Thanks Beth, it’s always difficult to know when to prune my roses as mine never go dormant, they just go on and on through the winter. But on the other hand, I have never had new leaves ruined by frost, even with the prolonged periods of frost we had last winter so I suppose it doesn’t really matter when I do it as long as they get pruned at some point :-)
Thanks Sue, most of my roses blew off during the Christmas and New Year storms and the new buds haven’t had time to develop into full flowers yet – except for this one. Sad to cut off all those buds but it has to be done at some point!
Wow. I learn so much about the weather there from your blog. I would have never guessed that you would still have roses blooming still! Pruning time makes me so excited - spring is closer than we realize!
We don’t usually use the hardiness zone system over here, but according to it, London would be zone 9a although every winter has been different since I came here 15 years ago. So far this winter we have had one night with a few hours just below freezing, that’s it. I guess that’s more like zone 10a, but it’s not like this every year though.
Here’s some statistics for you: London’s record low for winter is -10C (14F) and average low for February, the coldest month of the year is 2.4C (36.3F). On the other hand, record high for December/January and February for London are 15C (59F), 14C (57.2F) and 19.7C (67.5F) – that’s quite nice for winter and we have temperature spikes like that quite often, like mostly every winter at least once.
At the moment we are battered with one storm after the other from the Atlantic and while you are having freak winter weather with cold temperatures, we are having freak weather with the wettest January on record – that’s in more than 100 years!! I wish we all could stop having all these weather records all the time, let’s have some more ‘normal’ weather again.
Jane, I can’t tell you how difficult it is to refrain myself from writing anything!! It took me 3 years of blogging before I posted my first Wordless Wednesday contribution but I can see the advantages to them. I don’t think I will be doing an awful lot of them and only use it for certain types of posts – and it’s always possible to add anything you wanted to say here, in the comments :-)
I suppose I could have dragged the season out to well into February too, if I had delayed the pruning. My roses never stop flowering, except for the around 8 weeks it takes for them to grow back and start flowering again after I have cut them down.
At this time of year I appreciate to live in London – and have a well-sheltered garden. But I would love to live more rural and a house on the coast would be lovely, but hardly achievable. And with this winter’s flooding I am glad I don’t live on the coast :-)
Thanks, let’s hope we don’t get a repeat of last spring, it was so cold the first rose didn’t flower until June! Usually they start to flower in April or beginning of May.
I pruned my Wedgewood Rose yesterday - it's a wee bit too early for here but I need to move the arbour they are growing over. I might offer a fleece if the weather takes a turn for the worse! The picture of the whole framework is useful for someone like me Helene - a beginner and rather scared of pruning them. This gives me something to keep in my mind as a reference.
Hi Angie, not much frost on the long term forecast for London – just rain and more rain!! That photo of the framework is actually showing 5 different rose bushes, but it’s hard to see them all when they are pruned down, I cut the bush roses down quite hard. The big one on the fence is Crimson Cascade which as a climber could probably become much taller, but the fence isn’t taller so that’s why I have stretched it out like a fan instead. Climbers produce more flowers on horizontal branches than vertical branches, that’s important to remember the first few years when the branches are still possible to bend and train. Your Crimson Cascade is ready to be sent you (bare root) whenever you are ready for it :-) Good luck with pruning your roses, remember, it’s not really difficult, just have a look on the Internet on how to prune the different types of roses and get started. You will soon see that all you need is a really sharp pair of secateurs and a big bin – and perhaps some good garden gloves, although I don’t use them, I don’t like using gloves, I just try to be careful!
goodmorning Helene. My hands are also itching to start pruning the roses and clean the garden. What a difference is the weather to that one we had the year before. I hope we won't get any wintery spells and spring will come in very soon. Pruning my roses is the most difficult thing in the gardenseason. I never know how to do it right. Your photo's are gorgeous as always. Have a wonderful sunday Helene.
Thanks Marijke. It has been a wonderful day here today, and the mild weather is just continuing – no frost the next 10 days either, so far I have only had ONE night with frost this winter. Yes, what a difference from last winter!
I used to dread pruning my roses too, until I read an experiment that had been done over a few years where they had pruned many different roses several ways. One way was meticulously finding every new shoot and cutting right above, just as you should, but very time consuming. The other way was just to chop off every bush at the right height, either 1/3 or 2/3 depending of type of bush – using a chain saw! The rose bushes grew exactly the same way regardless of how they were pruned and produced the same amount of roses. I always think of that chainsaw just chopping off the bush when I stand in front of one of my roses, wondering where to start cutting – it really isn’t that difficult, just get chopping! Happy pruning :-)
The last few roses in any garden are special. For me those final roses come in October. I fear for my roses this year. The weather has been unusually cold and I am sure there will at least be plenty of winter damage.
I have heard about your extreme weather, we get reports about it on the news over here. While you are having the coldest weather in 100 years, we are having the wettest January in more than 100 years – and it just continues now in February. I hope your roses will be OK, they are tough plants and even if you need to cut off more branches than normal they will probably come back to normal size after a year.
And what a lovely rose it is! Thanks for sharing. My husband is partial to yellow roses, Helene. We don't have too long to wait until spring now. All the best! :-)
Thanks Beth, Freedom is a lovely rose when in full flower. I feel like spring has already started in my garden, but keep having in mind that February is the month of surprises and cold weather. We can still get a touch of winter, not too late for that, although the next 10 days the forecast is for mild weather, well above freezing and RAIN every day! As if we haven’t had enough rain the last 2 months….Officially, spring starts in 3 weeks and 4 days over here. Yeah!
Not sure if the normal rules are applicable for inner-London gardens, I usually prune my roses first week of February, in a normal year, but this winter I haven’t even had any frost at all, well apart from a couple of hours just below zero one night, and it has been very mild and mostly staying above 10 degrees during the day. I therefore pruned 2 weeks earlier than normal, we’ll see in May if that’s going to come back and bite me or not :-)
And we have had more rain this winter than in the last 250 year’s winters! I try to get out in the garden the few days we have in between each stormy day, but since middle of December we have had one or two every week. The mild weather certainly come at a price.
Awww, sweet. Time to say goodbye to one growing season and look ahead with hope and anticipation to new growth. Happy Wordless Wednesday!
ReplyDeleteThanks Beth, it’s always difficult to know when to prune my roses as mine never go dormant, they just go on and on through the winter. But on the other hand, I have never had new leaves ruined by frost, even with the prolonged periods of frost we had last winter so I suppose it doesn’t really matter when I do it as long as they get pruned at some point :-)
DeleteToday, I find the yellow one in my front yard. But your looks bigger then mine.
ReplyDeleteMy yellow roses are called ‘Freedom’.
DeleteThat yellow rose looked lovely and clean.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue, most of my roses blew off during the Christmas and New Year storms and the new buds haven’t had time to develop into full flowers yet – except for this one. Sad to cut off all those buds but it has to be done at some point!
DeleteJust amazing to see a rose in late january....such a lovely butter yellow with dark green leaves...a wonderful pick me up.
ReplyDeleteThanks Donna, I usually have roses every winter, they just don’t flower as prolifically as in the summer.
DeleteWonderful Helene! Nice rose and nice vase, I love it shape. I see you added one branch with shining leaves, looks great!
ReplyDeleteThanks Nadezda, the green branches are Sarcococca confusa, which are in flower right now and smells absolutely wonderful.
DeleteThat's a beauty.
ReplyDeleteWow. I learn so much about the weather there from your blog. I would have never guessed that you would still have roses blooming still! Pruning time makes me so excited - spring is closer than we realize!
ReplyDeleteWe don’t usually use the hardiness zone system over here, but according to it, London would be zone 9a although every winter has been different since I came here 15 years ago. So far this winter we have had one night with a few hours just below freezing, that’s it. I guess that’s more like zone 10a, but it’s not like this every year though.
DeleteHere’s some statistics for you:
London’s record low for winter is -10C (14F) and average low for February, the coldest month of the year is 2.4C (36.3F). On the other hand, record high for December/January and February for London are 15C (59F), 14C (57.2F) and 19.7C (67.5F) – that’s quite nice for winter and we have temperature spikes like that quite often, like mostly every winter at least once.
At the moment we are battered with one storm after the other from the Atlantic and while you are having freak winter weather with cold temperatures, we are having freak weather with the wettest January on record – that’s in more than 100 years!! I wish we all could stop having all these weather records all the time, let’s have some more ‘normal’ weather again.
Beautiful yellow rose, and lovely vase, too!
ReplyDeleteHope you are having a beautiful day!
Lea
Thanks Lea, I’m having another day inside, waiting for the rain to stop!
DeleteDarn! I wish I could take part in Wordless Wednesday but I'm a bit of a chatterbox :-)
ReplyDeleteJane, I can’t tell you how difficult it is to refrain myself from writing anything!!
DeleteIt took me 3 years of blogging before I posted my first Wordless Wednesday contribution but I can see the advantages to them. I don’t think I will be doing an awful lot of them and only use it for certain types of posts – and it’s always possible to add anything you wanted to say here, in the comments :-)
A perfect, beautiful rose! And a reminder that soon it will be time to prune my own roses!
ReplyDeleteThanks, all done here now, just before the rain started again on Wednesday!
DeleteVery funny to see the last rose of the season at the end of January, and a perfect specimen too.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I could have dragged the season out to well into February too, if I had delayed the pruning. My roses never stop flowering, except for the around 8 weeks it takes for them to grow back and start flowering again after I have cut them down.
DeleteWish I lived in semi-tropical London!
ReplyDeleteAt this time of year I appreciate to live in London – and have a well-sheltered garden. But I would love to live more rural and a house on the coast would be lovely, but hardly achievable. And with this winter’s flooding I am glad I don’t live on the coast :-)
DeleteAbsolutely beautiful looking rose. So, gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I keep it outside on my tabke so it will probably last for weeks :-)
DeleteI'll be pruning mine in a few weeks. You did an excellent job, of course! Your roses will be gorgeous. :o)
ReplyDeleteThanks, let’s hope we don’t get a repeat of last spring, it was so cold the first rose didn’t flower until June! Usually they start to flower in April or beginning of May.
DeleteI pruned my Wedgewood Rose yesterday - it's a wee bit too early for here but I need to move the arbour they are growing over. I might offer a fleece if the weather takes a turn for the worse!
ReplyDeleteThe picture of the whole framework is useful for someone like me Helene - a beginner and rather scared of pruning them. This gives me something to keep in my mind as a reference.
Hi Angie, not much frost on the long term forecast for London – just rain and more rain!!
DeleteThat photo of the framework is actually showing 5 different rose bushes, but it’s hard to see them all when they are pruned down, I cut the bush roses down quite hard. The big one on the fence is Crimson Cascade which as a climber could probably become much taller, but the fence isn’t taller so that’s why I have stretched it out like a fan instead. Climbers produce more flowers on horizontal branches than vertical branches, that’s important to remember the first few years when the branches are still possible to bend and train. Your Crimson Cascade is ready to be sent you (bare root) whenever you are ready for it :-)
Good luck with pruning your roses, remember, it’s not really difficult, just have a look on the Internet on how to prune the different types of roses and get started. You will soon see that all you need is a really sharp pair of secateurs and a big bin – and perhaps some good garden gloves, although I don’t use them, I don’t like using gloves, I just try to be careful!
goodmorning Helene. My hands are also itching to start pruning the roses and clean the garden. What a difference is the weather to that one we had the year before. I hope we won't get any wintery spells and spring will come in very soon. Pruning my roses is the most difficult thing in the gardenseason. I never know how to do it right.
ReplyDeleteYour photo's are gorgeous as always.
Have a wonderful sunday Helene.
Thanks Marijke. It has been a wonderful day here today, and the mild weather is just continuing – no frost the next 10 days either, so far I have only had ONE night with frost this winter. Yes, what a difference from last winter!
DeleteI used to dread pruning my roses too, until I read an experiment that had been done over a few years where they had pruned many different roses several ways. One way was meticulously finding every new shoot and cutting right above, just as you should, but very time consuming. The other way was just to chop off every bush at the right height, either 1/3 or 2/3 depending of type of bush – using a chain saw! The rose bushes grew exactly the same way regardless of how they were pruned and produced the same amount of roses. I always think of that chainsaw just chopping off the bush when I stand in front of one of my roses, wondering where to start cutting – it really isn’t that difficult, just get chopping!
Happy pruning :-)
The last few roses in any garden are special. For me those final roses come in October. I fear for my roses this year. The weather has been unusually cold and I am sure there will at least be plenty of winter damage.
ReplyDeleteI have heard about your extreme weather, we get reports about it on the news over here. While you are having the coldest weather in 100 years, we are having the wettest January in more than 100 years – and it just continues now in February. I hope your roses will be OK, they are tough plants and even if you need to cut off more branches than normal they will probably come back to normal size after a year.
DeleteAnd what a lovely rose it is! Thanks for sharing. My husband is partial to yellow roses, Helene. We don't have too long to wait until spring now. All the best! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Beth, Freedom is a lovely rose when in full flower. I feel like spring has already started in my garden, but keep having in mind that February is the month of surprises and cold weather. We can still get a touch of winter, not too late for that, although the next 10 days the forecast is for mild weather, well above freezing and RAIN every day! As if we haven’t had enough rain the last 2 months….Officially, spring starts in 3 weeks and 4 days over here. Yeah!
DeleteIf we have a mild winter, prune in February. It gives enough time for growth to catch up by summer.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if the normal rules are applicable for inner-London gardens, I usually prune my roses first week of February, in a normal year, but this winter I haven’t even had any frost at all, well apart from a couple of hours just below zero one night, and it has been very mild and mostly staying above 10 degrees during the day. I therefore pruned 2 weeks earlier than normal, we’ll see in May if that’s going to come back and bite me or not :-)
DeleteGoodbye to the old, with pictures showing what's to come, just perfect.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alistair, no sign of winter here yet, just relentless rain!
DeleteWhat a sweet yellow rose! So pretty Helene. I'm eager for spring to arrive, but we still have about 7" of snow on the ground!
ReplyDeleteAnd we have had more rain this winter than in the last 250 year’s winters! I try to get out in the garden the few days we have in between each stormy day, but since middle of December we have had one or two every week. The mild weather certainly come at a price.
Delete