MoonPuppy,

You have roses that survived 3 years with no tender loving care AND you are
in Zone 4/5??? Wow, those must be some tough roses!

Dave is right about the technical stuff, but I have a few words of advice
for you: "If you water those roses, stand back!"

Anne Lurie
Raleigh, NC


"MoonPuppy" wrote in message
...
I inherited (along with the house) several rose bushes. Most seem to be
trellising types (it's winter here, hard to tell), and two bushes - for
sure - are J&P tea roses - whose name I normally know, but have forgotten.
Fragrant Cloud maybe?

All the roses are neglected - as only they can be by having survived 3
years of no one living in the house. So they are leggy and have dead canes
and the J&Ps have grass growing up into them.

What do I need to do to get these babies up and gorgeous again? Like I
said, it's winter here (Southeastern Colorado, Zone 4-5ish), but it's been
in the 60s in between feet of snow, lol. I don't want to encourage them
this early in the year because I know more snow is coming. But I need to
get them trimmed back (I'm assuming) and ready for the spring.

Help?

MoonPuppy - the amateur black-thumbed gardener