Ok, I don't know if this beverage actually qualifies as a "spritzer", but it sounded good in the title. To celebrate the first day of spring, we gals here at HH headquarters decided to partake of a bit of sunshine in a glass.

Photo by Nikki Rosen. Cocktail mixing and styling by Leslie Halleck .We're professionals.

On a whim, we through together ice, 1.5 oz. homemade limoncello (complements of my BBFF Jimmy Turner's meyer lemon tree, of which I'm now in custody), a couple of splashes of club soda, some fresh lemon slices and a sprig of mint from the garden. Simple and refreshing. Perfect for this first and most beautiful day of spring. Cheers!

The tulips are blooming! It's seemed like such a cold icky winter...it's nice to finally see blooms emerging in the garden.

Tulip 'Passionale' is putting on a nice show right now. This mid-season triumph tulip is a reliable performer in my garden. When I don't plant early blooming varieties, it's usually the first to show color for me. As you can see, I plant my tulips in large clumps, never in rows. You want to create a natural feel with bulbs so clump them in groups for best show and effect.

I have some orange parrot tulips coming along, as well as some late blooming types; 'Lightening Sun' and 'Mauraeen" will start blooming soon.

I'm pretty sure everyone needs to have their home address displayed like THIS! Would that be fantastic? A mixture of Echeveriaand Joseph's coat are the perfect combo for such a gardening feat.

This photo was taken at a public garden I visited in Vancouver, Canada.

Blue...that elusive color. I'm obsessed with it in the garden. One of my very favorite blue-blooming perennials is the Gentian. I mean, look at it. It's drool-worthy. Blue flowers are always hard to photograph when it comes to getting their true color. Trust me when I say they are much "bluer" in person. I love them so much I have a book devoted to them on the shelf in my library. But do I have any of them in my garden? NO. No, of course not. Because this is Texas, and they don't grow here. So I'll keep dreaming of Gentians and shaking my jealous gardening fists at you northerners lucky enough to have these gems in your garden. This shot was taken at Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, B.C.

If you ever wondered whether foliage in a landscape was that important, I offer you a shot of the quarry at Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, B.C. Sure, there are a ton of flowers there. But look at this photo! Wow. Fabulous foliage is not only the skeleton of the garden, it's the muscle. Beautiful. So don't over-focus on flowers when you're crafting your garden. Foliage is fabulous!

The Best Time to Prune Roses

UPDATED 2024

When you live in a hot climate, proper timing for rose pruning can be a little confusing. Plants can continue growing year-round and it's not really the cold weather that's a problem for our plants - it's the heat! So just as my students often hear me say "it depends!" When to prune your roses will depend on your local gardening climate, when it gets cold and when it gets hot.

Here in North Texas, and similar climates, the prescribed spring pruning date for roses is February 14th, or Valentine's Day! The problem with sticking to that pruning date is that it's usually TOO LATE due to our climate and temperature conditions. By the middle of February many shrubs and trees have already broken dormancy or are pushing out new growth (roses don't technically go dormant here). If you wait to prune until that's already happened, then you're just cutting off all the new growth that plant spent a bunch of reserve energy on creating. That means it's going to have to spend all that energy again to push out new leaves and flowers, which may not be as bountiful, and you may delay flowering.

In fact, many of my roses already have small flower buds on them by the middle of February. If you don't want to prune those off, then you're stuck with the size and possibly old straggly growth from the previous year until its time to prune again in summer.

As with many other garden pruning and planting activities, I usually find that I need to prune my roses here several weeks early. That means mid-late January. Same goes for most groundcovers, perennials, and grasses that need to be cut back before spring.

Rose 'Abraham Darby'
PC: Leslie F. Halleck

Rose Pruning Times Depend on Your Location

The best time to prune roses is just before bud break; meaning before the new leaf buds start pushing out and growing. That will vary depending on your location.

If you live in a slightly cooler location, or further south, then you'll need to adjust your pruning times later or earlier.

Ideally, we wouldn't prune until after the last average frost date. Well, here in Dallas that isn't until late March. If you waited until then to prune your roses, you'd find that many of them might be fully leafed out and already starting to bloom! So that's not going to work. If your roses are already budding out (you'll see small leaf buds beginning to swell and turn a reddish color) , that is a signal that it's time to prune. That may happen before the typical target dates, as is happening in my garden right now. I've found that for the last three years in my current garden, if I'd waited until Valentine's Day to prune my roses most of them would have already been leafed out; so it would have been too late. I'm often pushed back to the 3rd to last week of January on my pruning, and that has been effective.

Typically you'll be pruning away 50% of growth on roses such as hybrid teas, floribundas etc. Climbing roses require more modest pruning of just the lateral shoots, and you may find that some of your more sturdy China roses may only need 20-30% pruned away before spring. Remove all old foliage that is diseased, damaged, or otherwise unattractive.

What About Pruning Roses for Fall?

If you live in a warm climate, late-winter isn't the only major pruning date you need to add to your gardening calendar. Fall in Texas and similar hot climates, specifically October, is one of the most beautiful months in the garden. Most of our garden plants, and roses, take a beating over the extreme summer months. August is the best time to go ahead and do a second significant pruning on most types of roses. While you may prune off about 50% of your roses ahead of spring, your summer pruning can be a little more modest. I usually recommend pruning off about 20-30% of the growth, depending on how stressed your plants are. Remove any damaged, diseased, or severely nutrient deficient foliage. Fertilize plants at this time when you prune them.

Doing so will provide you with a beautiful fall flush of rose blooms.

Location and Micro-Climates can Change When You Prune Your Roses

Pruning times depend on your specific location, micro-climate, exposure and types of roses (don't prune climbers until late-spring after flowering). Some types will bud out faster than others. My hybrid English roses are a bit slower than the others in my garden. Different classes of roses require different amounts of pruning. The closer you are to the original rose species, the less hard pruning you'll want to do. Whereas modern hybrids that bloom most prolifically on new growth will need heavier pruning.

There are standard "rules" to follow in gardening...but climate changes and your individual situation varies, so these "rules" aren't always black and white. The micro-climate in my back yard, which is south facing, is significantly different than my front yard, which bears the brunt of a much colder northern exposure. There is often a good 10-20 degree temperature difference between the two spots. You may find that the roses on the southern side of your home need to be pruned earlier than those on the north side. Or your home may be buffered by many surrounding homes or structures that keep your garden a few degrees warmer than the neighbor across the street with a large open property. Gardening is very local. The art of gardening is learning when to follow, bend or break conventional "rules" based on your individual situation. You must spend time in your garden to observe growth patterns of your plants year to year. You can't just follow rules from a book, or any one person. Good guidelines are what folks like me can give you. But you have to put in the time in your particular garden to learn its nuances and unique characteristics.

If you're worried about pruning you roses too early: If plants are not showing any new axillary bud shoot development (those little tiny buds between the stem and the leaf) then don't prune them yet. Pruning before bud break, which is too early, will push your plant into early budding making the new growth susceptible to cold snaps. But, if your roses are already budding out, you can't stop them. You may just have to cover plants if we get another hard freeze. If cold temperatures return and the bud development stalls, then wait to prune. But if plants keep pushing out bud growth, then you may need to go ahead and start pruning. If you wait to start pruning until after they leaf out, you risk losing the opportunity to clean/shape them properly, encourage the most possible blooms and potentially damage new growth.

Rose pruning is always a bit of tricky business. So I'm not telling you when exactly you should prune yours. Watch your plants and monitor the weather. Gardening is a verb folks!

A Note About Rose Rosette Disease

UPDATE: Over the last decade, Rose Rosette disease has ravaged and killed most of the roses in the DFW area. And many other regions where the disease has spread like wildfire. I actually lost most of my rose plants, and have waited for several years after the last die offs in my area to plant any new roses. I was left with about 3 rose plants total that were not infected. As of 2024 I've only just now added a few new roses to my garden. We'll see how it goes!

D Magazine: https://www.dmagazine.com/publ...

Greenhouse Management: https://www.greenhousemag.com/...

Plantgeek Chic Blog: https://lesliehalleck.com/blog...

I know, it's cold outside. Most of you aren't really that interested in getting out into the garden. BUT, if you plan to be tiptoe-ing around your veggie garden this spring picking homegrown tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and any number of other veggies and herbs, now is the time to start your seeds!

That's why I like to call January "Pajama Gardening Month". You can get your gardening fix indoors, all whilst still in your PJs. Starting seeds indoors is fun and rewarding. You just have to get the timing right and have a few good tools. If you're in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, here are some things you should be starting from seed this month indoors:

Cole crops: You can start your last succession of cool season crops indoors now. Broccoli, cabbage, kale, chard, collard greens, kohlrabi, cauliflower and more.. Seeds need supplemental light so make sure to use a good setup. After 5 or 6 weeks you can transplant these seedlings outdoors, in February.

Warm season crops: Start tomatoes NOW, then you can start peppers, eggplant inside starting now through February. These crops take a bit longer to get to transplant size, about 8-9 weeks. In the DFW area, tomatoes can be planted outside late-February through the end of March for a June harvest. You can continue planting peppers and eggplant through April and May. If you want to start a second fall crop of tomatoes from seed, you’ll do that indoors in May.

Herbs: Start seeds indoors of warm season herbs such as basil, oregano, sage, thyme, chives etc.

Salad greens: You can still start salad greens both indoors and by direct seeding outside right now through February. Remember that lettuce seeds need light to germinate, so don't cover their seeds with soil when you plant them. Simply press them into the surface of the soil and keep moist until germination.

Indoor seed starting equipment: I use the Jump Start system from Hydrofarm because the lighting is perfect for seeds, the lamp can be adjusted to different heights, and it's a good for small spaces. You can use small trays with a seed starting soil mix, or the little compressed pellets from say Jiffy. I use those a lot and they work great. Make sure you have a humidity dome (plastic cover) for your tray. If you're using posts or pellets, make sure you have a water tight seed tray to set them in so you can cover them with the dome. The picture at left is only one example of the many different options available. Sometime you just have to experiment to find the option that works best for you. Also, a seed starting heat mat is necessary once you get into fall and winter, and you're starting seeds for spring planting.

If you'd like to find these products for purchase, visit your local independent garden center. I picked up my supplies for today's Good Morning Texas segment at North Haven Gardens in Dallas.

This is Texas for you. A few days ago we were having frosts. Yet I came back to Dallas from Cincinnati on Sunday to 86F degrees, sunny skies and blooms in the garden. One such plant that decided this return to warmth was permission to get it's bloom on was my dwarf Bulbine. I believe this is 'Tiny Tangerine', but I'll have to dig around in my stash of labels to confirm.

Bulbine are a beautiful and easy to grow upright fleshy plant that is a cousin to Aloe and Kniphofia (red hot poker). It thrives in hot, dry conditions and can often excel where other plants wither in the Texas summers. I like planting it alongside other succulents, grasses and lavender; all plants that appreciate full sun, good drainage and less frequent waterings. This is a great plant for a waterwise garden.