"JimS." wrote in
[snip]
It seems to be Spring in Seattle too. A couple of weeks ago (like January
10th or so) I noticed that winter or no winter, my roses aren't waiting.
We've had an absurdly warm winter in Seattle (not that it gets that cold
here anyway) and I even had blooms on New Years day. I figured I'd go
ahead and prune so I woudn't torture them by letting them grow, and then
cut back. SO, there it was mid-January and they're all pruned. I'm
not TOO worried about a freeze now-- very unlikely.

I hope your roses do ok. I really prefer not to prune
mine for another week or two, even though some already
have buds, and others have started to bloom.

WHILE I was at it.....I had my local garden store give me a bid on
building a raised box along a wall where I had a hedge last year. With
an $800 bid (ouch! but really worth it....) they built me the most
beautiful 20-foot slightly terraced raised bed, and got it done in one
day. Awesome job, and a much, much better job than I was going to do
myself.

That makes a lot of sense to me. If I were starting now,
I'd do the same thing. My body no longer takes digging
large holes in heavy clay!

Now all my roses in
big pots can finally get buried. And I get to go buy new ones too! :-Þ

Oh yeah, like we need an excuse to buy new roses?
I just got another rose catalog and found a couple I
really like. Where to put them? I have a few in pots
and don't want more contained.

Gail
near San Antonio TX Zone 8 USA