Kate and Seil - those are drop-dead gorgeous pictures! I love the contrast of deeply saturated colors in each of those - the purple-pink-white of the iris combo and the deep carnation pinks against the purple pansies and whitish Easter Basket, then the deeply saturated white peonies (in my world, white can be saturated when there's not a hint of cream) against those great poppies. It's great fun to mix in those perennials with the roses! Glad y'all liked my photo too. Elks - yes, it's nice to have those lovely Canadian Explorers that were three of the very few roses in my yard that didn't have to be cut to the ground. Since they're all climbers, that gives them the necessary head start to catch up to the peonies I'm sure. No clue about the iris conundrum, Kate, except that this was a decidedly odd year for timing of everything, and maybe the iris felt they passed their window of opportunity without a chance to build up the blooms. Certainly the peonies are passing at a record pace in my yard. Hang in there ratdogheads - rose season is around the corner. As long as those buds are forming there'll be roses before too long. As always, we want pictures. Cynthia

Linnea: I don't know anything about peonies but it sounds like you got some sage advice above. But let me tell you about my rose 'Mary Rose' that we moved a couple weeks back. This rose did great last year and really dragged this year. Mainly due to a lack of sunlight. So I think two weekends back we decided to move it into a pot and then we plan to sink the pot until next spring when it can be re planted. To that end my husband who can be a bit impatient at times went out to the where the rose was planted, shoved the shovel in the ground about ten inches from the base all around the perimeter of the plant, and then kind of unceremoniously pulled it out of the ground. I could only stand there speechless! Rough treatment for sure. We then put the poor baby in a very large pot filled with potting soil, a handful of steer manure and some bonemeal and left her in shade for over a week (well watered). At that time I also cut back the canes to about 14 inches tall leaving whatever foliage looked decent. Last week I brought the pot out to where it could get half day sun and then on Saturday up to where other roses in the yard are, nearly all day sunny conditions. This morning I noticed she is getting lots of new growth and has purple foliage coming on in several places. Go figure! I thought after what my husband did to her she was a goner for sure. Roses can be remarkably tenacious. Having blathered on about all that let me ask you this. Were the roses healthy before? Can we see a picture? Do you want to plant them in pots? The ground? What's your plan for doing with these if they make it? I know this is considered to be the wrong time to cut back roses, especially in your zone. So you might just want to focus on getting your transplants stabilized and then if they are still kicking in the spring you can cut back dead/leggy canes at that time. Hope this helps. Kate

Cindy there isnt much to see in terms of overall garden this year.. Ill give you some examples, the rain made all of my rose bushes and lots of other perenials lay flat to the ground, nothing is supposed to take the amount of rain we had in that short of time. Duchesse drowned by rain.. Front Garden side Path.. this actually looked better a week ago with double scots in bloom.. I have better looking spots but just overall, I have to enjoy individual blooms this year and forgo the overall scheme. Silverkelt

I love a very full, cottage look, so I tend to actively seed poppies in areas I know will be more densely planted come spring. I loved how the poppies emerged from drifts of Jupiter's Beard, Statice, Lomandra in shadier spots, and some other plants in the front yard. It helped limit the sight of the lanky plants certainly. Amidst the roses that are grown in a more traditional way, the poppies stand out like sore thumbs. However, I love the flowers and it's not a public rose garden, ha. I can grow lanky poppies and not feel one bit worse for it. I tried some of the 'Erewhon' and 'Blue Shift' Sweet Peas from Annies in that area this year and they were beautiful! Great cut flowers. It's probably a bit cooler here though. I had them on lattice amidst other climbers. 'Jeri Jennings' is next to some volunteer dark purple sweet peas. The picture above shows some sweet pea foliage, but the flowers mostly finished before 'Jeri' started blooming recently. Right now I've got Nigella springing up in an area that is almost exclusively populated by succulent/drought tolerant plants. It's a strange look, but fun until I consider that I'll need serious gauntlets to rip out the dead Nigella soon. Puya are amazing until you weed around them and I'm mostly growing the smaller types like P. mirabilis and alpestris. A lot like roses actually!