Can't help you with the specific questions but I can welcome you to Slidell. I just bought a house of Thompson Rd and look forward to spring to see what the previous owners left us.

We lost our house to the storm and just got resettled.

Welcome and I'll be happy to help anyway I can.

Al

You last frost date should be around the third week in February. My advice to you below is primarily based on avoiding frost damage to new growth that your plants might put out. I live southwest of New Orleans and I am about five or so degrees warmer overnight than you are when a cold front rolls in.

Check and see if your rose has a graft. If it does not, it is probably an old southern variety. I can help you with it if this is the case. The rose will probably put out some leaves in the next few weeks now that the sun is hitting the rose. I would wait to fertilize it after your last frost date. It is not necessary to cut old garden roses back here. If there are any branches that are obviously dead or that are unattractive or are crossing other branches you can prune them out any time by cutting them back to a main stem or the entire stem back to the ground. If you don't like the way the rose looks or there are too many stems, I would leave at least three main stems and whack everything else back to the the ground right now. I would not prune these three stems until after you see how they look in March or so. they will prbably sprout side shoots and look fine. I prune my roses by cutting off entire stems down to the ground as they get old every two or three years. Old garden roses send up a couple of new shoots from their roots every year. These with time become full and replace older stems.

As far as the jasmine, I don't think it will matter as far as it blooming. You might want to wait until after your frost date to prune so that the new growth doesn't get burned. There is a white confederate jasmine that is very common, which is probably what you have. My second guess would be asian star jasmine, but that is typically a ground cover. I would research those and you could probably figure out what you have. Beware that the confederate jasmine attracts bees and wasps, so you might not want to keep it, but that is just my two cents.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions and welcome!

Lisa

I used to live in Violet (St. Bernard) before Katrina. Climbers are usually not pruned unless unruly and needing thinning out or control of height. So I would prune it judiciously just to get it to the size you want. We only pruned hybrid teas to about 2 ft high in January. Garden roses and climbers we just deadhead and keep the size we want. As for the jasmine, I think most bloom in spring, which is late Jan to Feb there. So I would definitely leave it alone and prune right after blooming. I miss year round gardening. Enjoy the mild weather. Your down time will be July and August instead of the winter season now. Make sure to catch Dan Gill's radio show; it used to be Sat. mornings at 9am to 11 am on 870 AM; also a great garden section in the Times Picayune newspaper every weekend.

Thanks for the help and warm wishes. A few weeks have passed and I have found that the jasmine is yellow and going to be FULL of flowers can't wait. The landscape is going to keep me busy. It was neglected for quite some time so the weeds have taken over the grass. Should be interesting to see who wins this one. My camela is a bit ill looking, from what I have found in prelim research is that it needs food (pale leaves and
flowers that aren't opening all the way before dropping) Can I fertilize it now or wait until it's done blooning?
Thanks again
Tania

Hi and welcome to the area, I'm also on the Northshore. I have some knowledge on camellias. Your camellia may not be having as much problems as you think. Our camellias bloomed late this year because of the late cold and then a colder than usual freeze dropped all of the buds on them. The flowers all turned yellow before they dropped. This is normal for camellias. They are just now recouping from that freeze and flowering again.

Fertilizing certainly won't hurt it. I surround my camellias with a thick layer of leaves every fall for mulch and then ignore them. It has worked for years now.