January in the rose garden

Doesn't look so good, does it? In the Phoenix area, January is the time to give roses a severe pruning, meaning removing all foliage and blossoms and cutting them back by at least half. Here's a link to suggested actions from one of our local rose societies. We cut them back as described in the article and fertilize them, but I don't use pesticides as a preventative as the article suggests. (As a general rule, we avoid using chemical pesticides anywhere in our garden unless absolutely necessary, and never in areas where we grow things we plan to eat.) Usually we add blood meal, bone meal, and Epsom salts to the root zone, but I have used all-purpose (N, K, P) granular fertilizer at times. They look terrible now, but here's how they looked last spring.

The trellises on the block wall are our latest project. I think block walls are unattractive, even when they have roses in front of them. So we hope to convert this one into a green wall by planting vines that will cover the area. The trellises are recycled from a pop-up gazebo we had for several years which started to disintegrate. We salvaged the undamaged metal by cutting off the damaged areas and mounted each section to the wall. Based on the successes and failures of the vines we've tried in other areas, we'll probably plant either honeysuckle or Carolina jessamine. The honeysuckle is faster growing, but the blossoms on the Carolina jessamine are larger. Both provide a lovely fragrance when in bloom.