Whoa Jim, nice, and this is only a year old? And no spray or anything? And you get snow (I have a fascination with it since I've only experienced it for brief periods of time)? NO FAIR.

Reading all these posts about no-spray, organic additions etc and seeing the results makes me yearn for some ground to plant roses in, and also to lower my chemical dependency for optimum rose health.

Jim, that is nice picture of TA. The two I have in front of the garage gets afternoon shade but they still grew to 2-2.5 feet tall. Right now there are no blooms on any of them. The one in full sun light did not grow as much as the other two but it still produced a lot of blooms. I’m in a wait and see mode as to what happens next. I love the fact that they are thornless.

The whole neighborhood is infested with the Creeping Charlie weed and we have Bermuda grass. Needless to say (if you know anything about those two) having a neat flowerbed is out of the question so mine will never look like that picture. grrrrr…. :-)

I transplanted our TA this year to a new location... Last year it got like 12 hours of sun but it just didn't seem real happy...

This year it's closer to our house and gets 7 hours of morning to afternoon sun... So far so good but only time will tell...

Now remember that pic of TA up above with tons of blooms is NOT my rose bush...lol... I provided a link in that post to the proud grower of that beauty...

We were in a drought up until May 31st since then we have been getting tons of rain... So the blackspot pressure has been real high... I do not want to jinx poor Thomas by saying anything else (lol) so I'll just post pics I took today...

Except for alittle Tent caterpillar damage earlier in season nothing else has bothered him... But we do have 20 very stinky Marigolds planted with him now...

Nice and healthy leaves ... good job Jim, and to think that you don't spray. :)

Thanks but the seasons early yet msdorkgirl...lol

I don't know if using a leaf blower to dry the leaves is considered cheating or babying. I think if you blow dry under the 6 hour limit, who knows maybe the spores can't take hold.

Sam, I'd have to be out there at 4am with a blow dryer...LOL... Those people with white coats would probably show up with a special white coat for me...;-)

I did transplant Thomas this past April to a location with a roof overhang above him. He gets wet but not as bad now...He gets earlier morning sunshine now also... As soon as the sun comes up its on him...

Plus last year Thomas Affleck had Blackspot and PM when he arrived here in his shipping box... I'm guessing TA MIGHT of been infected with a different Blackspot strain then what have here so that's another reason I moved him...

Gonna have to try the leaf blower idea, kind of like it. LoL I've done some crazy thinks for my plants in the past. Alfalfa tea brewed until well you all know ect. Sounds like a good way to take off old bloom petals.

Patty

Yes the worx tri vac as seen on TV shreds and puts it in a bag. I haven't a leaf blower. I hope it works.

just watch out for those nice young men in their clean whitecoats from the funny farm at 4 am hehehaha

Oh leaf blower....LOL... I misread it and thought Sam meant a hair dryer.... A leaf blower would only get me arrested for making noise after curfew....LOL

I am surprised those roses from Texas work in the cold. I wrote them on my want list.

Already came in and told my husband to call the men in white coats as I was outside talking to the plants. Wishing them good luck with more rain coming. Then stood on the deck railing to look at a black cloud going by. Stepping down caught the deck chair which flipped over. You get the picture. Ladies in their sixties should not be on deck railings. Only thing hurt was my pride.

Thomas is starting to get more new growth and is loading back up with buds.....We had 16 straight days that it rained parts of the day or night so a real test for our roses... Today was actually nice out with a high of 85 degrees and no rain at all... Humid though...

As you can see our mini floribunda rose bush has already dropped 99% of its leaves...

Took this pic today of Thomas Affleck:

Thomas got flooded a bit today but he and the Marigolds seem ok... But the Pansy's starting looking bad by the end of the day

85 degrees would be too hot for me... good luck with all this rain Jim, I would be a wreck if it happened to me.

This has certainly been a year for rain. Right now I trying to figure out sun gardening without the benefits of sunshine. Since the beginning of May perhaps 2 days of sun a week. The good news is it's suppose to rain the next 5 days and we're only 4 days from capturing the all time cloudiest June. Yah

I actually feel blessed to be getting all this rain... I just wish California and other severe drought areas would get some decent rainfall to help them out...

The recent heavy rains and flooding only made Thomas Affleck greener and grow more...No ill effects...

Our other plants faired well too...

I love how neat your yard looks ... I'm glad your plants were not adversely affected :)

yaaay, TA is still without disease.

With all this rain I have only used the hose to wash the bird bath.

Thomas Affleck got flooded at 5am and beyond this morning again so did some of our other roses and plants... :-( So not sure how this is going to come out this time around...

The pic of young Earthsong below should tell the story...

Oh no . Sorry to see your water woes. we have gotten a lot but not near flood. In Aug it always rains when I go to the Pocono though. Thanks climate change. I moved up a zone on paper but in reality I didn't.

Found out one thing I'm going have to move my first Earthsong...lol... It has bad RMV so hasn't grown since early May so I bought a new Earthsong recently. Just the other day I dug out some grass from the lawn and planted the RMV Earthsong there... Then the area flooded today so will need to move him again to a bit higher area...

Out front Thomas Affleck took on quite a bit of water also...

Luckily this area is high enough it doesn't flood...

If it floods a lot would a raise bed make sense? Even if it's only two feet tall?

Hopefully after the railroad fixes a problem were having things will get better..

A giant new Church was built about 2 years ago and the excess rain waters runs into a holding area but a recently found flaw in construction is allowing the excess water to run down the railroad tracks near our house then out into the road then flooding the front of our property. FINALLY the railroad and others involved have promised to fix the problem for us...

I have had a great year so far with roses inspite of a lot rain! A couple glitches but those are straightened out now...

Thomas Affleck hanging in there!

It always seems to rain when I go to the Pocono Raceway in August.

Do you know of the famous RODALE INST. in Kutztown PA? Elaine Ingham from food soil web was at one time at Rodale 2012. The work on trials for organic gardening.

I'm not familar with Kutztown Pa or the Rodale Inst.... Sorry Sam...

I'll have to read up on that...

OK

Well here it is almost the end of July... Thomas Affleck did not really bloom to much this year (maybe about 10 blooms so far) ... But in all fairness I did transplant him to a new location in April of this year ... TA has concentrated more on growth than blooming so far....No issues with fungal diseases so far this year...

PIC TAKEN MAY 19th 2015:

PIC TAKEN TODAY JULY 27th 2015

Criminey crickets he still looks good. No cheat spraying now cause this is going to cost me the price of a rose.

That's good progress, great job Jim, and the other flowers are filling in too.

On the one hand, plants and flowers don't get out of hand in your type of environment because winter forces temporary death, but at the same time, they don't generally get bigger and you get to switch out plants/colors easier since you're used to it.

I'm not sure I could get into that routine and I'm beginning to understand that maybe it's not just snow fights and warm fires for you folks (idealized view of snow from a warm weather person).

The yellow plant things are annuals, right? :)

Patty W., No cheat spraying...lol... I don't spray roses with anything here not even organic sprays of any type... I don't spray anything so I can weed out roses that get to much BS etc.

I bought some greencure last year in case TA got some Powdery Mildew but decided not to even use that...

Also Thomas Affleck has NOT been fertilized besides the Horse Manure I put under him in April...

So what you see is what you get...

msdorkgirl,

The Orange plants in the pic are Marigolds and these ones really stink...lol... They smell worse than any Marigold I ever smelled! We have 20 of these plants out front and as soon as I walk out our front door I get smacked in the face with there foul odor...lol...But it seems to keep bad insects from attacking Thomas Affleck so well worth it to me... Neighbors roses 15ft from Thomas Affleck have been eaten alive my rose slugs...I just checked today and they are still munching neighbors roses.

Pic I shot today... Thomas Affleck has done more growing roots & top growth than blooming this year so next year I think he will be ready to bloom more...

Even my double knockouts were less in blooms this year cause the unusual winter.

Our Double Knockouts did very well this year Sam... Your climate is colder than ours Sam...So your winters do more damage than ours... We lost some cane length last winter but we still had probably 15-24 inches left.

Thomas Affleck is suppose to be cane hardy in zones 5 and up so we will see. Last winter we lost only the tips to winterkill...

I'm up for that... lol... But it would have to be a rose that would make it through our winters and be very BS resistant or I'll have to get my shovel out again...lol...Please don't make me get my shovel out...lol

I have to get a new Scepter'd Isle.

I have never seen any Thrip damage here before but Thomas Affleck just recently had some...(3 buds/blooms brown edges)... I shook the bloom over white paper and the tiny Thrips fell out... Its been dry here so I wet down Thomas Affleck and surrounding areas not sure if that will help or not...

Ok I don't know where to start...lol... But anyhow I made an unwise choice when I moved Thomas affleck this past April. The location floods easy from a situation that is out of my control but is suppose to be fixed in the future by our local railroad company. The location only gets 5-6 hours of sunlight and Thomas Affleck seems to do better here with more sunlight than that...I was going to wait until next Spring and move him to a better location but after thinking about it and the fact I was bored today I moved Thomas Affleck to his NEW location today instead of waiting...

All in all Thomas Affleck has done well this year...He has grown well! No disease! Only drawback is he did not bloom well and when he did bloom the blooms only lasted 24-48 hours on the bush...

Note: I want to note that Thomas Affleck does have some thorns and they are like needles so gloves still need to be worn...

Thomas in his new location... I promise he will NOT be moved again....lol

Thomas does have some thorns....

I will give more updates on Thomas next year... Poor rose bush...lol

Awh, He'll figure out real fast that it was for the best.

Thomas Affleck lost some leaves during this latest transplanting but all in all things went well. TA is stable now!

His new and hopefully finale location TA gets sun most of the day! Much better location!

I am glad that the transplant went good. It's hard to do that.

We applied some homemade compost to Thomas Affleck today... TA is settled in and doing well...

Pic taken yesterday...

That should grow the roots nice.

It is done Thomas has been ordered.

Give TA lots of sun in our climates...

This Thomas I have arrived last year with BS & PM from the vendor, poor thing fought off those diseases all season long in 2014.

This year its kept clean foilage and still has clean foilage as of today... I see no BS or PM...Now TA does have a few end of season blemishes on leaves but no rose diseases.

JUst took this pic a few minutes ago: