Outstanding!!!! Lesley

That's a big job! Glad to see you wore protective gauntlets, etc. The bushes will be spectacular when they leaf out. (Did you post a picture of these trellises some time ago? They look familiar. Maybe not.)

I have 40 bushes. Today I weeded. I go out with a hoe about every other day and nick off any weeds which have had the nerve to pop up. Recently I fed, put on alfalfa pellets, and moved a poor, pathetic Yves Piaget from a too shady spot to a full sun spot. He looks pretty sad, but I love the bloom and will hope for recovery. Getting ready to bring in a load of mulch since we'll be extra-careful of water usage this summer.

The blooms are breath-taking, so beautiful this time of year. Yours will be too, so I hope you take pictures and share them then.

Susan

Good job! I know how thorny and difficult New Dawn is. It's going to look wonderful in bloom.

Great job! Everything here is acually still dormant leaf buds should start to swell soon. I have transplanted Mr Lincoln from out front to out back. I have pulled weeds and loosened up the mulch. Everythings ready just waiting for something to start growing...lol

Today I stared longingly and took a walk around, willing the weather to warm up and the ground to thaw. :)

More in two weeks...

This past week I have had "off" from watching my grandson, so I have been busy busy in the garden.

I bought some more of the smaller sized wall block-three trips to HD cause they are heavy-and finished 2 smaller terraced beds and planted 2 roses in the apple grove area, I made slightly bigger planter in the play area for Mr Lincoln, thank goodness I have my guys breaker hammer so I could split the block really easily. I dug up a small shrub/tree, potted it and hauled it up to hopefully survive and block some reflected heat. I finished our drip system for the lower garden, planted some seeds, one more rose and made sure all the new fruit trees have drippers. I dug up 2 more tree stumps-miserable ones that I have been putting off and gave up for now on a third. I demoed the old chicken coop and hauled it off along with my dads section of a cement storm drain he some how dragged home and thought was useful. Replaced a broken sprinkler head, edged, mowed, filled skunk holes, raked the lawn.

And for kicks and giggles tackled the bougainvillea by the gate, cutting down to just a stump that is embedded in the fence and cut the "feeders" to the stump. Here is to hoping it dies! I have a hate-hate relationship ship with those plants. Beasts. And put the new rose, a gate greeter in the space to see what I think (have to build it a raised planter too.) Got a few other odds and ends finished and have just a couple more days of hard stuff and the garden will be close to that "done" state for now

This post was edited by Kippy-the-Hippy on Thu, Apr 3, 14 at 23:56

The New Dawn roses look beautiful, and I love the way you've woven them back and forth on the planters. I've had this rose and hated it, but then it was also totally wrong for my climate and it bloomed thorns rather than roses.

Susan, I hope your Yves Piaget makes it. To me it's one of the most beautiful of the modern roses and I adored mine until the roots were eaten by a gopher.

Kippy, I had to read your list of accomplishments to my husband, and now both of us are exhausted. I can only say that you're amazing!

My main project the last few weeks has been sweeping up wild rabbit droppings where I feed the wild bunnies, soaking them in water along with some leaf mulch, and then putting the resulting mess around individual rose bushes. Other than that just general clean-up and stripping off old rose leaves.

Ingrid

I've had a very busy spring too, I started with planting 10 fruit trees in my new espalier orchard area, then I overhauled the veggy garden by removing my original three raised beds, moving the dirt around to different areas, and creating a new rose bed where I planted 6 roses. I decided to give up on the Kiwis I planted years ago after the third female died on me, so I planted a pair of roses on the arbor instead. I also turned over and prepped the soil for two new rose beds where the old veggy beds used to be and made 15 gopher cages out of hardware cloth, I'll get the roses planted over the weekend. Including the 10 I planted in the fall I'll be reducing my pot ghetto my 34 roses this season, woo hoo!

I love how you do these, subk, and I'm crazy about your trellises!

Please be sure to post these roses again in full bloom, Subk. You have done such an amazing job with the canes - even bare of leaves, the design of the canes weaving back and forth over the square pattern is very attractive.
Snow is still over my knees here. How I would love to haul out my gauntlets and pruners and have a go...maybe next month!

Maybe? (We got more snow last night.)

Subke,

I, too love the way you have woven New Dawn through your trellis. It is obviously a lot of work.

I have never grown New Dawn but recall she is a strong grower. I wonder if it is your intention that your rose grows over the roof? Would there be some advantage in removing more from the top in order to encourage new growth from the bottom? My climber tends to get top heavy if I don't shorten it considerably each spring..

Harry

Thanks for all the kind words. I love to hear what everybody else is up to. It's great to see beautiful pictures of roses, but those always seem like the "after" pictures to me and not the nitty gritty "before" and "during" pictures!

Just to clarify the trellises are/were scrap pieces recovered from a steel shop, trimmed to sized, then rails added that sink about 3' into the ground. True example of "trash to treasure"!

Harry, I would love for the New Dawn to grow over the stoop roofs, but so far any canes that have gotten above the galvanized aluminum roof has fried, so I'm not sure that's going to work. The rose is going in to it's fourth year and so far I have not had much issue with it getting good bloom down low, but this is the first year I've ended spring pruning with canes above the trellis so we shall see--this is very much a learning experience for me.

FYI: Anyone finding this thread after a search for "New Dawn": I would not--knowing what I know today--select this rose again! It is more thorny, less blackspot resistant and a poorer rebloomer than advertised, although it is glorious for about 3 weeks of the year.