My mom used to grow the most gorgeous fragrant roses. I could bring anyone one of her cut roses as a gift and they would gush about it for weeks. I wish I could produce those kinds of roses, but my current bushes are a scraggly, moldy, spider mite infested mess! So, I headed off to a fantastic rose pruning workshop by the number one rose retailer in my region. http://www.gazebogardens1922.com/News.html

The most important thing that I learned: is that when you attempt to prune your roses for the winter, you really can’t do much harm. Whew, it took the fear out of the task to for me to hear that from an expert! In fact there was an experiment run by the English Rose Society to see which method would work the best, traditional hand pruning, large hedge clippers, or a chainsaw. Guess which plants produced the most roses in the spring? The ones that were hacked with a chainsaw (even though the quality of the roses & the bush was reduced)! So, as you begin pruning your bushes remember not to obsess over perfection, roses are hard to hurt!

First a little rose “vocabulary”: Typical Hybrid roses are grafted at the base to a rose called Dr. Huey, because of its strong root structure. The graft point is usually a little bulbous like this. Canes are the stems that come out of the plant. The bud is the bloom point that will grow the new leaves, the bloom point near the top of the stem is the one that will grow.

Step 1: Even it up! Trim your rose bush all around, to an even length, cutting off any remaining leaves or blooms. It has been a very mild winter here, so my roses are still blooming, but I learned it is still very important to prune them now because they need time to rest and hibernate before the spring.

Step 2:Cut out the obvious! Take a good look at your plant. Cut off any dead wood, or canes that have a black spot on them. Canes will only grow out of new wood. If you have a lot of dead wood at the graft point, and it looks overgrown, you can even clean some of it up with a saw blade.

Step 3: Design your plant! This step is all about choosing which shape you would like your plant to grow in. Cut out the canes that are growing in or towards the middle of the plant, to allow more sunshine to penetrate the bush once all the leaves grow in. Plan on having canes branch out in 4 different directions so that the bush will have a nice fullness once it grows in. Cut canes about a ¼ above the bud point.

Equipment- it is important to have a nice pair of hand shears, gloves, and long sleeves before starting pruning roses. We recommend the “The Digger” gloves from Woman’s Work , and Rosies full length Coveralls, to help get the job done! Both are on sale right now- so it is perfect timing!!

https://rosiesworkwear.com/shop/product-info.php?pid9.html

https://rosiesworkwear.com/shop/product-info.php?pid75.html

Fertilizer- If you have trouble with spider mites or mildew (that may cause white fuzz or yellow/black spots all over your leaves) right after you prune is the time to recondition the soil with an insecticide and/or mildew & rust treatment. Use regular fertilizer on your plants right before they start to bloom in the spring, when the weather is around a steady 55 degrees. If you want to move the rose bush to another location, right after you prune it is the best time (because the rose bush is dormant). I plan on doing this for two of mine. Apparently it is an easy process I will let you know how the transplant goes! This is a great resource if you would like any more photos to help you with your project http://www.rainforest2548.org/sjvrsjan.html

Have fun and please send any photos of your successful rose pruning attempts! We would love to see it!

We are so proud to have had Elizabeth Layton as part of our team this past year!

Liz graduated in December from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a Communications major in Business Ag. She is currently back home in Santa Rosa looking for new opportunities to spread her talents. We loved having her as part of team Rosie and wish her
the best in all her future adventures!
We know that for us she will always take her Rosies spirit with her.  Thanks for all that you did Liz, you will be missed!

Liz  is being replaced by Katie Crawford. Katie has been a part of Rosies for 10 years, she has been a Rosies model, helped create product ideas, worked at road shows selling and now we get to have her use her unique talent for writing by taking over the blog , newsletter and face book posting. Rosies has a lot planned for 2012 and we welcome Katie’s voice to keep the Rosies community connected.

-Sharon Moore (Rosie’s founder)

New Year brings a new contest for Rosies! Get ready to pose for the camera and bring out those maps, to win lots of Rosies gear in 2012!

Here is how you play:

1. Have someone take a picture of you in your favorite Rosies gear in front of a fun location (ex. a popular landmark)

HINT: we are looking for backgrounds that provide good clues without giving the location away! So, don’t stand in front of a sign telling what the location is! Also, the location should be something other Rosies can figure out, so a picture in front of your personal farm would not be as good of a choice as a picture in front of a hometown landmark.

2. Email the photo to us at info@rosiesworkwear.com Each month we will select one picture to post on our webpage. If your photo is selected you will WIN A PRIZE!!

3. Go to our webpage to try and guess the location of the selected photo. The first one to correctly respond will WIN A PRIZE!!

The Holiday Season is officially here!  This is a great time to unleash your creative side and go crazy decorating!  Don’t be like the “ditto” house! We had so much fun finding all of these do-it-yourself projects and hope you enjoy them just as much!

1. Button Cookies

How cute is this?  Shortbread cookies are delicious and turning them in to little buttons adds that extra something that is perfect for the holiday season! All you need is a shortbread butter cookie recipe, two biscuit cutters (one a little smaller than the other), and a drinking straw (to make the holes).  After they’re done, just add the ribbon through the cookie holes and these will make the perfect gift for a neighbor, friend, or family member!

2. Lace Ornaments

We love how simple it is to spice up a plain ornament!  Simply cover your ornament with lace and then spray paint over it (we like silver) and then remove the lace, let the ornament dry, and add it to your tree!

3. Melting Snowman Graham Crackers

These are adorable for the kiddos in your life! The eyes, carrot nose, buttons, and twig hands, and melted part of the snowman are all made with melted white chocolate and a little food dye.  The scarf is a fruit roll up (use a pizza cutter) and then set it all on a graham cracker and Hershey’s bar!

4. Peppermint Centerpiece

A sleek, simple white tray with candles and peppermint puffs makes the perfect centerpiece for your home!

5. Holiday Place-cards

Simply stick your place-cards in a tiny pinecone!  We think this is so simple – and so cute!

6. Candy Cane Photo Holder

Just tie three candy canes together with some green ribbon and place your holiday photo on top!

7. Candy Cane Vase

For this you will need:

• Two sided tape
• A circular vase or empty can
• Rubber band
• Candy canes
• Wide ribbon (must be wider than rubber band)
• Roses (or any flower you choose to use)

How to do it:

- Wrap the two sided tape around the vase once approximately halfway down the vase. (The two sided tape will help keep the candy canes from sliding out from under the rubber band).

- Slide rubber band around the vase.

- Begin inserting the candy canes behind the rubber band.

- Tie the ribbon around the vase taking care to cover the rubber band with the ribbon.

- Fill with water and arrange flowers

8. Snowman Door Decoration

We loved this different take on holiday wreaths!

This past weekend Rosies Workwear headed down to the Rosebowl flea market in Pasadena to be a part of the 2,500 vendors featured every month.  Celebrating over 40 years of business, this was like no other flea market we had ever been to.

After checking in around 6am (flea markets open early!) we set up our booth and patiently waited for the gates to open to buyers at 9am.  We had the opportunity to talk to many different people and promote the Rosies overalls and coveralls – we had such a great time (and even did a little shopping ourselves!)

It was wonderful to hear how many women appreciate workwear designed to specifically fit them.  We were also able to inform women how convenient overalls and coveralls can be for many activities some normally wouldn’t think of.  Workwear doesn’t just have to be “at work”.  Gardening, home repairs, and do-it-yourself projects are all great times to wear your Rosies.

If you find yourself in the Pasadena area on the second Sunday of each month, this is definitely a flea market you should check out.  For more information on the Rosebowl flea market, visit their website at http://rgcshows.com/RoseBowl.aspx.