The "black roses" of Fallon are much more prevalent than I ever imagined. Over 60 gardeners arrived fo

r last Saturdays class on rose care and pruning. One even came armed with a semi-dead rose in a bucket that was great to have for demonstration purposes. This has been such a tough winter on many of our plants. We live in Zone 5, which means an average winter low temperature of 10-20 below zero. While we did get that cold this year, I don't think that is what took out so many of our plants. It was the prolonged snow pack and pogonip freezing fog that we had in the month of February that caused us the problems.

Believe it or not, the USDA has just "upgraded" us to Zone 6/7 which would mean average winter temperatures of 10 below-0. Here at the nursery we will continue to advise you to go with zone 5, because as we saw this winter, even that can cause havoc on the garden.

Sunday the weather was 25 degrees cooler and windy, but we still had a good turnout for the class. This coming Thursday, the 15th at 1pm, is our last rose class for this season. The sun looks like it is going to be shining so come on out and prune with me. See you in the dirt soon, Susan