Jim, I'm so sorry about your late winter. You have too many challenges, but I'm glad you have those frost blankets. I'm also happy to read that your little procedure had good results. Now if things will warm up and stay warm for you. I'm plumb tuckered out--two steps forward and one back. Things are blasting forward with leaves popping out everywhere, and Diane is staggering behind, trying to catch up. The weather gods had mercy on me, and there is not one bit of winter cane damage on the roses, though I've pruned pretty hard so far with lots more to go. The two big Julias will take a day each, and I'm dragging my feet about that, not to mention Colette and two monster Ascots. I do all the easy roses first--so dumb of me.

I love all the cute baby photos--and to think my baby will be 51 in about a week. Lily, I wish you the best in your big move, and congrats on the upcoming blessed event. You will be one busy woman. I wish you could take your beautiful garden with you to wherever you land. But it's also fun to start over with new knowledge and new roses.

Lisa, I hope you are doing well. We miss you and your beautiful garden. Hurry back.

Flowers and Trish, you are such supportive friends, and I appreciate your concern. Things are warming up for you finally, aren't they flowers? I hope all that snow is gone. You should see Augusta Luise--she has never looked so good. I guess it was the perfect winter for her, and so far, a good spring. She has such a lovely growth habit this year. Trish, I remember loving those photos you posted not so long ago, and now I can't find them to refresh my memory. I'll do more looking. That was awful to have that power outage. I felt so bad for you. Did you lose all your food in the fridge? That's all I could think of.

Deborah, I love those photos of yours, and I need to look at them again. I've certainly read a lot about the stunning wildflower displays in California. The Atlantic Monthly featured some outstanding photos, too. I'm re-reading the entire Flavia series, and she's even better the second time around. I highly recommend Amor Towles two books, Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow; also Australian author, Jane Harper's books, The Dry and The Lost Man. Anything by Liane Moriarty is wonderful. She's another Aussie. Living down under must bring out literary talent. What are you reading now? Diane

Diane, you are a wonder. I'm just leaving my Ascot be. Is that wrong? I guess I don't really like to cut live canes. Probably I was so long in the frigid North I am thrilled to see the complete bush. I'm sure yours will look better than mine, but I can always prune next year if Ascot doesn't look good natural. I got some of your book recommendations too. Haven't started them yet.

Diane, it's a relief hearing from you. So glad you're ok and working in the garden. Your pruning method is interesting. Whatever gets the job done! I just do them as I come to them. I've never really understood how to prune big climbers because I've never had one. If I ever find a rose that would be a big climber here, I should know how to prune it. I love it when a rose's description says 'pruning not necessary'. Music to my ears. I asked Jackie, who posts on the Antique Forum and whose house, all three stories, is covered in climbing roses, how she prunes, and it sounded quite complicated and time consuming and dangerous. Do you use a ladder to prune Colette?

I'm glad Augusta is being beautiful this year. Isn't she always? I am still pinching myself in disbelief that she will be coming here very soon. I never get tired of looking at your photos of her blooms. She should have a place of honor, and I still haven't decided where that will be, but I have decided to plant her with Poseidon.

Sheila, welcome to Diane's Rose Forum Book Society. I am confident in saying you will love everything she recommends.

Lillyfinch -- Congrats on the baby news, and I wish you much joy and adventure in the move -- where ever it takes you. It's a cliche -- and yet so true -- home is where your heart is! And you have a big heart (for people and for plants) -- so I'm sure that no matter where you go, you will flourish and be an agent of flourishing for others, too. When my husband said he needed to move to L.A. (we were in Northern Cal, which is quite different from Southern Cal) I went to a phone booth (no cell phones back in the day) and cried on the phone to my mother that I made a mistake, that I shouldn't have got married, that I couldn't live in L.A.! We lived in Los Angeles/West Hollywood for about 5 years. It was great. I even had room to grow about 6 roses. I ended up going to grad school at USC -- LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT. Then we moved up the coast to Santa Barbara. Now that I'm not in L.A., I can't imagine living there again -- my home now is Santa Barbara. If you move to Los Angeles area, look into housing options that are considered "moderate income" housing developments. You might find some real gems. And look into any help your husband's employer might give you. There are wonderful pockets in L.A. area. My big concern is going where the air is clean. I have asthma, so can't cope with too much air pollution.

Diane -- I plan to read more Flavia as soon as my semester ends. I read a cute little series -- that I think must be more YA -- but it was still cute. Quick reads. Tiny bit too...well...sweet? Anyway -- look up the paper magician. A quick read and silly enough you can enjoy while you're sitting in a doctor's office or waiting in line at DMV or waiting for a friend at a coffee shop.

My Huntington's 100th (or Life of the Party) is going to be a bloom machine any day now. I think two opened today a bit. My James L. Austin has tons of buds. My Distant Drums are looking to put on a good show...So I'm getting excited! Caught 2 gophers in the last week. Ugh. Little ones. Weeds are getting me down. But I did get my tomatoes into their new veggie fortress home. I'll try to take pics at some point and post. It was 88 degrees here yesterday, about 82 today. Will be cooler this week, but the rain they predicted looks to skip us now...shoot! We need a bit more rain to fill up the local reservoir. We're at about 80% right now. It'd be nice to get it real full before the hit heats.

Lovely to hear from all of you. Jim, hope your next test is all good news!

Sheila, I think any old way you want to treat Ascot should be fine. But this year my Ascots need some size reduction, plus they will bloom better at the bottom if those canes get a good whack. You would probably cringe at all the "live cane" I cut off. But it varies from year to year. I hope you enjoy any of the books I've mentioned. What have you been reading lately?

Flowers, I quit climbing up on stepladders a couple of years ago. I haven't done much pruning on Colette at all. I did have my son in law cut off some long canes that were shooting up into a tree before the tree people came a while back. I'm thrilled that most of my snapdragons survived winter in good shape, and are growing all over the place. I'm still planning on planting some new snaps seedlings that my friend started for me--but I'm so far behind. Edwards had huge numbers of some penstemon I want. I was worried all they would have were new types that were coral colored (ick, I think). Now I'd better get back over there before the purple and red ones are all gone. I'm interested in the clematis, Rooguchi, but can't figure out where to put it. Don't know where to put Quick Silver, either, for that matter. What are you up to in the garden now? Oh--I just finished re-reading the second Flavia book a little while ago. Loved it again the second time around. I can't believe you have a 24 year old grandson, and he is so accomplished. Did you say he wants to live in Washington eventually? My older granddaughter will be 21 this June. I just hate it. We need some of these cute babies I've been seeing pictured here. Diane

Oh, it's so nice to come on here and find all these lovely - and interesting - new posts. I feel so lucky to have found this forum.

Diane, we miss you soooo much when you don't post. I'm re-reading for the 3rd time all of the Anne books. I love them more each time. I didn't get into the Flavia book that I read a bit of, but with everybody else loving them, I will have to give her another try.

I have just had a visit from my ex next door neighbour and her 3 little girls. It's been a while since I've seen them and I was missing the eldest girl so much that I dreamt of her a couple of nights ago. We used to talk through the fence most days when she saw me in the garden. Didn't get much gardening done, but so what!

Deborah, I hope we will see lots of photos of your garden this year, and your beautiful dog.

That goes for you too, flowers - minus the dog. I've only seen a tiny fraction of your 200+ roses.

And Sheila, I hang on more photos of your Teas against that beautiful wall.

vaporvac, forsythia is such a part of my memories of an English Spring. I loved that cheerful, bright burst of yellow after the long grey spell.

Well, after around 18 months with hardly a spit of rain, we are having a LOT! I haven't posted many photos of the roses, as sadly most are succumbing to the horrible canker that came into my garden around 4 or 5 years ago with a rose I bought. A few are free from it, but no doubt they'll get it soon. I'm racking my brains over what I'll plant instead.

Frost blankets working well since all our roses had to be cut to the ground...Easy peasy...lol...I use a bucket to cover our newly planted smokebush... Garbage can lids cover our leafed out perennials....lol...Whatever works! All is good! :-)

Hi Nanadoll! Hope you feel better soon!

I put weights on the lids to keep them down...lol

The word of the day

Sleep deprivation lol

Drove up to the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve yesterday.. huge traffic jam even on a Monday, but you can see why. Superbloom!

Interesting to find some yellow poppies mixed In with the orange. A sport? Does anyone know?

BTW, my Flamingo Dancer has teeny buds! Too small to photograph just yet, but they are there.

jc_tn, I’ve been dumping coffee grounds on my roses too. So far so good.

lol Kristine.

I fared better than I expected on 4-5 hours of sleep a night.

However... "sleep when baby sleeps" did not work for me. I have to caffeinate myself to get through the early mornings. Then I can't sleep late morning because I had caffeine.

Vicious cycle.

Sylvia, have you noticed any changes to yours? I don't even know that it will do anything, but it's so easy i figured there's no harm in trying. I plan to do it for Veilchenblau as well. I really want those to be cooler shades rather than warm.

jc, I don't think coffee grounds will help bring out cooler shades much. Are you sure your soil isn't acid to begin with? This would be common in Tennessee. Sylvia's soil may be more alkaline to start with (?), and acidifying it might be more useful. We have alkaline desert soil, and I notice cooler shades in my purple/lavender roses in particular, whether I use a soil acidifier or not. Changing the soil pH is helpful if you want blue hydrangeas, instead of pink ones. Diane

Jc, too early to tell. The next six weeks should tell. I put them on everything from Munstead Wood to Moonstone, so??? I hope they will keep my Ebb Tide purple, though.

Diane,always good to hear from you. Yes, we do have alkaline soil. In All my years out here, i’ve seen blue hydrangeas..once, in a garden in Beverly Hills, where presumably they had the funds to fly in acid soil from the East Coast. ;) Actually, I shouldn’t talk - I’m far from rich, but I did once fly out a small truckload of smoked fish from Sable’s in NY for my husband’s birthday. He’s been known to enter a “fugue state”, a kind of psychosis, when eating whitefish. Fun to watch - from a safe distance.

I am getting a soil test done by the county extension office next week. I think they work with UT.

But I am pretty sure our soil is alkaline.

My hydrangeas from last year went from blue to pink pretty quickly. A generic map of my county shows mostly alkaline soil as well.

Is there a better practice for trying to acidify soil? I know on the hydrangea forum, some experts told me that it's aluminum phosphate that turns them blue. I don't know if that is what causes roses to change hues. Or if anything will help curb that to begin with.

I thought I had read coffee grounds would acidify the soil.

Deborah, what kind of tomatoes do you grow? I gave up on them because of our short season, but might try larger plants to start with this year. Home grown are SO good.

Diane, I don't do ladders, either. I'm always curious how people prune their climbers. I love it when a rose description says 'doesn't like to be pruned'. Coral penstemon is all I see here, but if I ask at my good nursery she might get purple, red or pink in for me. A phlox that was supposed to be pink turned out coral, so I dug it up and left the big lump sitting off to the side, roots exposed all winter. It's growing back from those hacked off roots with very little soil on them. I hate to toss something that determined to live. I've been trying to find Rooguchi, too. I'll have to get to Northland early. Her clems go fast. Quicksilver is not terribly spreading, so maybe could fit between other plants ok. You're going to have to rent garden space from your neighbors.

Trish, I feel exactly the same way about finding this forum. I was so happy to find people who would take the time to share their knowledge. None of my friends garden, and I bore my husband to tears with rose talk, so finding everyone here has been a joy as well as an education. Your story about your little neighbor reminded me of how much I miss the little girl who lived behind us. She was only about 9 or 10, but always asked me what I was reading and told me about her latest book. She would come pick daffodils for mother's day. Your little neighbor sounds similar to mine. It's lovely that they come back to visit. I'm glad you're getting the needed rain. You'll come up with some beautiful shrubs to plant where you lost roses. Do you grow Weigela there? There are some new varieties that bloom all season. Mock Orange has such a wonderful orange blossom scent. Sambucus blooms look almost like hydrangeas. You must have shrubs we don't grow here. I'm sad for you to give up on roses, but if they're always going to get diseased, I would try something else, too.

Jc, I'm not worrying about bloom color when I feed all my plants fertilizer for acid loving plants. I just want to make sure the few roses I grow that don't like alkaline soil (hybrid musks) don't suffer from chlorosis which produces yellowing leaves. This must be practiced every year because soil that is alkaline or acid wants to stay that way. As Sylvia mentioned, in extreme cases one might want to entirely replace one's soil--at least in parts of a garden to get blue hydrangeas. But I don't think purple roses will be more pink in alkaline soil. Diane

Thanks for the reply.

I better get Sally Holmes the coffee grounds instead!

Sylvia, those poppies are something! So vibrant. I thought the only thing coffee grounds do is help with the worm population.

Wasn't there some talk a few years ago on the Organic Forum about molasses bringing out deeper purples? Jim, didn't you experiment with your roses? Do we still have the Organic Forum??

Diane, my grandson is 27 next week. He's one of the youngest. My oldest grand is 30. As I've said before, I was a child bride. My kids married young, too. I have a 4 yr old. great grand.

I just used sugar water to turn mister Lincoln purple..(vase)...I would not do it with outside roses though...

WOWSER Sylvia Wendel ...Great pics!

Jim, I remember that Mr Lincoln experiment--that was something. Do you have any old photos of ML that you could show us again?

Flowers, you scare me. What do you mean by child bride? I was a mature--haha--21 years old when I married, but my granddaughter better not try anything like that--heh. I just saw your long post above, so I'll come back after dinner and do some more commenting. It looks interesting. I just got in from pruning one big Julia and more fertilizing of the plants in general. It was raining, so my hair is soaking wet. Oh--just remembered that Rooguchi is available from Edwards here in Boise. I'm going to try to provide a link to their clematis list/pdf file. Diane

Shoot, I just remembered my Sally Holmes are grafted body bags from Walmart. Dr. Huey? So maybe they don’t need the coffee grounds after all.

There is too much to learn and too little time.

The coffee grounds are good for the soil regardless. Just make sure they don't dry in for my stiff mat on top of the soil.

Wow! This discussion is moving quickly! Flowers -- I am growing: Summer of Love (an improved Berkeley Tie-Dye), Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye, Black Ethiopian, Better Boy, Thessaloniki, Celebrity, Lemon Boy, JetSetter ...a new one that I can't remember the name of that is supposed to be better than Taxi, and a couple of seedlings of an Italian heirloom that's not a roma. I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I try to buy only tomatoes that are supposed to be good in shorter growing seasons. Even though we have a long season, I don't get the heat I would need for big tomatoes. Even a beefsteak will be salad size for me. I have given up on Stupice. Never worked for me. Taxi was amazing. Early Girl has been okay. Last year I loved Summer of Love and Better Boy and Celebrity. Cherries always do fine. Annie's Annuals raves about Thessaloniki, and they are in a cool, sometimes foggy area, so I thought I'd try that this year. Black Ethiopian is new to me, as is the Pink Berkeley. Jet Setter was planted late last year -- got several nice tasting tomatoes. We harvested Taxi and Jet-Setter right up to New Year's! They are in the huge boxes. I might be crowding them a bit this year. We'll see. In my 3x4 I have 4 tomatoes. In my 4x4 I have 5 tomatoes. I have one in a pot. When I get back from traveling this summer my annuals in the big pots will be finished, so I'll put 3 more late season tomatoes in the pots - and those are up against a wall, so they'll get enough heat to go through fall. On Saturday and Sunday I dug out my 4x4 raised bed (that is about 3 1/2 feet tall) and then replaced about half the soil. I don't rotate crops. I rotate soil! We'll see.

Anyway -- here are some photos that I took super quick to give you a flavor of what's blooming.

Huntington's 100th aka Life of the Party

Cliff Maids - Lewisia

Geum Totally Tangerine

Thank, vapor. This is the real life advice you can’t get in a Southern Living magazine

The raised bed fortresses. 4x4 in foreground. The 4x3 is in background. Ignore the weeds.

Verbena de la Mina -- so easy, so beautiful.

A snapdragon for Diane.

Sadly, two other snapdragons SNAPPED in our crazy wind the other night. I have them in a vase of water hoping they'll open up.

Greek Poppies. Couldn't get my ladybird poppies this year, but the Greek ones are lovely, too!

Here is the puppy dawg for titian! In the meadow. Again, ignore the weeds! Notice my tiny new grape on the left -- here's hoping!

Sylvia -- just gorgeous! Thank you! The yellow CA poppies are maybe the coastal form? Those are yellow. Or maybe sports. Were they the same size as the orange?

After a brutal Tuesday, and no time to work in the yard, I still found inspiration from the rose forum.

The weeds! This time of year, especially, and Lord have mercy on those of you that got all that rain. Deborah, we all pretend we don't have them and don't see them in other's gardens! Gotta take the good with the bad - the rain was good!

You are all set with tomatoes! I've never heard of most of them. Heirlooms? Do you find starts for all those, or do you start from seed? Now, I've really got the bug to grow some. Your photos look so colorful and springy. I've never seen flowers that big on Lewisia. Your puppy is beautiful. Your raised beds look good and sturdy. Mine are old and falling apart, so they're coming out this year.

Love the mention of Southern Living, jc. My dear little daddy, who passed away on Thanksgiving year before last, subscribed to that magazine for me for my birthday, and I'm about as far from the south as one can be. He must have me paid up for years to come because I keep getting it. I'll be sad when it stops because it reminds me of him. He was a southern boy.

Diane, when you're in the middle of pruning and it starts raining, it's hard to stop and remember where you were when you go back out. That happens to me every year. When people in the movies get caught in the rain, they look so fetching, and you probably do, too, but getting caught in the rain is definitely not a good look for me. There are rain hats. I should get one.

Deborah, I inherited a white grape with an old house I bought once. Shop bought ones didn't come near them. Soooo flavourful. My mouth is watering just remembering them. I hope yours thrives. I planted a Grosse Lisse tomato this year, but they were about the size of a crab apple. Didn't get many either. I grew Yellow Pear once - prolific, low acid very small tomato. We don't get the variety that you do. That's a sweet verbena. I've not seen it here, but that's not surprising. Every imported plant has to be quarantined, and on top of that, we don't have the population to support all that expense. Is your pup howling?

flowers, weigela is very pretty. I have a Mock Orange - transplanted it last Autumn, and it had about 2 flowers on it this season! The only Sambucus I know grows like a weed here, and huge, but I'm sure there are other varieties. The shame of it is that I had a Ms Tillier in the spot that now needs to be replanted. It grew to 15' wide and 9' high in 4 years, and was loaded with blooms. I have another one in a much sunnier, drier spot, but it's not a patch on the one I removed. I removed it because it clashed with the other roses there, but they have since turned up their toes! If I could only wind back the clock...… But also, it was a little bit scary, as it just kept getting bigger.

jc - Chianti - I think I'll have to pour myself a glass of red. I deserve it. I've washed windows, and taken down curtains and washed them today. And guess what, Diane, there was mould on the back of the curtains - and they're against really sunny windows?!

Another morning of heavy white frost! That 24F degree Sunday night fried the new green growth on almost everything. My second and third rose orders arrived and not one is in the ground yet. Beds are too wet. I opened up four holes yesterday and let them dry all day. The weeds are something else this year! I put down Preen in November but I didn't get everything done. These go deep! All that rain for a year has definitely brought everything out of the soil. My back is twitching at me and I don't need that to go out. I have two huge bales of peat moss in the truck that I am just going to roll out onto the ground and shovel out of rather than try to haul them around.

Hit 27 degrees last night...30mph winds today but near 60 degrees and sunny...:-)

Wonderful photos everyone! Thanks for posting! :-)

Trish, finally your post went up--about 24 hours after the notification I received. Half the time, I get no notification. If I didn't check up the thread, I'd miss a lot of posts. So I apologize if don't comment or answer a question--sometimes I'm lazy, and sometimes Houzz is nutz. My theory about that fungus on your curtains is that this room was quite humid. So even if the sun shown in through the window, the air itself was humid. I hope that darn stuff just takes a flying leap, and you never see it again. I've wanted to grow Chianti for years, once bloomer, or not. But no room for it. Why don't you try to grow it (the rose, not the wine-ha)? Take one last chance on a rose. I'm pulling for you because it's a terrible shame about what's happened to your roses. I'm a big fan of Sambucus, Black Lace elderberry. I think it's available in Europe. I fact it may have been developed there, though it's sold as a Proven Winners plant. I prune Black Lace into a tree shape so I can grow plants around its base. It has pithy, easy to cut wood, so pruning it is not as bad as a tree. It's actually a large shrub. You could check on its availability in Australia.

Jim, when are those 20s temps going to give up and leave? Gah. I've noticed that many parts of the country, particularly the East and South have drastic freeze--thaw cycles. These places often warm up before here, and then get very cold again. We don't have much of that, and I count myself very fortunate. Now the weather gods will punish me. It looks like Pittsburgh is warming up--how far away are you from the city?

Flowers, as you can see, I didn't get back here after dinner--I cooked, then collapsed in my old lady chair, and slept until nearly ten in the darn chair. I got up for quite a while, and was ready for bed when, like an utter fool, I sat down for a minute in the enchanted chair. Next thing I knew, it was 4 AM. When will I learn? It started rainy today, and now is beautiful. Am I outside pruning? No, I'm playing around on the Forum. Have you tried those relatively new grafted tomato plants? They're more expensive, but grow faster and have huge yields. At least according to the hype. I have the best luck with Celebrity, which is a semi determinate tomato, so the plant doesn't get as large, but has a long productive season here.

Deborah, thanks for the snapshot of the snap, and all your other great photos. They will keep me going.

Ikaye, that's awful about the temperature swing. I've noticed you get quite a few of those. I hope things stay warm and dry for you starting now. Diane

I took your advice, Diane, and scrolled back up and found a lot that wasn't there last time I checked. So, I'll say the same thing - if I don't reply to something, that's why.

Wonder why we don't hear much about Austin's Chanti? It has that dark Munstead coloring that a lot of us love. If I remember, it mostly blooms in the spring, but that shouldn't have banished it from rosedom.

Trish, I like Lemony Lace Sambucus as a smallish shrub, and also Black Lace, with it's pink flowers, which can be a giant. Diane's ingenious idea to prune it into a tree shape gives you more planting space. I know there are others, but I'm not familiar with them. It's a shame your Mock Orange isn't behaving. I hope it'll give you lots of blooms this year. I just mentioned those shrubs because those are the three that I would like to replace that don't require a lot of fussing over. You deserve more than a glass of red after doing all the windows AND curtains. I don't mind the outside where I can power wash (and when I say I, I mean my husband), but doing the inside is bottom on my list of chores. But, what a difference it makes.

Ikaye, we're in for more nasty weather, too. Spring is our rainy season, so I can't get out there first thing, like I always plan. Can you roll those bales into a wheelbarrow and push them out to where you use them? That's what I do with big bags of compost, etc.

Diane, I will look for the new grafted tomato plants. I would gladly pay more for tomatoes that ripen before fall. I want to eat them in the summertime. Doesn't everyone take a nap before bedtime? Sounds about right to me.

flowers, I know that it's a once-bloomer and I think there's confusion as to whether or not it is a climber.

Linda at Long Ago Roses recommended it to me when I asked about climbers, but I've seen photos (Marlorena specifically) that show it as a large shrub.

Around here at least, I think people are more careful about their rose purchases and prefer to take less risk on unknowns. I am that way.

Having said that, I added it to my order anyway.

I like the way you think, JC! : )

I have to be careful Nanadoll because our weather forecast for last night was 34 degrees but it dipped to 27 degrees instead....Tonights forecast is again 34 degrees...lol...Luckily I been covering everything..Pittsburgh is 110 miles + away from us...

I hope our forecast is right because I'm taking out my potted plants and rooted cutting for the LAST time! : ) Since it's too early to prune, I'm going through my old fencing to find enough to put around my front yard to deter the deer. They never actually come in the yard, but eat the newly planted roses that are near the street. Since deciding to plant all my climbers on the front brick wall I have to make sure they don't discover them. The bummer is my old French Gothic fence is way too short unless I want to buy more so it looks like I'll have to use the scalloped one. : ((The FG was original to my house so I have a soft spot for it. I guess I could use the scalloped until I can spring for more fencing and then use it along my back property to keep out the prying eyes of nosy neighbors.. Hmmm. These are the cliff-hanging decisions I spend my time thinking about! : )

So I guess my lollygagging days are over. Apparently my across the street neighbor with the forsythia bush no longer has said bush because when I drove down another street ALL the forsythia were in FULL bloom!!! I need to get on the pruning, etc. Geez! And here I thought I had a couple more weeks. LOL! )

LOL vaporvac ....

Vap, Use shiny ribbons that farmers use to deter birds and deer near your roses . I don’t have fence in the country garden, I tape three 1’ ribbons on each stick, and 3 or 4 sticks in each rose bed. I also have a couple thousand blinking solar string lights nearby. The ribbons plus the lights did the magic, I have had no deer damage for 2 growing seasons :-)

I think I need more information on these blinking solar lights! I think you might have mentioned them before but I forgot. My problem is there are two deer that fold in my yard and they consider it home and we'll plow down any fence I put there

Folding deer!

The solar string lights I have are 72’ long with 200 lights. They are around $10-12 each . You can buy them online.

I know, titian! I must have a very hard to understand voice. even when I edit, it goes right back to what it wrote before. It is humbling as I'm sure everyone thinks I have no idea how to talk or write!

Thanks summer. I think I'll look into them if work. It may be just what I need in addition to my fence. I need a few hundred feet, but can start with the worst areas.

Just got my Burlington order. The roses look fabulous. Into pots they go until I can get my new planting bed created.

Thank you Leong for beautiful healthy plants

Hello Everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve posted, or even read anything on the rose forums. I first want to say something to Sheila. A couple of days ago I read your sweet thank you post for recommending “The Gopher Hawk”. I decided your post was the perfect opportunity to get back into posting again. I wrote one of the longest comments I’ve ever written, full of personal gopher stories, Gopher Hawk experiences, Millie‘s thrill every time she hears that spring go “POP”, and lots of (what I thought were), interesting facts about gophers and their habit. It took me so long to finish that my phone battery was almost dead. I went to plug it in to recharge while I wrapped it up and submitted it. As soon as I plugged it into the charger, the page refreshed. I lost everything I’d written! I don’t think it was Houzz this time, just my own foolishness. I was so discouraged that I had to walk away and forget about it for a little while. A few days went by, and I forgot about it TOO well:-) In case I forget to go back to it AGAIN, I do want to say that someone here on this forum deserves the real thanks. I wish I could remember exactly who it was that recommended The Gopher Hawk to me! It might possibly have been Deborah. I remember posting that The Gopher Hawk wasn’t working for me at all. That’s all changed now that I know how to set it properly myself. If she’s reading this, please speak up. I’m ever so glad you recommended this trap. It sat in the garage for many months until I discovered that one of my sons hadn’t used it properly and bent one of the claws. No wonder it never caught anything! I’ve had great succes, now that I’ve fixed the problem. Thank you, Thank you, to the member who made the original recommendation to me!!!

So much going on in this thread since I last read it! I‘ll have to read it over more closely. I love the wildflower pictures, and big congratulations to Lilyfinch! How exciting to adding to your family! I bet Lucia will be such a proud big sister! Kristine, I’m so happy that you finally have little Azalea with you. What joy she’s going to bring to each day! I know that you know from experience how quickly that sleep deprivation stage goes by. In no time, you’ll be wondering how she grew into a walking, talking, little girl so quickly. It doesn’t change that sleep deprived feeling right now, though! I’m just thrilled that she’s in your loving care.

I’m getting a little tired from typing, and I don’t dare try to attempt to attach any pictures to this. I’ll try to do so separately. Things are really blooming, but not too many roses yet. The roses are coming along, though. My delayed pruning led to delayed blooming, but that’s alright. There’s plenty of other things that are proving colorful blooms right now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share a few in a separate post. It’s great to read about everyone, and their gardens! Lisa

Mystic Beauty

Great:-(. Just the words “Mystic Beauty“ are showing for me without the photo. Sorry about that. Lisa

Hello Lisa...Great to hear from you!

So glad you got the message, Lisa. My husband is so thrilled (as I am) to be making progress in our gopher war. Whoever initially recommended it to you, thank you too.

I'm going to start a new thread....Since we have 200+ posts...

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/spring-is-here-seasonal-thread-part-2-dsvw-vd~5661826[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/spring-is-here-seasonal-thread-part-2-dsvw-vd~5661826)

Thanks everyone for the great posts and photos...Keep em coming!

Lisa, Sheila left you a message above...