exciting opportunity. Think of your present garden as your apprentice garden, and your new garden as your master garden. And have fun, too, of course!

Rosefolly

And I'm planning to say Twenty-ten. I'm also planning to write it out in full.

A hundred years ago they called zero "ought". So someone people called 1909 "ought-nine". I think mostly this time around people said "two thousand nine", though from time to time I heard "oh-nine". I didn't do that myself. There's too much confusion between zero and o as it is, so I try to be accurate when I'm thinking about it. Someone on another forum who is from Australia posted that in her country people call zero "naught". So this previous decade there was called the Naughties. I liked that, a lot.

Rosefolly

Sherry, you make me laugh. You have a lucrative career in marketing waiting for you, also.

Rosefolly, I liked that Naughties term too.

Well, as much as I whine I'll be out digging until I die. The soil sounds better there, anyway. I'm going to go ahead and change my name to something like Cranky Old Woman in PNW - just telling you ahead of time so you'll recognize me when I reappear under another moniker. COW in PNW has a certain ring, don't you think?

You all are very kind, thank you.

Cranky Old Woman in PNW

COW? I hardly think that is appropriate for a demure lady such as yourself. And I don't like Cranky Old Woman either. How about Day Laborer in PNW? Digger Woman? gotshovelwilldig? You are very funny, Gean.

Sherry

Princess n kitsap, the new Gean name. Or the wearyrosarian.

Lance

WOW---I'm sitting here listening to all you youngsters----
and having a good laugh-----I just turned 80 and I'm facing another back operation----and I envy your youth----sure can't garden like I used to but I do love my roses.
You know what they say --"sleep the first year---creep the second and leap the third---well I can't wait for that--I want instant gratification____LOL LOL

Love to read about all you youngsters and your gardens---keep up the good work and I will enjoy it vicariously---
Gean--please keep us posted about your move (when is it?) and your new name.Can't you just be "Duchesse in PNW or something like that?

Roses keep us young---LOL
Florence

Ahh, Florence, the dh has moved already and our garden, I mean house, has finally got a "for sale" sign in the front of it. Our 11 year old and I will move after the house sells. I do want to tell you though, that when I think of the people I've gotten fond of through just this silly internet business, you are one of them. I am sorry you're having another operation on your back; I truly hope it goes well and recovery is speedy. And that it helps you.

It has occurred to me that what I regard as the loveliest part of the home (the garden) may well be a detriment to selling the house as I am thinking that few buyers will be interested in gardens but will think, well, how long will it take me to mow down those bush things and plant grass?

I don't take this personally but wonder if flower gardens are more of a detriment to a sale than a plus. I don't know. I am trusting the Almighty on this, Florence!

Lance, I've taken a lot of grief on calling myself duchesse; there's no telling what kind of catcalls I'd get if I showed up as Princess!! wearyrosarian has potential!

Sherry, you're the funny one!

Gean, I can see where the adjustment from coastingrosarian to wearyrosarian would be a tough one. Just when they're all in the ground - boom! Gotta go! But that is also a selling point for your buyers. Maintenance-free :)) already-in-the-ground, blooming roses! Such a deal!! Have your photo album at the ready for every showing until spring. Once spring comes you'll have buyers banging on the door with competing offers. Ya think maybe it might work out that way? Hope so.

We're a bit chilly here in the Sunshine state. The high might have gotten to 46!!! with cloud cover. Supposed to be 25 tonight. Keep your fingers crossed that the clouds stick around. If it clears up, what little heat we have will fly away, and the mercury will drop like a rock. They said it would be 25 last night, but it only got to about 30. Maybe they'll be wrong again tonight.

I feel for all of you guys buried under snow. You're stronger than I am and hardier, heartier gardeners, too. I hope you have a 'happy medium' of enough precipitation and as little snow as possible the rest of the winter. Is it too much to hope for an early, lasting spring?

Sherry

Gean--what a sweet thing to say to me----I haven't been as active on the forum as I used to be but I do try to lurk as often as I can-
There are so many great folks here on the Forum and at least you will be able to continue our friendship no matter where you live.
I'm sure it is painful to see a for sale sign on your home and your garden---I remember how I felt when we put that sign on the little home where I grew up---
That is a good idea to have pictures of your garden and some lucky person will be thrilled---I know that would sure sway me.

Please keep us posted as you make the move.

I'll be thinking of you

Florence

BTW---when you pick your new name please remember to add "Formerly duchesse nalabama" so if we go to your home page we will know it is you. I have found that to be helpful when others have changed their names.

Florence

I don't think discouragement will last: a certain kind of merry welcoming weather comes along and the gardener stands up from whatever she's doing, picks up her gloves and pruner, adds a shovel from the shed, and she's off and away, gardening. It's not a matter of willpower; it's an URGE. I do think that if I live to be ninety, I'll have my pots and soil and cuttings to mess with as I dodder around my little yard or my terrace.
Melissa