Lovely! It is such fun to discover new blooms each morning. Cinderella is so pretty and delicate.

I've got buds ... does that count ? So far, no curculios, so I may even get part of a first flush.

Congratulations on finally having bloom ! Sometimes the long wait seems way too long.

Smiles,
Lyn

Congratulations Seil! The roses are beautiful!

And more to come! You'll be dancin' the night away!

Congratulations! My Home Runs were the first to bloom also. Love your Cinderella!

You seem to be on a normal seasonal cycle. Most years my roses would just be opening right now also. You'll have to keep us entertained since yours are just starting and ours, having bloomed 2 months to 6 weeks early, are just ending and will be resting for the next couple weeks.

HHRD

Kate

Congratuions Seil. Thanks for letting us spoiled people (warm weather) relive the excitement, and for always posting the most awesome photos.

Thanks everyone!

Belle, Cinderella is so tiny that it makes it really hard to photograph. So any shot that's focused I'm happy with, lol!

I'm hoping you don't see any curculios, Lyn!

Actually, Kate, these are very early for me. I usually don't get my first bloom until Memorial Day. I'm getting a little nervous because my first show isn't until June 16th! I hope I still have some blooms by then.

Congrats Seil :) I got my first blooms yesterday - 3 blooms of Blanc Double de Coubert and 1 glorious bloom of Rose de Rescht :D Yay!

About time Seil! lol...just kidding...I agree with them changing my zone to 7 last year; there's no way we're in the same zone :) Those are some pretty blooms though! Let the blooming begin!

Tammy

Beautiful...I can almost smell that DD!! I have a couple of those blooming right now too and had my nose in them half the morning! :))

Thank you!

Congrats to you too, Lovemysheltie!

Tammy, I can't imagine why they would place you in the same zone as me. My sister is in KY and her stuff always blooms a good 3 to for weeks before mine.

Ginni, I cut that one and it's perfuming my whole living room!

Seil.......

I will have the curculios. Since they no longer breed in my garden, it takes a while for them to finally migrate to the garden and then I disbud for the next 7 weeks. At least now I get some undamaged blooms before they arrive.

Those 7 weeks seem longer than winter !, but it's worth it.

Your photos are worth drooling over. Thank you for sharing them.

Smiles,
Lyn

I had my first bloom also on Saturday on Irish Elegance. Sure is early here!

It seems so drastic to have to take off all the buds, Lyn. I feel for you!

Hi Mike! Glad to hear yours are starting to bloom too! It is early but with the weird weather I guess it's to be expected.

Hi seil,
I'm so happy you have some beautiful rose blooms to enjoy and share (none here yet). You are such a positive and helpful force on the forum, and I wanted to say how much I enjoy (and gain some helpful insight, too) your posts. I was intrigued by your comment concerning that you were in the same zone as your sister in Kentucky whose roses bloom weeks ahead of yours. I have been puzzling over this for the last couple of years while reading about all the roses blooming earlier than mine in other areas, yet those roses were located in colder zones than where I live. I think I have hit on a partial answer. Though we have relatively mild winters here (we didn't have the early spring all you had this year, though) compared to the Midwest and Northeast, we are in the same latitude as Maine. Because of the effect of the earth's rotation on where we are situated, we have a shorter growing season than those on a more southerly latitude. This doesn't mean our summer's are mild (they are hot), or we have extra severe winters, since where I live is in a sort of a valley banana belt near a river. Whew! I needed some kind of explanation to myself because this thing was driiving me crazy! Enjoy your blooms--mine are still in the bud stage! Diane, SW Idaho

Thank you, Diane, I'm blushing. I just try to share my experiences and hope they're helpful.

The funny thing about my sister and I is that even when she moved to Colorado Springs, CO for a while she was still in the same zone as I was! But the zones are primarily based on the low temperatures and that's not really indicative of an entire climate. We both can get below zero, yes, but my winters are still longer and on average several degrees colder than hers. So her growing season is at least a month or 6 weeks longer than mine. Most years my garden season is from the first of April to about Halloween or the first week or so of November. While hers will begin in March and she can still have some things in bloom at Thanksgiving. And I also think elevation has something to do with it. I'm on Lake St. Clair so I'm at a very low altitude, under 500 feet above sea level. She on the other hand is in Lexington at the beginning of the Blue Ridge foot hills and is much higher than me, at around a 1000 feet above sea level. And the lake is a large body of water and effects my weather in a lot of ways both good and bad.

I do agree that elevation, bodies of water, precipitation, and all kinds of environmental factors have an influence on a particular growing season. I think what fouled my thinking up was assuming that because my zone number was higher I should have a longer growing season, when instead, it's just an indication of the lowest average temp over a period of time. That little number has assumed such importance that it's easy for me to forget other factors influencing the season. Diane