"When the days begin to lengthen...

...winter begins to strengthen" is a saying that my mother attributed to her mother (or maybe her grandmother). It certainly did apply in south central Kansas, but not so much for me in my current environment - "Desert Crazy Town".

I have been trying to think of a variation that might fit my current situation:"When the daylight has more hours, I can cut pretty flowers" or "December chilly noses, give way to January roses" or "January roses can't be beat! They will wither in July heat!"

The Mister and I were doing a bit of post holiday re-organization in the storage shed and I noticed that we had blooms on almost all of the rose bushes. I use the term "bushes" loosely - The Mister prunes the landscape (and I use the term "prune" loosely) without the benefit of research or arboreal knowledge. (Our first summer, he hated the fruit dropping from the plum tree, so he "pruned" all the fruit bearing branches. Read: all the branches!) His motto is "It will come back". Most things do, perhaps not in the ideal shape, but they do come back.

Usually, I do not bring flowers into the house, because the cats consider them night toys and pull them out of the vases. By morning, they are usually past reviving. The roses, though, were all bending down on their spindly stems, so I decided to cut some of the canes back so they would be sturdier for the next flowering.

I am not an expert on pruning, either, as I always prefer to grow species plants that take care of themselves. I have been reading the garden column over the past 30 months and trying to remember all the guidance from the Master Gardeners, though. I may not have done the plants any good, but I hope I didn't do them any harm!

Most all of our roses are hidden away in the side yard, where I only go if we are shuffling cars/trailers/camper, etc. so it is nice to enjoy them in the house. I just have to remember to shut them in the bathroom at night to keep them safe!