Happy New Year and best wishes for the best gardening year you've ever had! I'm sure your New Year's resolutions include several intentions related to gardening. I'm mainly resolving to strive for neatness in the coming year. I'll try to work harder on weeding and deadheading and to remove extraneous objects from the garden. Some of my garden decorations are in a deplorable state and need to be discarded, and why do I have garden tools and empty pots in every corner? They're not invisible, even if I'm so accustomed to seeing them that I've essentially blocked them from my view. I have to learn to put things away where they belong and to focus on the big picture instead of just looking at the pretty blooms and ignoring everything else.

The thumbnails for this month are New Dawn, New Face, and New Era (more commonly known as Rosie O'Donnell). Poor overworked New Year has been used as the January thumbnail in three of the past ten years and needs a vacation. Unfortunately, we don't have a rose called New Decade, but New Dawn and New Era convey much the same message. New Face is in keeping with the changes many of us are planning in the appearance of our gardens.

Happy New Year everyone! Got to see the new year "rung in" in Sidney, Brazil, Italy, England, Banff, New York, Disney World, and was asleep for about 30 seconds for here.

Oh, that New Face sure is a charmer! I do have a thing for singles. Bicolored singles---oh yea!

While I was out pruning the other day in the yard, I had a bud on Alice Hamilton. Brought it inside hoping it would open. It did. What an absolutely charming rose! I think I am just going to be loving on this rose. Can't wait for it to produce more in the spring. The flower did not last long in the vase, but it was its first bloom so we shall see what the future holds in store for it. On the other hand, my Candice blooms (the last ones until the spring) have been in the vase almost a week and still are looking fairly decent.

I do have some ripe hips (at least I think they are ripe) from Minnie Mouse and I think I might try to see if they will sprout. Won't know what they are crossed with. Could be Minnie but I also did Candice, Sharifa Asma, Jubilee Celebration, Princess Alexandra of Kent, Lavender Crystal, Diamond Anniversary and one of Kim Rupert's babies nearby. So who knows. I think I will be trying several seeds this year. I am looking forward to seeing what I will get, if anything.

What do people do to help soften the hard shell on the seeds? I recall Kim gave me some sort of powder but I don't, unfortunately, remember what it was. The thought of using sand paper on the seeds doesn't thrill me but if I must, then I will.

It's a NEW year. I have high plans for this year. Beautiful day here. Watching the rose parade. It's OK but something is missing. Can't put my finger on it. Oh well, the ball game later should be good. Really looking forward to working in the garden this year.

Brinessa (HT)

I echo Zuzu's comment about removing extraneous objects from my garden. many of mine are falling apart, too...and need to be put out of their misery. lol
A few years ago I bought 3 of the "Veranda" series roses...Jolie (coral) Red, and Lavender.
The red one and the coral one have stayed about 40" tall, but the lavender one suddenly started sending out these huge LONG canes, so I'm training it as a climber. They're not root stock, either. Right now they're about 12 feet long and have lots of flowers. Very bizarre. It's in a weird spot but I didn't have the nerve to move it, so I've got an odd configuration the way I'm training it.

40* here when I woke up this morning. That's COLD for here lol and I'm not a cold weather person.

Happy New Year, I'm greeted this morning with a new bud of Earth Angel. Here's to 2020, let's hope things turn out as well if not better than 2019.

Janus would be a great name for a New Year's rose...I looked on HMF and there is a Gallica by that name...no picture...but it's supposed to be dark purple. Janus is the Roman God that looks both backwards and forwards.

Zuzu - Amazing picture of New Dawn!!! Wowza!!! And I love the colors of your Rosie O'Donnell. Beautiful! I so agree with you about being tidier...I have so many empty pots around. I keep thinking I could use them in the future...but then put them away!!!

Mustbnuts - Congratulations on the ripe hips you have! I don't know if you need to do scarification on the hips or not. I think I would just leave them naturally...but I'm not an expert.

SoCal - lovely Earth Angel! That rose always seems to have such a perfect center...so sweet!

Ken - I've been curious about Brinessa...thanks for showing it! Lovely!

Ann - I was reading the December newsletter...and I saw your gorgeous photo of Augusta Luise! Well done!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Neatness counts! And I could use a bit of that myself, lol. I think maybe everyone's garden gets a little messy. Usually by the time I'm done for the day I'm too tired to put stuff away. Bad habit. Maybe I need to quit working a little sooner and leave time for clean up.

Love New Face! So pretty!' Brinessa and Earth Angel too!

Only "New" roses I've ever had.
New Day

New Zealand

Neatness counts. My husband finally removed the Christmas tree and the decorations, and all the lights. Now we can work on our garden. I was out repotting some of my blackberry plants. Then I found these lovely Eden Climber roses from two different plants. One looks a bit less pink.

Oh, Seil!!! That's a gorgeous New Day!! Wow!!!!

SoCal - that first Eden picture is sooooo pretty!!!!

Thanks, Carol!

Hope my Eden looks that pretty this year, SoCal!

"and why do I have garden tools and empty pots in every corner?"

wait, what--you mean that's not where they go?
That's some admirable resolve Zuzu! I wish you all the best with that.
I don't actually have an away place to put stuff, so I am very skilled at selective vision

A darn new grass is taking over many of my rose beds: its called Stipa gigantea ( rightly named) and is huge. My traditional pull and toss method is not aplicable. These require a spade to loosen enough and then yes be tossed. So I NEED to keep my garden spade in sight in the middle of my paths. Any digression from that, leaving it really visible, is an invitation to postpone ( ugh...I've got to fetch the spade from the shed... ). It doesn't always work... I still have more grass bunches than desired...well that is just one of my many reasons why my farm rose garden is just a beauty in my imagination I'm the only one who sees it in fruition. The same goes with pots, trimmed /deadheaded canes and debris that keep adding up... When I studied calculus maths in school long time ago, certain equations were only solved at the infinitesimal point. Were mathematicians also rose gardeners? Who knows? . My garden will be tidy only then, in that infinity moment in space/time
Arturo.

My husband finally re-finished one of the walking paths. This path has some stones that are bumpy, I worry we will trip on them as we get older, so we finally removed them. We filled the hole with decomposed granite, so it's easy peasy, no cement work of anything. It's living material too. I've seen chives sprouted and survived in this material.
But the chilli thrips are back, they attacked 3-4 of my Violet's Pride roses. I had to remove them this morning. Interesting note about Earth Angel, the bud yesterday dropped today, it never fully opened.

Wedgewood rose




Lady of Guadalupe roses, much pinker in the winter.

Arturo, I think Stipa gigantea has viable seed heads so wherever you see it you need to remove it before it sets seeds. So sorry you are having to put up with this. One of my sister's neighbors planted it in their yard and now it is all over the neighborhood, much to everyone's dismay.

I went to Home Depot today to get more rocks for my husband and wouldn't you know it, I came back with 5 more bare root roses. 2 reds, 1 white, 1 yellow, and one multi-color, all hybrid teas. At least I got PEACE on the day like today, with all the news out there.
And the red and white roses will be great for next Christmas, I'm thinking way ahead, lol. I will replace the Mexican heathers with these roses. Hopefully I will get rid of the chilli thrips.

Yes, mustbnuts! Its becoming a major nuissance! I can't remember when it started to invade our place. For sure I didn't grow it or sow seeds of it! It must have blown from somewhere else. I love to try out new plants, but in spite of the fad with grasses I'm more than cautious with them. There are so many escapees... Before I manage to get the clumps removed I'll prune the green seed heads. At least I reduce further dissemination. They have huge seed heads with hundreds of seeds per clump!. Your advice is more than timely! Thanks really!
Arturo

Will livestock graze it?

I'm evaluating my lavender roses and was wondering if any of you have experience with Sterling Silver? I asked this question on a few Facebook rose forums and the consensus was that it's a weak grower with powdery mildew problems that many people no longer grow. Mine was planted in spring 2019 and was weak too but did produce a few lovely, fragrant blooms. Here are progressive shots of the same rose from mid-November. I thought the color was amazing but I'm very biased towards lavender.






I hope to get more blooms with better form in 2020. Some Facebook posters provided great pics of their roses with the classic HT form which I'd like mine to have so there's definitely hope!
Ann

I had it many years ago. It didn't suffer from powdery mildew in my garden, but my modern roses rarely exhibit signs of powdery mildew. In my garden that problem is largely confined to some OGRs, especially the ramblers and noisettes.

Sterling Silver was of average health when I had it, not particularly vigorous, but not weak either. Its bloom cycles were also average: It wasn't stingy with blooms, but it wasn't particularly generous with them either.

If the gophers hadn't killed it about 20 years ago, I probably would still have it. On the other hand, I've never felt any great urge to replace it in the last 20 years.