A day with my Japanese weeping maple.

So, the work continues. I finished up the pruning of the weeping maple. Unfortunately, there were a lot of dead branches. A lot! I had never pruned it in the past and that resulted in the entire inner works dieing. I researched how to prune weeping maples and found this site.
It is not a YouTube site but a written explanation which I found comforting. http://www.thepruningschool.com/Articles/maples.htm
and then another YouTube site which is a bit odd but informative.
http://www.thepruningschool.com/Articles/maples.htm it is a series of 4.
Finally, I liked this one too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqtacYdoy9Y
I found some which were just a waste of time. I think and hope that I figured it all out. Man, I hope so.
I love love love this tree and I so want it to be healthy and happy.
Some notes of interest and general rules. Do not let anything grow up against it. It blocks the light and beaches will die. Do not let the branches hang deep and thick. The underneath will die off. Do not let the branches hit and trail on the ground. I don't know why not .... but all of my research says that it is a no no so I am ok with that.
Here is a picture of the finished product. I forgot to take a before picture. Figures.

Do you see the hydrangea on the right of the tree? I let it take over and crowd the tree. I will not sacrifice that gorgeous maple for a over achieving hydrangea. Therefore, I will be cutting out some of the branches from the bottom of the hydrangea to reduce its size.

I have started! 2015 season is on in Vancouver.

The weather here is crazy. Everything is coming alive and I really don't know what to do.
I have decided that I will prune my clematis, roses, rose of Sharon and whatever else I feel like. A wee snip here and there to pretty up a shape is necessary sometimes.
I do realize that it is way too early but as everything is coming out and greening up...I have no choice but to react accordingly. Scary.
I have been researching roses and have found the best site by Paul Zimmerman. https://www.youtube.com/user/AshdownRoses
I have learnt so much and am not nearly as scared as I used to be. In fact, I bought 2 new roses (bare root) to plant this year. I am also training my existing roses that really do whatever they want (because I didn't have a clue). It will be interesting to see how it all goes with my newfound knowledge.

More pictures.

More pictures from last year.

Try, try and try again!

So I am back at it!
This year will be a bit different from others. I have now planted my garden to the point where I really do not have a lot more space. I need to refine, shape and beautify what I already have...and add only really special plants.
Therefore, I am so excited as we just received the catalogue from botanus.com and I have already ordered two really glorious roses. As you have seen over the last year, I have posted lots of pictures of our stunning Eden rose. It is a pale pink and is made up of layer after layer of petals. I was just playing with my pictures and this is what I came up with picture wise. This is why I want more roses.

 
I have ordered two new roses from Botanus. Claire Austin from David Austin's English Roses and Anna's Promise from Weeks Roses. Now I just have to plant them when they arrive and hopefully they will thrive.
I spent some time this morning watching YouTube videos on roses. How to plant, soil conditions, train, prune etc. I really enjoyed the videos by Paul Zimmerman and found his website here: http://paulzimmermanroses.com. I liked his tutorials the most because they were easy to follow and his rules are clear and concise. Sometimes I watch videos and end up more concerned then before I started; but these seemed pretty clearcut. I do not like to fuss and that is reflected in my gardening style. I have no time for high maintenance anything.
Unfortunately, that sometimes results in poor planning and planting in the first place so I have to backtrack and redo and refine.
I never properly trained my climbing Eden rose so I will do that this year. I also need to replant the roses that I took from my Auntie Dot's garden. I threw them in the ground with no planning at all. It was just about their survival at the time.
I will try to document what Liz (my friend and garden helper) and I do this year and actually post our progress.