Finished the pruning of the front yard roses. The driveway strip has several roses in it, annd several more soon to be added. Already there are:

Fragrant Masterpiece
Mary Rose
Nicole Carol Miller
Memorial Day
Portlandia
Lady of the Mist
Kaliedescope
Louise Odier X 2
Playboy Standards X 2
Wild Blue Yonder X 3

Roses to be added to this bed next weekend from S & W Greenhouse are:

Secret
Touch of Class
Ladybird
Lovestruck
Enchanted Evening
What a Peach

As soon as this rain lets up a bit I will finish the pruning of the backyard roses....will need a day to finish that job up then onto weeding and dividing and replanting the beds and borders and pruning back shrubs and ornamental grasses. Fun, Fun, Fun!!

Ok - I had to start somewhere.....chose to start with the front yard side strip bed. I pruned the roses here, they all look good considering the complete lack of care last year! I am a bit stymied by how to get the garden back from its current state - but figured I just have to jump in!! The roses in this bed are:
John Clare
Tahitian Sunset
Jeanne d' Arc
Duchesse de Brabant
Graham Thomas
Rainbow Sorbet
White Ma Perkins
Madame Pierre Oger
Comte de Chambord
Reine des Violettes'
Jean Bach Sisley

I have gotten such a late start to the winter pruning/feeding/mulching this year! I am only 1/4 through the pruning and have just started the feeding. ave yet to even purchase the compost blend I mulch with - I usually have it all down by now - very late start indeed. I have lost several huge canes on some of my best climbers, and many other bush/shrub roses have many blackened canes, unusual for my garden. We had such an odd winter, and such wide temp swings....must account for some of it. The roses have all started leafing out, and are wasting energy producing leaves on canes that will be cut back or cut out. I am really going to have to get my tail in gear and get them pruned....feeding and mulching can hold for a bit, but prune them all I must!! We keep getting lovely warm, sunny weather all week while I am hard at work, and windy, rainy, stormy, cold, COLD weather on the weekends when I am eager to be out in the garden. If it was just a bit of rain I would be out there all bundeled up and happily working away....but the wind and cold are just too much. I am going to try to do several each night after work this week, because as soon as the work week starts, so does the sunny weather - while this weekend it has stormed non-stop -- UGH!!!

This rose catches the eye from across the garden....with such a strong color it takes careful placement, but 'Marmalade Skies' is a fun rose to grow!