Bloom Thyme Friday: Time to Uncover the Covered

The forsythia is blooming and it is time to start giving the roses a trim. More about forsythia here.

Nothing says hard winter like black rose canes.

This week I am beginning to uncover the roses that I mounded with mulch to protect them from winter. I don’t mulch all of my roses. In fact I mulch very few—just the hybrid teas and the most tender roses. Most of my roses can take whatever winter throws at them … as was proven 2 years ago during the polar vortex. I worried and worried all that winter that all the roses would be lost but not so, they flourished last summer.

Last fall I piled about 8” of mulch on these roses and it is always a fun process to uncover them and see how they did.

So here we go … Let’s take a look… Don’t be scared … It’s gonna be ugly!

😳….😁….

This is Gemini … we have black canes, a broken cane, a frayed cane (wonder what happened there?) and a bit of green. The farther down I went, things did not get much better, but there is enough. With some tender loving care and some nutrients, Gemini will be okay–once I cut back all the black, the dead, the frayed and the damaged. Fingers crossed that “whoever” or “whatever” is responsible for the broken and frayed canes, does not return.

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Gemini last summer… 🙂

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Joy had a better winter… as I uncovered I found a lot of green and that made me very happy as this is one of my favs.
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Joy doesn’t look like much now but this is what she can do…

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To read more about this rose, click here for an article I wrote last summer.


Spring has officially sprung and I am back at it. I could not be happier!

How about you, what chores are you doing in the garden this week?

 

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