Even though December is statistically the coldest month ever-blooming roses are often still out at Christmas here, with January being about the only time of the year when roses don't seem to be doing anything - I've had problems with rooting rose cuttings in the ground and then never getting them transplanted because they were in leaf most of the time. Spring for roses here is Feb. In fact a local weather professor says spring in general for us is Feb-Jul, with the annual summer warming and drying not fully overcoming the lingering winter wetness until Jul.

Something about it? It would have been better if it had been pruned to avoid that split trunk LOL. Although it's less likely to cause a problem than with some other plants, probably, I imagine this family being very strong wooded. (hence the common name of its cousin Parrotia) I will be planting its 'second cousin' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodoleia in the garden this spring. Like a somewhat showier version of the above. I wanted it to size up to being 3/8" caliper. However I will ground layer a branch cuz even tho I have the supposed hardiest one, it may not be hardy enough.

Well Carol, the quail certainly romp on the bare ground under my bird feeder, where they fight over the seed the sloppy little song birds drop. I see little quail "footprints" all over the wet ground. Then when they are through under the feeder, masses of them charge all over the lawn, pecking madly at whatever they must find in the grass--this time of year, I can't imagine what. They look exactly like crazed chickens, and are very much like chickens, though they are lots more savvy about escaping predators and hunters. When we have any snow, their little feet marks are everywhere. You would enjoy watching them in your snow--they are a laugh a minute, until they start destroying plants in the spring. Their goal is to turn your backyard into a barnyard. I have a quail proof bird feeder, which prevents them from tipping and tilting this feeder, unlike the regular type feeders do, spilling seed all over the ground. It's saved me $ in bird seed to counterbalance all the other damage the quail do. I could quit feeding the songbirds and that would probably discourage the quail from coming around, but I like the little birds so much. Diane

I am just north of Dripping Springs on Hamilton Pool Rd.. I think the border of 8 a/b goes through my kitchen. We had great blooms on my Salvia madrensis and sleeping Giant Mexican turkscap and pink Turks cap till that damn 20º freeze 2 weeks ago. Hell, I had tomatoes fruiting.The green ones are on my window sills redening up. My aloe was blooming too.That bloom is gone now. My pea blooms got bit too, but I need to put in another crop today. My purple oxalic is thinking about blooming. I did cover my vegetable garden during the freeze and my kale, chard, lettuce, arugala and cabage are colorful with their diffent colored leaves. I do grow a lot of tropicals , bromiliads, aloes, . I roll them in during the freezes or cover them in mild freezes. I have some bromiliad blooming on my porch. This is not Florida. Sorry. Growing here can be difficult due to our soil and water conditions but possible. Weather is changable. It all depends on our winters.one is not like another. We have long stretches of mild weather and then BAMM. We are humbled. What Mindshift says about the changing micro climates is true. I have quite a bit of elevation and that makes me warmer in the beginning of the winter than my neighbor accross the road. Pull up Wunderground personal weather stations during the early morning ( there are many close together where I live) and one can see the differences in their temps. I look at these weather staions all the time because there is a fair amount oif covering that I do. Also drive around up and down over the hills at night and it is amazing the range of temps that my car thermometer says. I have a south facing stone patio with cement pillars and they creat good thermal mass to make a warm winter spot for my aloe collection. I only take them in for the hardest freezes.