Marlorena, your garden has interest, even without blooms. Your new seating fits your garden design well, but I especially like the secluded seating in the second pic. Such beautiful views, Lilyfinch, Ingrid and Diane! What a sunset, Krista! Ingrid, your clean air after the rain really shows in your sharp and clear pics. That must be a relief after days - weeks? - of breathing ash and soot. Noseometer, I forget you get a real winter in AZ. Melissa, I feel so much like you do, that the garden is incomplete, needs structure, more vertical interest. We'll get there.

These are not this year. No snow yet. Diane got our snow. I'm not complaining!

To see it go from this to the first spring flush literally brings tears to my eyes. Coming from where you garden almost all year, I never noticed the seasons much or thought about what a miracle it is for these frozen sticks to produce our beautiful roses. Even the grass that comes back green after being under snow for months is a wonder to me.

Crikey, that's deep snow, flowers. But it's frosted perfection to look at for a while. I love the "cake" on a stand birdbath near the arbor. Love the arbor, too. Do you use snowshoes to get to your mailbox? I may have your snow now, but the weather have caught your hubris, and you will paaay dearly. Sorry, I get carried away. Diane

Dairy Queen and Cake on a Stand. Diane

hahahaha! oh, you make me laugh, Diane. Mail getting is not my job so I don't worry about it. Mr. Flowers has all kinds of winter gear. I only have a winter coat. Not even a puffy one. No extreme winter sports, like collecting the mail, for me. All that snow by the mailbox was piled there by the snow plow. It was deep but not that deep.

They keep forecasting snow, but it gets pushed farther back every time I look at the weather report. If it actually snowed every time they said it was going to, we'd be up to our eyeballs by now. Yep, it's pretty for the first 5 minutes; you take a few photos, then run back inside and start counting the days until spring.

Edited - your Dairy Queen and snow cake photos just appeared. I think DQ should use your pic in their ads. It's always fascinating to see the weird formations and oddities of snow. That reminds me of those arbor photos from 2 yrs. ago - I'll post them. I wasn't going to because I think everyone thought I was pulling their leg, but the snow did this all by itself. There wasn't a rope or hose or anything draped over the arbor. My husband came in with the strangest look on his face and said "I think you'd better come look at this". It is just snow turned to ice, through and through. Over the course of the next wk. or so, I watched it melt. If any of you scientific types can explain, I'm all ears!

More great photos, thanks so much...and for your thoughtful and descriptive comments even without the pictures... this is making me feel a whole lot better, or is it worse ..?... some of those are rather spectacular too... and comical !... I would never have guessed you got snow in Albuquerque ...

I don't have any picturesque photos, but here is my garden in the winter of 2015 and part of the winter view every year.

Daisy

These winter scenes are all lovely, thanks for posting...

Vesfl, yes, those are leaf buds. It's quite hardy, a great rose. It does not have much dieback during winter.

flowers... your arch is just fantastic, ... winter beauty at its best..

Daisy... it would be difficult for your garden not to look great in winter...

Daisy, after seeing your pics I'm wondering what it would take to be considered "picturesque"? Those views are awe inspiring!

Snow is so beautiful. It is a great unifier, making our sometimes imperfect pairings cohesive and uniform. It covers up the rough spots where plants are not looking their best. You have some beautiful photos here. I almost want to move to wherever you live in TN, Lilyfinch. Or where Ingrid lives. Or where Daisy lives. Or where Flowersaremusic lives. When I was a child growing up on the coast of California, I wished I lived where there was snow in the winter. Then I moved to the east coast for school, and discovered what it was like to live with months of snow on the ground. After slipping on the ice a few times I had had enough. I feel about the same as Diane does about the snow. Here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I feel there is a good balance for me (although there are of course times when I wish it was mild enough to grow citrus or other subtropicals). There is enough snow to have a few days of beauty. It quickly melts once the sun comes out the next day and the intense sun melts all the areas that are not shaded. Fortunately my driveway is not in the shade. Yes, we get a “real winter” here. When my sister visited one winter, she invited her friends from California to come along. The friends came, dressed in shorts and t-shirts (despite my sister’s suggestions). They did not check the weather forecast. They did not even bring a sweater or jacket or long pants at all. They spent the entire trip at the spa in the hotel and complained about how cold it was. My sister spent her days touring around pueblos and ruins on her own. She didn’t tell me about it until after the friends had left.

Some old photos:

Malorena, each winter when my garden is dormant for 5+ months, and things are all in shades of grey and brown, I dream about creating more structure in my garden. This year I did something about it. I took out Vlad the Impaler (the hawthorn with the 2 inch thorns), and the sad looking Colorado Blue spruces. I planted columnar junipers which I hope will provide winter form and provide a green background for the roses in the summer. You can see them behind the maple tree in the photo. There aren’t many evergreens for this climate. It’s either pine, juniper, Photinia or Eleagnus pungens. Even Nandina struggles, not because of the cold, but because it fries in the dry summer heat. It looks like you have a lot of broad leafed evergreens that keeps your garden looking alive. You are lucky to have mild moist winters.

Noseometer, I meant NM, not AZ in my comment earlier! I'm very familiar with both states, with family in AZ and vacations in both areas. I'll blame it on the wee hours when I was typing. I probably would have done the same thing as your sister's California friends. Even though I know better, it's hard to think of NM and AZ having cold winters. I'm surprised that you get 5+ months of dormancy. That's about like here.

Noseometer…. those are impressive photos, thank you.. I do enjoy looking at that type of landscape.. we would call it Western I think, or associate it as such... but very beautiful in its own right...

In fact, my favourite shopping experience in the U.S. was at a place called 'Prairie Edge', in Rapid City, but I believe they also had a store in Albuquerque, but we never got down that way... which is a pity because we used to follow some old Pioneer trails, and of course the Santa Fe trail went down your way... so that would have been on our agenda, had we more time... not many British people do that sort of thing...

It is the beginning of summer here so it is far from bleak, but I have one photo from a midwinter dawn this year that is as bleak as it gets here in Tasmania.

Very suitably bleak Lola, thank you... that's an exquisite photo in itself...

Marlorena, your garden still looks rather lush and beautiful to me. We only had one batch of snow here that all melted away, so it's pretty glum in the garden right now. I took a few photos this morning. It was chilly out!

-Chris

In your case, glum is good Chris... thanks.. love the frosted Stachys [?].. and the conifer selection... these are such uplifting trees, I find great comfort in the few I have.... and I think the dark ones look so good with roses...

Yes, that is stachys. A non-flowering, groundcover type. My neighbor has a Leyland cypress hedge you can see behind the birdhouse. The taller evergreen is a dragon lady holly, which I love, and the smaller is a hinoki cypress I think. I don’t often like to give up space in the garden for conifers and other evergreen, non-flowering shrubs, but they do really contribute a lot, especially in the winters.

I love the wintry scenes (and wonderful no so wintry scenes) everyone has posted. Marlorena, I love your garden whether it’s almost asleep or in full bloom. You have such a tranquil place.

The cold came very early this year - very few fall blooms as well. The snow also showed up early - around the first part of November and has snowed intermittently since. Normally I am enjoying the rest from gardening but I already have spring fever. I don’t know what I’m going to do come February or March!

This is not a good picture in any way but all I have right now. This was after one of the several storms we’ve had over the past 5 weeks.

...thanks Dave !... gosh, you have had some snow there,... just my type of scene I'm in the mood for... we're having no winter at all so far...

Someone has been enjoying a ramble through the snow by the looks of things...

I love the wooded backdrop to your garden...

I’m so glad I came back to your thread, Marlorena! You’re too kind. I do appreciate those comments, though. I sometimes worry that I’m too personal or uncensored here, but I usually just post my thoughts as they are. It’s unlikely that I’m even capable of changing my “no holds barred” style. I’ve always been accused of wearing my heart on my sleeve, quite an anomaly in my family.

All these pictures are wonderful to see. Each is so different and unique. It’s uplifting to see that there is still so much beauty, even in winter, in all our “personal little worlds”. I do so enjoy seeing snow pictures, something I just don’t get here. Although its happened before, in November of 1967 about two inches of snow fell here. I don’t remember a thing about it, but I’ve heard the story many times. The only reason I know the exact month and year, is that it happened the year I was born. I was one month old.

Your kind words have emboldened me to post a downright ugly “winter” photo. I’m normally quite good about deadheading the roses that are planted within reach. In the past few weeks however, I went out of town and then suffered a health setback. We also had rain during this period. I had no idea wet roses could mold right on the bush! Obviously, I don’t normally see much rainy weather.

Poor ‘Mystic Beauty’! I’ll remove these immediately after I take a photo.

A few minutes later, an new photo to redeem Mystic Beauty,(and myself:) All cleaned up, moldy blooms disposed of, and pruners disinfected, she blooms on. Lisa

I'd like that rose Lisa... and no problems at all about being a touch personal, it's nice to read when someone opens up a bit... otherwise forums can get a bit.. cold shall I say..?..

1967 was a good year, I remember it well... I finished my schooling and I was away and gone, and I remember thinking at the time ''..good riddance to that''...

Oh I get those mouldy old buds all the time here of course.. just pruned a few off the other day... nice to have some company on this front though...join the crowd !.. and thanks again... very best wishes...

So many wonderful additions, every one of them. Thank you all so much, they put me in a different place, especially nosometer's high country snow pictures.

Not quite bleak, but here is a photo of a seedling village in the snow.

Deborah, please elaborate. This reminds be that I need to start collecting gallon jugs for winter sowing. But, I don't think that is what I'm seeing here. Your wheelbarrow must have a hole in it, like mind does, so water drains out.

Thank you everybody. Such spectacular photos, one and all. Here in coastal southern California we never look that different. Lovely to see fall colors and snow, especially since I don't have to go shovel it.

Marlorena - I would love to see more detailed pictures of the bones -how you get so much into your garden. It is amazing how much you have in there when you post late spring/summer photos. And how does enough sun get to both sides of the rectangles and paths?

Thanks again everyone for sharing.

Flowersaremusic, these are cuttings planted under mason jars. This method is usually successful here.

Deborah, a nice snowy scene, I'm wanting some of that here... I'm not familiar with what you're doing there exactly, but if it's a seedling village then I can only be impressed... I sometimes use sticks like those to keep feral cats and my dog away from certain areas... I don't like doing it but needs must...

Mary... thanks for asking about my garden... I can show a few photos of the bare bones and compare with Spring... what I like about colder gardens is the dramatic change you get with the seasons, I would miss that I think, even though I moan about the winter..

...I don't worry about sun and shade... my garden comes in 4 sections, none is large and each has roses, but the companion plants are different according to soil, sun/shade etc... all roses here will flower from mid May to mid July and later well enough even with minimal sun, although I wouldn't grow hybrid tea roses in less than optimal conditions, but everything else is fair game... in my most shadiest border with my roses I will grow Primulas, Dicentras, Brunneras and Aquilegias.. things like that.. in my sunniest I will grow ornamental grasses, which is a strange one for British gardeners who would shun such an association, but I've been to restored prairie grasslands in Montana and I stood amongst wild roses growing with the grasses there.. I think they were R. arkansana types.. but of course larger roses are going to give a different look..

Here are today and earlier photos of one part of my garden taken from the same angle, which is only 35 foot long by 15 foot wide where a whole lot is crammed in..

..today...

...last June..

..today..

.. May..

..today..

..mid June..

Marlorena, what a wonderful idea to show the same views in summer and winter. I now have a much better understanding of your garden, and am agog as ever at what you've done with these spaces. You're a very talented gardener, and that's not even mentioning the hard work that goes into maintaining these garden areas in such perfect condition.

Thanks, Deborah. The only propagating success I've had is sticking a cutting in the ground, so this might the be method best for me. I've never used the jars. I'm thrilled to see this is possible to do during winter. I'm definitely going to try.

Edited to add - Next year. The ground is already frozen this year.

oh, I am doing this also and so far so good.

Oh Marlorena, I cannot tell you how much I love seeing these same views in the different seasons! It excited me enough to get me off my duff and go get my laptop to have have bigger look. (If you knew how lazy and comfy I’m feeling on the couch in front of the fireplace, you’d know to take this as a HUGE compliment!) It’s amazing how you get so much beautiful bloom and color in small spaces without it looking one bit cluttered. Everything is perfectly placed and trained, while still having that exuberance that nature at her best provides. I know that takes real talent. You’ve clearly mastered the art of making all your hard work look natural, instead of forced. There’s not much margin for error in small spaces like that. I always was very impressed, but these side by side pictures just raised the bar a notch. I mean it sincerely, Marlorena, very, very well done.

Now, I’m going back to studying your pictures some more. I’m hoping to learn a few things that I can apply to my garden. This is an excellent way for me to really see how you do it. Mary, I’m sure glad you asked for those more detailed pictures. It’s perfect timing, too. ‘Tis the season in So California. My kitchen and patio are covered with seed packets, flats of seedlings, bulbs, corms, potted things.......Lisa

Marlorena, I'd like to ditto everything Lisa said. Your garden rooms impress me. I have not been able to accomplish that. Even though it's always on my mind when adding new plants or a new bed, I still don't know how to make it happen. Do you have a drip irrigation system or hand water? Do weeds try to come up in the gravel? Or, is there a weed barrier under the gravel? I hope to change my bark pathways to gravel some day.

Lisa/Flowers... thank you so much, I'm quite chuffed... I cringe with embarrassment showing photos of my garden today, but I like it this way in winter, as I'm finished now until mid Feb really, so I don't want to see much going on out there... it's all pruned back and waiting to rise from the ashes again next Spring...

Flowers... yes there is weed membrane under that gravel.. it drains quickly even after torrential rain and keeps the weeds down... I hardly do any there really.. but sometimes I get an interesting seedling pop up ...

..no I don't water anything very much usually, except something in its first season I might have to...we do have hoses and I might put that on here and there as most do here, but I've never known anyone to have a drip irrigation system, although I'm sure there must be in places, but it's not a common thing... our rain is usually sufficient for most people, and it's not something you hear about... I never knew of it until I read these forums... I think we take our rain for granted...

...thanks again, and Ingrid too for your comments earlier, I do appreciate that...

Lisa... actually, let me tell you that I've recently acquired some fence panels because I got the inspiration from your garden... I know you've got something like this as I've seen it and it gave me the idea to do something similar... I got these 3 black metal panels against my fence, you can see in the photo here below, I have roses and clematis to grow up them... but as I say, the idea came from YOURS!... how about that?...

Thank you so much Marlorena. I love these photos. I have to admit I"m still awed by the magic of so much growing so happily in small areas. It truly is an art. I will be studying these pictures and searching old posts for the roses you have chosen that , I'm guessing from your comments, are in no way prima donnas. I did get a very small Triomphe des Noisettes after you posted about it last year. Hopefully it will take off this year.

As to weed membrane/barrier - I wonder if you have a better product across the pond or less aggressive weeds. Everyone I know here in So. California eventually has grass and weeds sprouting and growing from below the barrier so you have to remove the barrier and gravel to get rid of the weed, put down new barrier and re-spread the gravel.

And love your new black panels across the fence. Are the planned roses and clematis new ones?

Thank you for the detailed info, Marlorena. If I had thought about it, I could have answered my own question about watering. You do live in a moist climate! As Mary said, the weed barriers here turn into a nightmare after a few years when weeds anchor them to the ground. I've never used them, instead using layers of newspapers under the mulch in my pathways. Weeds eventually find their way through as the paper decomposes. And, because the mulch also decomposes, I add new mulch every few years. My main complaint is the hose drags mulch with it, then I have to rake to tidy it up again. Gravel would stay put much better.

Mary/Flowers/Jin,... thanks so much once again... nice to have you all here...

.. delighted you got Triomphe des Noisettes, Mary... I've had to be so patient with this rose, it's taken nearly 4 years for it to finally take off... it needs pegging or fan training, and is only a once bloomer for me so far...

For my black panels I've moved a 'Gruss an Teplitz' and 'Gentle Hermione' roses to this position with 2 late flowering clematis... it's a very narrow border but that's ok...

The weed membrane is a double layer... I didn't put it down, the previous owner did that.. she didn't want to do much and it was everywhere, so I removed most of it, I actually don't like it too much, but I had to leave it in place where that gravel is... I don't want grass, so it makes things so much easier for me.. grass takes a lot of work here, mowing every 2 weeks.. I haven't the time for that now... I do top up the gravel here and there each year... it's been there over 10 years and it's been successful as a weed suppressant so far..

I do appreciate your kind comments, but I don't think of it as art really, more a kind of panic situation... and the result is a packed garden...

...I should point out that here in England this is a country of plants and gardens... much at a low level these days, people don't have the inclination so much, but everywhere I go I am faced with people selling plants of every sort around here, from small time sellers to larger garden centres, nurseries, roses everything..

...my neighbour over the fence is a plant nursery, I have 2 others within 5 minutes... consequently, I pick up plants that I should not be getting, and then I panic as to where to put them, so they go in some place and next thing I've got this overflowing flower garden... and this is besides all that's available online..

...so really it's more of a haphazard approach but it's a good learning curve, as I am forced to put plants where they might not be best suited...

..thanks again... I love all the photos upthread too...

I have loved looking at everyone’s pictures and reading about all of your gardens. Hopefully it will inspire me to go out and take some “bleak” pictures myself. Right now the sun is still sleeping....

Wow, a nursery next door! My idea of heaven .... and probably a rush to impoverishment. But what a way to go.

Me too, Mary! If I had a nursery next door, my pot ghetto would be even larger than it already is. As someone said once,(lilyfinch?) “When I feel like gardening, I shop from my own personal pot ghetto”. That’s exactly what I do. On the other hand, maybe I’d be a pesky customer, and buy one plant at a time. I could buy one, plant it, and pop back over the fence if I have the energy to plant one more, and so one. That way, THEY could care for the pot ghetto. They’d hate me! Lol

Marlorena, I’m flattered that you’d use any idea from my garden. The panels are working out quite well for me. It’s so much easier to train roses and vines to them, rather than the wood fence. They get a bit more air circulation that way, too. I have 7 of them, spaced 3-4 feet apart. When I prune my roses back, the sweet peas climb up some of them. When the sweet peas are done, the roses take over. Right now it’s hardy annual seed planting time. They fill up the bed when the roses have been pruned down to nearly the ground. Winter/early spring is the only time I can grow many of the hardy annuals. They hate our summers. (My “Not Louise Odier” is on one end. She doesn’t get cut back so hard.) I like how you’ve done yours.

Everything looks so neat and put to rest. I’m just marveling about your hardly needing to water. I can’t really wrap my mind around such a thing. Even though I finally have a crude drip system for about half of the garden now, most of my “garden time” is spent watering. Not so much right now, as we’ve had a good rain recently, but all summer long, every day. I can’t imagine the extra time I’d have if I didn’t have to water anything. Every summer I vow that I’m going to cut down on my potted plants, but do I? I think we all know the answer to that one. I sure envy you your rainwater. Hose water is an expensive and poor substitute. I too, despise my grass. It needs mowing every week, year round. During the spring and fall it already looks too long after 5 days. It looks to me like you live in a gardening paradise! Lisa

Thanks Lisa, I knew you had those panels... I might get more of them at some point.. and I agree about the air circulation, I also have problems attaching my roses to the fences...

..I'm looking forward to seeing your garden again next Spring, as I know you'll be well ahead of me there... along with many others here too...

Love this thread :D

xXx

The snow is falling here, not much yet but Christmas will be white. A photo of the first snow on the box roundel with its naked roses.

That 's a picture worthy of a magazine!

All of the pictures with snow are STUNNING. Everything is boring here.

Hmm, I did more pics, let me try again.

I give up (eyeroll emoji)!

Oursteelers, I wouldn't mind being bored like that!