This is my second season too. Cant wait to see how all my first year bands did through the winter. Excited about my first orders of bareroot roses this spring. NOT excited about all the holes I gotta dig lol. Still gonna be awhile till I get some mature roses but gonna be worth the wait. I'm enjoying this new hobby.

Congratulations, and I hope Spring is all that you anticipate. Here it truly has not rained for 13 months, and now they tell us it probably will not rain at all for another 9 months, so I am hunkering down making plans to try and just keep the roses I already have alive through our hot, always dry summer.

Not pruning, mulching everything deeply. Watering a bit for now (as normally we get about 40 inches of rain every winter, but so far have .85 inches with none in sight), but they say we will be on serious rationing as of April 1 (they are not doing it before then because one year they started rationing on Feb 1, and it really did rain hard every single day that Feb, and the water utility offices flooded, and they looked like fools).

My DH has figured out how to put a huge water tank in our ground floor basement right under the bath/shower in the floor above, which will catch all of our shower water. Then he will connect a long hose to the tank so that I can water the most vulnerable plants enough to hopefully keep them alive.

I have planted a lot of South African bulbs and plants in the last few years, but even they are used to wet winters. They go dormant in the summer, which is good.

So, not looking forward with pleasure, but I am very glad someone is!

Jackie

In southern CA I'm more or less in the same boat as Jackie. I hadn't heard the dismal news about it not raining at all this winter, was still hoping for something in February through April.

In spite of that I have so many new bands or plants that are going into their second spring that I'm eagerly anticipating some blooms from a lot of little roses. I know it often takes the bands three years to really take off but even a few blooms will be something to enjoy greatly. Right now not too many roses are blooming but I do have repeat blooming irises that are blooming. I really recommend them if your season is long enough.

Ingrid

I hope your drought situation comes to an end soon, Jackie! It's odd how we had the rainiest summer that I can recall and on the other side you guys are suffering miserably, without the rain. Good luck pulling your ideas together to help with the water supply.