This warm, dry January has me feeling out of sorts. I’ve lived in the Bay Area for 30 + years now and so I realize that winter here is not like winter where I grew up. Alas, there will be no snow days where I’m stuck indoors creating God’s Eyes out of pencils and random bits of yarn.
However, I can usually count on a bunch of rainy days that encourage me to hunker down and create things like quilts and novels indoors. All this sunshine is downright distracting. Though it does mean that pruning the roses is a relatively pleasant task this year. Almost a shirtsleeve task if I make a point to get outside midday to get an uplifting dose of Vitamin D while my roses get a nice trim.
Pruning roses isn’t tricky, but it does take some powers of observation and a willingness to let the plant direct you. In case you’re knew to pruning roses, here are some pruning tips from a rosarian at Berkeley Horticulture, one of my favorite Bay Area nurseries.
