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New member

        I'm sorry I've taken so long to introduce myself to other members of
the list.  The work I need to do in my rose garden at the moment is so
overwhelming I don't have time for much else.  For the last 18 months I have
been involved in rose hybridising.  This is great fun but takes so much time
and energy the garden is becoming chronically neglected, a problem
compounded by my over-enthusiastic planting this Winter of more roses to use
in hybridising.  I live near Adelaide in South Australia where Spring
officially begins next Monday.  I have only just finished planting the new
roses.  Meanwhile the old roses await pruning which I've only just begun -
at least 6 weeks late.  I'm hoping - rather feebly - that Spring will delay
its onset!  After pruning I need to do my annual weeding and fertilising.
The only way I can cope with a garden far too big to be sensibly managed is
to weed it just the once in Spring and then mulch it so heavily with pea
straw that weeds will be deterred till the next winter.  The Spring weeding,
however, is quite a task and, of course, easier if the pruning is finished
on time.  I'm beginning to day-dream about hedge clippers and chain saws and
certainly to wonder if I'll get through a fraction of it before that
miraculous first flush of roses in November - when, of course, I'll have to
start hybridising again....  I frequently long for a couple of clones.  If
there were three of me...
        At least I can comfort myself as I struggle in knee-deep weeds to
prune my sprouting roses that this description of my ineffectual attempts to
keep on top of looming antipodean tasks will make you all feel, by contrast,
very efficient and organised, perfectly in control of your lives and
gardens!  Best wishes to you all from Fran Pearce.
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