President’s Day Weekend is a milestone in the Portland area.  It marks the time when you have to go out and cut your rose bushes back.

Portland is known as the city of roses because our climate is ideal for growing roses.  We are home to an international test garden, and roses simply thrive here.   We have our annual rose festival in June which is marked by a couple of parades, the crowning of the rose princess, and the welcoming of the naval ships onto the waterfront.

Each year, I forgot to cut my rose bushes back until it is almost too late. Usually it happens because it is raining out, and I don’t feel like standing in the rain cutting back the roses.  Today, the rain turned to blue skies.

And, everything is budding.  Here is my plum tree in the parking strip.  It clearly is getting ready to bloom.

And a rose bush cut back within an inch of its life.  We’ve had this one in our yard for 10 years now.  It grows the most amazing roses – and I do nothing more than give it  a hair cut periodically.  Oh, and feed it my used coffee grounds.  They love old coffee grounds.

After the rose bushes, I tackled the flower beds because I had a few things in there that needed a haircut. This is why I will never spend the money on a manicure.  It would be a waste of money.

(And yes, there are such a thing called gloves – but some of the weeds we get in our yard cannot be removed by gloved hands.  Well, I guess they could – but their roots wouldn’t – and then I would have to weed more.  Small price to pay really.)