Anna and Mike Cordelli
Norwalk, CT, USA
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My Rose Garden, 2003's tales
If there was ever a winter to make you seriously consider if all the work in the Rose Garden is worth it, it was this winter (2002-2003). I live about 35 miles or so from New York City along the Connecticut coast, and this winter devastated the gardens. We had snow on the ground from Christmas Day until the end of March or the Beginning of April. We had days and days when the temperature never went above freezing, and we had snowstorms so close to each other that the pile of snow on top of the flowers (including some of the roses) was way over 10 feet tall.
(Most recent postings at the top, so start at the bottom if you haven't been here yet)
May 26th
Memorial Day, the traditional start of the summer. At 12:30 we have reached our high of 51 degrees, it's been raining for hours, and on and off for a few days now. The weekend is a total bust.
The garden is fully planted again, and the plants are all in various stages. Some are still dormant and just starting to bud out, mostly those are the new bare root ones I purchased this year. At the same time, some of the bare roots that came in the same box as those are just about throwing a few buds. So don't give up when the plants come.
Last year at this time probably half the plants had buds, this year because of the colder weather, it's way less then that. Growth is much slower then usual too.
The shock is that the plant showing the most growth was one of the Apricot Nectars, I was totally shocked any of those survived the winter, let alone exploded in this weather. It's easily larger now then it was all of last year. I have to put in a plug for Martin and Kraus Mail Order Roses up in Canada (online at www.gardenrose.com ), that's where I got those three plants, and they are doing great.
It's also usually about this time the battle with aphids has started, but so far not a one, probably too cold for them. Doesn't matter, with all this rain blackspot will probably start this week, so i have to start spraying if the rain ever ends.
April 13th
All of the winter stuff appears to be finally behind us, though less then a week ago we had yet another snowstorm, so anything is possible still. The forsythia has started turning yellow, I believe that to me that is Mother Nature telling me the worst is over, time to get to the garden.
The first order of business was to get rid of the ones that didn't survive the winter, and instead of the handful I usually have this year it was dozens. My Habitat for Humanity, two of the Peace, Simply Marvelous, Veterans Honor, Black magic, Medallion, Kaleidoscope, Queen Elizabeth, Lovers Lane, Diana Princess of Wales, Rosie O'Donnell, 2 Vanilla Perfume, Moonstone, a couple of Sultry's, all didn't make it through. Could I have mulched it higher, planted them deeper, protected the new ones better? Not really sure, there didn't seem to be much reason to which ones made it and which ones didn't.
Some of the ones that are left are in fairly bad shape, in the next few weeks if they can't be coaxed into shooting up some new canes they will be added to the list.
The remaining bushes were all pruned back, though in some cases it was very drastic pruning because not much living tissue was left, in many of them it was down to the mulch line.
Three new roses were added today (it's still too early up here to get many roses at the local suppliers yet), Bella'roma, Butter Cream, and another Black Magic. There are many spaces to fill.