First buds already!

I have buds!!! Or rather the roses have

Ebb Tide and Dame E. Murdoch,




Oh it's so good to see the start of Spring in this Wintry weather

Please excuse chewed up bits.

Were you hungry Mine have only just started getting leaves after pruning so it will be ages before I get buds like yours

I am amazed at the rate of growth on my roses in recent weeks. Suddenly some of them are putting out leaves and buds! They are fully one month early.
Friesia has not been pruned yet because it is loaded with buds and flowers opening.
Pierre de Ronsard has been pruned and it is shooting and making fat buds.
Mariln Monroe is covered in leaf growth.
Sutter Gold is flowering.
At the same time other varieties are fast asleep with dormant buds.
I don't know what to make of it.

Mine too Dee... 'Christopher Marlowe' is almost fully leafed out and has new buds forming. 'Kardinal' is almost fully leafed out and I have a mini about to start flowering with big fat apricot coloured buds. Then again... there are a lot that are just beginning to get leaf buds now too... it's a weird start that's for sure. I think all this rain is keeping temperatures higher than normal. Are you getting these gales? It's pretty scary here at the moment... the big gums next to the house are shrieking I planted 'Lorraine Lee' last weekend and it's got 10cm long shoots on it already. The other Teas are taking longer to wake up although 'Lady Huntingfield' is looking really good. 'Comtesse de Labarthe' ('Duchess de Brabant') is thinking about waking up again and is trying to get some leaves and 'Francis Dubrueil' and 'St Francis Xavier' are making leaves. 'Lady Hillingdon' grew all over winter and 'Sourvenir MME Leonie Viennot' was also evergreen. Every one of my 'Fortuniana' cuttings took and they are beginning to shoot madly now as well. So... I don't know what to make of it either Dee... as you say... things are a good month ahead of where they were last year *shrugs*