Here's the portion of cellar that we have that is unheated. Its directly under our front porch. You can see the bottom half of the Zinnias through the window.
But I'm just not sure if it would stay cold enough. I may put a thermometer down there this year and monitor the temps from time to time...

The transplanted Double KO still has not started growing new leaves yet...
But rose bush has stabilized and remaining leaves doing ok. (A few have yellowed but I left them on because they still have some green in them.)

This here is a slacker...lol This Double KO I have not mentioned this year because it is the runt of the litter...lol
This Double KO rose bush is really taking its time in getting going.
(Planted in July of 2012) (Hopefully it takes off next year!)
(I have to keep cutting all the Marigolds back in height and width because they get to large for the slacker rose bush...lol)

Root system of a Zinnia plant below...
Our pet dog knocked this over today playing...lol

Hi Jim: Wow! That's a big root system on your Zinnia. Your Mr. Lincoln looks good & very healthy .. I hope you get "Indian Summer" like us where it's warm in October.

Your cellar looks like the perfect place to winter pots. Roses don't like fluctuations in temp. As long as it's stable & not too cold, they go dormant well. Both your Knock-outs, the runt of the litter, and the recently transplanted look good to me.

I mailed a friend some cuttings that I stuck in 1/2 perlite & 1/2 potting soil in July 22, or one-and-1/2-month ago. The cuttings in pots with Jobes NPK 2-7-4 (plus beneficial microbes), plus gypsum, have at least 6" solid root.

The cuttings that were stuck in just potting soil alone, have 1/2" tiny root, or zero roots. Same with bands: my most solid-2-gallon-root-growth was when I used Jobes NPK 2-7-4, and watered with gypsum & sulfate of potash.

The slacker Double Ko looks healthy but just will not take off like the other D-Ko's did... I guess when its ready it will take off...lol

Awesome on the Jobes! Thanks for that tip Straw!

My son is headed to Omaha Nebraska today.

Not much going on today here... A cloudy overcast day in the 60's... Looks like tonight will drop into the mid to upper 40's...

One of our hanging basket flowers is starting to slowly wither away from the cooler weather...
The other one seems to like the cooler weather and is looking better than it did all summer...

Some of the Marigolds are getting black leaves now but that can happen late in the year...

Our zinnias are starting to get some powdery mildew...

Our Morning Glory leaves also showing signs of declining...

Our Viburnum Bush leaves have turned to fall colors and soon they will start falling off the bush.

Our Dogwood Bushes are still looking good...

The Double Ko leaves still look as fresh as they did in the Spring maybe even a bit better and they are still blooming away so all is good with them.

Maybe next year I'll plant some late season flowering plants to keep the color going longer...

My garden is blah now... too cold, zero sun. I got blooms from Austin roses & Frederic Mistral & Marie Pavie ...but hybrid teas are in buds & need more sun to progress.
That's why I like Austin roses, they bloom one month ahead of Knock-outs, and I got blooms from Radio Times (an Austin) rose as late as Thanksgiving. Zillion-petals roses don't need much sun to bloom.

I guess the leaves are not black but purple...lol
All the Marigolds I started from seeds the leaves are turning purple.

The Marigolds I got at our local Greenhouses in May all look good yet as I just looked at each one. So our backyard plants all still look good including the blue Petunias.

Its the Marigolds out at the side of the house that are looking bad...All but 2 of those out there I started from seed... So 2 plants look good and the rest look like crap! LOL

{{gwi:333390}}

This post was edited by jim1961 on Fri, Sep 12, 14 at 17:57

Hi everyone. I am new to the forum. I can't believe it may hit 40 tonight. I hate hauling pots in and out of the house. My fussy tropicals aren't repotted for the winter in their new soil.

I have to look up the Jobes mix you used to root roses. Other than the roses that root themselves by layering, I haven't managed to root any of my roses.

Welcome RocksAndRoses! What area of the country are you in?

Steady raining here today...

I moved Mr Lincoln to a location that gets more sun so hopefully he will bloom one more time.
But sunlight is starting to get more scarce these days...

Hi Jim: I love all the pics you posted, esp. of purple leaves on your marigolds, and your dog is SO CUTE, he/she looks like a stuffed animal (the type that kids have).

Your garden looks good, thank you, Jim, for posting on how cold the weather is. I better check my weather for tonight, in case I have to plant all my roses from pots into the ground. I don't like to put them in the garage, except for my tender herbs.

It rained all day yesterday, so the soil is wet. So glad my old shovel broke, I bought a new one from Menards for $10, it's made of fiberglass, so the wet soil doesn't stick to it, like my old shovel. Plus I went to Target yesterday, and got Organic fertilizer NPK 5-5-5 cheap at 1/2 price ($3.50 per bag). It's the same stuff as RoseTone or Tomatone (Feather meal, blood meal, bonemeal, sulfate of potash).

I buy them 1/2 price, so I can save that for next spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: Best site on how to root roses from cuttings

Below site from Hartwood Roses on rooting roses is very good. She uses 1/2 perlite and 1/2 sphagnum. Sphagnum is the greenish, fluffy, mossy stuff used in floral arrangements. It's NOT peat-moss (the brown stuff), which is too dense and rots young roots.

I saw Sphagnum moss sold at Ace-hardware. Walmart also has it in their indoor containers section. Menards and HomeDepot don't sell that stuff. Now my favorite place Ace-hardware ...they stock high-quality stuff, and sells smaller amounts.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hartwoodroses on rooting

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sat, Sep 13, 14 at 13:02

Great info & thanks Straw!

My sisters house is getting sold and taken over by the new owners at the end of this week.

SO I will go up maybe tomorrow dig up and transplant a small rose bush with 3/4" sized blooms down here in our yard.

My sister lived just about 50 yards or less from us so I'll take a wheelbarrow up there and dig the rose up put it in our wheelbarrow and bring it here and plop it into its new home and water water water...
I will try my best to keep the rootball intact this time...lol

I'll take pics of the project.

Hi Jim: Great idea to keep roses in her memory. We are lucky to have rainy & cool weather, my sister in Southern CA e-mailed me about her temp. reaching 110 recently. It's dry & hot in CA, she gave up on roses.

I'm going shopping today for new garden-gloves, my right hand is beat-up from pulling weeds. The best glove is the deer-skin one, that doesn't irritate my skin like corduroy.

Dang the rootball on my sisters rose fell apart too... :-/
But its transplanted to our house now! So just gotta hope for the best!

I cut those blooms off after I took pic...

{{gwi:282562}}

This post was edited by jim1961 on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 22:11

Looks very nice, Jim. I love orange roses. I used to grow Tropicana, that's a bright orange, but it gets really tall & lanky, and had zero scent.

I hope to get some sun today ... it had been a gloomy & rainy week. I want to plant all my pots in the ground before it hits 30's at night.

The blooms are actually tiny... apprx 1 inch...
Weather is chilly so that should help te transplant...
not much sun here either lately...

Our other transplanted Double is now starting to grow leaves back. It took about 1 month...

Weather is cooler now so my sisters transplanted rose bush should be ok...
I planted her rose bush straight outside our back door so its the first thing I see when I look out... :-)

It looks like its a mini rose of some sorts... We do not know its name...

Our Mister Lincoln has a couple tiny buds now but the question is "will they open"....lol

Other years our ML would get 6-10
buds this time of year but they never opened...lol

I probably need to start slowing down on the fertilizer now so when its time ML will go to sleep...lol

But I would like to see that slow poke bloom for once later in the season but I won't hold my breath...lol

Hi Jim: There's an orange mini-rose with scent, called "San Francisco Sunset" which I almost ordered from Burlington, but cancelled, since my Norwich Sweetheart (thornless mini, great scent) DID NOT SURVIVE my zone 5a winter.

I checked my roses this morning, the ones against the house, on the south-side, blooms open nicely & dry plants in the morning. But that Comte de Chambord on the north side, against the house, is wet with morning dew, and the bloom can't open. I made that spot too acidic with cracked corn. As the pH goes down, less calcium & potassium available, both necessary for blooming.

My best blooming is on the East side, where the sun hits it 1st thing in the morning. W.S. 2000 bloomed late in October in that location. So glad that I HAVE NOT extended my bed on the north side ... if I make another rose bed, it will be on the east side ... morning sun is best for roses.

Below is W.S. 2000 bloom, when fertilized with horse manure & chicken manure. The trace elements in the manure make the bloom purplish.... without horse manure, W.S. 2000 blooms are deep red.

How far does your PH levels go down that it would cause less calcium & potassium to be available?

Our average PH levels here are 6.5 and we get tons of blooming so I'm assuming your soil PH levels must be getting lower than that?

We are getting sun today! :-) lol

Great pic of W.S. 2000 bloom Straw!
What color is its blooms suppose to be?

After experimenting with the TONIC (Brewers Yeast/Blood Meal) I have mixed reactions. Two of the 8 plants I applied it on did not like it. (1 TBS of Brewers Yeast and 1 TSP of Blood Meal into a gallon of water must of been to strong for those two plants...)
Seems just right for Mister Lincoln & 6 other plants though...
But if I use it next year I'll mix it weaker...

This post was edited by jim1961 on Wed, Sep 17, 14 at 15:11

Hi Jim: Absolutely gorgeous pic. of morning glory and bumble-bee. That's the best photography ever. What type of camera do you have? That picture is like real-life.

I will pH-test that spot under the rain-spout (with cracked corn), and compare that with my native clay. Will post pictures. Also will post pictures of the difference between geraniums with 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of Jobes Organic fertilizer NPK 2-7-4, versus the 2 geraniums without .... these are 1/3 the size of the ones with fertilizer in the planting hole.

My 13 tomatoes in the front with Tomato Tone NPK 3-4-6, versus 6 tomatoes in the back with Jobes NPK 2-7-4 ... Tomato-Tone beat Jobes in fruit-production after 5 summer months. The ones in the front have more leaves, flower early, earlier fruit, and tons of fruits now. Jobes NPK was slow in producing fruits, both for last year, and this year.

That's another proof that high-phosphorus doesn't help with blooming nor fruits. Tomato Tone NPK 3-4-6 has feather meal, poultry manure, cocoa meal, bone meal, alfalfa meal, greensand, humates, Sulfate of Potash, and gypsum.

Jobes NPK 2-7-4 has feather meal, bone meal, composted poultry manure, sulfate of potash. For my 20+ years of growing tomato, the best years were:

1) 1st year in native clay, pH 7.7
2) Later year fertilized with 6 bags of cow-manure
3) Later year fertilized with Jobes, plus 3 applications of cocoa mulch NPK 3-1-4.

Cocoa mulch plus horse manure was awesome in bloom production & many petals. That's when I had 60+ blooms per flush on Liv Tyler in late August. See picture below:

Canon Power Shot S2IS is the name of the camera.
I have a much cheaper camera I got off e-bay for $22 that takes some good pics of certain things but other things look like crap...lol

Liv Tyler rose looks great! Your blooms always look so perfect!...

I'm interested to know what the PH is in that location... Thanks!
Hopefully your San Francisco Sunset gets enough sun on the north side...

I have to keep moving our Mister Lincoln container as the sun is changing so much this time of year...
I'm wore out...lol

Well I transplanted my deceased sisters rose bush to our house Monday afternoon.
Here it is Friday and its still looking ok to me...
I'm keeping it well hydrated with water I mulched it to keep moisure in the soil and to protect it over the winter months....
Weather has been cooler which is a godsend for transplants...lol
My wife took some stones from Angelas yard and placed around the rose bush...

Good job transplanting that one, Jim.... it looks so healthy and lush ... all the leaves are intact. Cooler weather helps a lot, which reminds me to dig up some roses to fix the drainage, esp. the ones near rain-gutter.

Poor drainage is number-one cause of black spots. I recently planted 3 roses in an excellent drainage area, at least 2 feet of fluffy top-soil. Zero black spots, just a touch of mildew since I don't water them. That's why Heirloom Roses' new instruction says to mix 1/3 of wood-chips (for clay soil), or 1/3 of peat-moss (for sandy-soil).

My soil is black clay over a base of yellowish, dense lime stones, the more of that stuff gone, the better the drainage.

Thanks Straw! So far so good! Today was another cooler day...
Now is probably a good time to fix yours too!

Mister Lincoln still growing and forming buds. As you can see ML still has no BS problems. And that mild powdery mildew problem he had went away.

On the other hand...lol
Zinnias out front getting severe Powdery Mildew now...
Zinnias out back are ok with no PM...

This post was edited by jim1961 on Sat, Sep 20, 14 at 10:06

Hi Jim: Wow! Your Mr. Lincoln looks very good, lush & lots of leaves. How do you fertilize Mr. Lincoln? Thanks for the info. My peonies are white with mildew, but my geraniums look good. I have been growing geraniums both in pots & in the ground for over a decade ... the ones with high-phosphorus fertilizer do better than the high-nitrogen fertilizer. Geraniums have more vibrant color with phosphorus fertilizer, and they are always healthy, zero mildew. One gardening site stated that bone meal is best for bulbs, rather than other flowers. Some plants do better with phosphorus than others.

I still have 2 roses in pots ... I haven't fertilized for over a month, since I have been using rain-barrel water. My roses were much healthier when I used tap water, plus fertilizer to neutralize my tap.

Mister Lincoln gets 1 TBSP of Gardenville SeaTea and 1 TSP of Brewers Yeast into 1 gallon of water every 7 days...

(What I do is water the container really well every Sunday then Monday I apply the one gallon of fertilizer then I do not water again until Thursday then repeat process starting Sunday...lol)

BUT SeaTea draws Rose Slugs so must make a change next year...

Our Zinnias and all other in ground flowers got NO fertilizer this year. Zinnias, Marigolds, Petunias all bloomed solid without any...

Now our potted plants were a different story...lol

This post was edited by jim1961 on Sat, Sep 20, 14 at 21:46

Todays the 6th day since I transplanted my sisters rose to our house. Well the rose bush is getting a decent amount of yellow leaves now.

The weather has warmed which may of caused it OR I watered to much... ... :-/

I'll get it right one of these days...lol

Just took this pic today...

This post was edited by jim1961 on Sun, Sep 21, 14 at 19:07

Lovely garden you have, Jim !! My roses always lose all their leaves after transplanted, except for the multiflora with cluster root (Le Nia Rias). Your marigolds look good with knock-out. I like marigolds since they are compact, if that means chasing rose-slugs ... I'll plant them next year.

We got lots of rain last night. I used my tap water less than 4 times this year ... my 3 rain-barrels help a lot.

I lost 5 lbs. since taking 1 tbs. of brewer's yeast daily ... zero change in diet, still eating ice-cream everyday !! It gives me more energy, so I exercise more. I'm on the 2nd large jar of brewer's yeast. I doubled the dose yesterday, 2 TBS., and had the best sleep ever.

Jim, I like that stuff so much that I'll wait on your experiment with B. Y. with your roses. B.Y. is rich in B-vitamins, esp. vitamin B6 (necessary for sleeping), plus high in protein. I stir 1 TBS. of that stuff with 1 cup of organic no-sugar soymilk, plus 2 TBS. of Buckwheat honey. Super-nutritious milk-shake & high-protein.

WebMD is right about the research that showed brewer's yeast decreased the duration and severity of cold. Few weeks ago I ran a high fever, could not breathe .. my head hurt so much from that cantaloupe-allergic reaction. What quench the severe inflammation was Brewer's Yeast-shake. It helped with constipation, allowing the body to get rid of toxins, and my fever went down after that. The side-effect of antihistamine, or hay fever-medication is constipation.

Yum on the ice cream! I love ice cream too....lol

I'm glad to hear BY makes you feel so much better!

It made me feel better also but I only took it for a few days.
I need to keep taking it everyday!

Hi Jim: That Brewer's yeast stuff is safe, but the type of milk to mix that in matters. My kid is allergic to cow-milk, she has bad eczema (skin rash) with that stuff. My right hand got rash from constant-friction of pulling weeds (thanks to Milorganite), but the cow milk makes the itch more intense. So I have to say "Good-bye" to my Klondite Ice-cream-bar.

My kid stopped her ice-cream habit, I'm kick mine too, since the rash on my right-hand is so bad, I haven't worked in the garden for a week, plus it's too wet.

Soy-milk was an OK substitute at first, but my allergy-skin-test showed an allergic reaction. It takes 1/2 gallon of soy-milk before the severe tummy ache occurred. Plus soy-milk processing is done in aluminum equipment, and has been documented to be high in aluminum.

I'm back to soaking 1 cup of RAW almonds, then use a blender & strainer to make almond-milk. That goes well with my Brewer yeast. I bought Coconut & almond milk blend from Walmart, that was disgusting. My homemade RAW almond milk is so much better, plus I use the solids to fertilize my roses .... my roses love that stuff. I got 60+ blooms from Francis Blaise with that almonds solid.

I was checking on eczema (skin rash) from WebMD and found this excerpt on allergy to mold: "There are many types of mold. They all need moisture to grow. They can be found in damp areas such as basements or bathrooms, as well as in grass or mulch. Avoid activities that trigger symptoms, such as raking leaves."

Alfalfa is a type of grass, I find that mixing alfalfa in the planting hole is much better than throwing alfalfa pellets on top to breed surface fungi, which splash up to leaves as black spots. Dumping grass on top isn't as good as raking grass into the soil, to prevent matting down.

Where I find the most earthworms? It's under my compost pile ... tons of them. I scoop up my compost to mix into the planting hole, it's a great way to put earthworms in the hole.

Here is a link that might be useful: WebMD allergy slide show

I love Ice cream but I do not eat it often at all...
I buy a tub of Icecream about every 4-6 months...

My uncle drinks store bought Almond Milk. Eats rice cakes and washes it down with the Almond Milk... lol

Thanks for the slide Straw!

Last night dropped down to 39 degrees but today is sunny and in the upper 50's here at 12:57pm...
The next 7 days looks like the temps will rise again... :-)
So it looks like decent weather until the end of Sept anyhow... :-)

Here's Mister Lincoln today. His tallest cane is nearly 3ft now! (35 inches)
ML has 7 flower buds at the present time...
Next year I think I'm going to try Miracle Gro for roses on Mister Lincoln... (NO Brewers Yeast) As the nutrient content looks high enough just on the MG fertilizer..)

(I tried fertilizing every 14 days earlier in the season but it was not very effective. Every 7 days has worked out much better here on ML...)

This post was edited by jim1961 on Tue, Sep 23, 14 at 13:22

Agree with you on frequent fertilization for pots. U. of Kentucky experiment on veggies in greenhouse setting showed the best result with NPK 20-10-20, at 1/2 teaspoon per gallon water, 3 times a week.

MiracleGro for roses NPK is 18-24-16, recommended 7 to 14 days. I prefer the NPK of 20-10-20, but can't find that stuff anywhere.

I checked out the 100's of reviews on MG rose fertilizer and it got very good reviews by mostly everyone so that's why I figured I'd try it...

I've never seen a 20-10-20 MG formula...?

When the weather is hot here fertilizing 3x per week would be better. Thanks for that info straw!
Because we water more which leeches out the fertilizer which is probably why I did not get very good results every 14 days...
Cooler weather I can get away with just fertilizing once per week...

This post was edited by jim1961 on Tue, Sep 23, 14 at 19:26

I noticed Thomas Affleck has a flower bud thing going on! :-)

Nice and sunny out today with temps in the upper 60's this afternoon...

So Straw you think these yellow colored Marigolds in the pic that I got at our local greenhouses go well with the red Ko's? I should use them again next year because they did very well while I test others...

I need to test other Marigolds to see how they do so I'll do that next year also...
The even brighter yellow Marigolds I started from seed failed this year so will not try them again.

Just took this pic today... Our Viburnum bush has fall colored leaves which will drop soon. But you notice Morning Glories started growing up through the bush...

This post was edited by jim1961 on Wed, Sep 24, 14 at 20:51

Hi Jim: I love those photos of your garden ... fall is nice for roses, my bouquet has deeper colors from the cool weather. Yes, those yellow marigolds look great with your red Knock-outs. Next year I'll get marigolds, both orange and yellow.

My fingers are bleeding still from weed-pulling. Lots of bandages. I will NEVER use Milorganite for the rest of my life, it destroyed my lawn. Spent $14 on grass seeds to patch up the law, plus will buy a new $37 fertilizer spreader. Milorganite destroyed my Scott's spreader, which were made for small Scott's granules, rather than larger Milorganite which gunked up.

Spreading "recycled poop" on lawn is NOT a good idea. They should put that stuff in bagged top-soil.

Straw, I wear a thinner pair of gloves for weed pulling or else my fingers bleed or get sore also...

Sorry to hear about the use of Milorganite destroying things... :-/

Cool on you getting yellow & orange Marigolds next year...
I paid $1.49 for 4 Marigold plants this year...
Starting from seed is ok but can be alittle time consuming...

The Good and Bad of the Thomas Affleck rose bush...

THE GOOD! Thomas Affleck has a flower bud... :-)

THE BAD! Thomas Affleck is very prone to Powdery Mildew and Blackspot here in my garden in Central Pa!
Thomas Affleck had problems mostly all season with PM and BS so I stripped all his leaves off. When the leaves grew back so did the PM and BS! :-/
So not a rose worth keeping!

Seems like Mister Lincoln prefers lots of sun when he is not blooming...But while blooming ML prefers only partial sun which allows his blooms to last much longer...
The rain ruins his blooms fairly quickly so I have been placing ML on our porch when it rains which also helps prolong his blooming period...

That's the advantage of having him in a container... lol

I'm looking forward to next year to see how he does with all these adjustments...lol
Plus have to change his fertilizer routine...

Well if he makes it through our winter...

My sisters rose bush I transplanted recently to our house is doing fairly well now...

I was overwatering the transplanted rose bush which was causing leaves to premature yellow and fall off. Once I started seeing those leaves yellowing I quit watering. I have not watered since then and the rose bush is stabilizing quite nicely now...

Hi Jim: Thanks for updating me on your garden ... You sister's rose bush looks good. I wore disposable gloves when I pulled weeds, but the friction broke my gloves. We have lots of poison ivy & poison oak, so I throw away disposable glove after weed-pulling.

We are in a dry spell and my hay fever is miserable. Organics is great for plants. My tomatoes in front, just clay & gypsum, are withering. My tomatoes in the backyard, clay mixed with leaves, on a raised bed .... are green & lush like early spring.

Instead of planting roses DEEP, I tried another method, planted them 2" below, then add 4" soil mixed with bark chunks on top. It's like a partial-raised bed. Roses are much healthier that way. When I planted them too deep, the roots can't expand past the poor-drainage sediment below. Now I make sure that they have at least 2 feet fluffy soil below in case of heavy rain.

Still have 2 roses in pots: Jude the Obscure and Heirloom ... no black spots on them, only mildew. They receive rain-water for the past 2 months, I'm too lazy to fertilizer them ... let's see how good the root-growth is with gypsum & Tomato-Tone previously mixed in potting soil. Will report the result once I transfer them into the ground.

Poison Ivy and Oak.... :-/ None of that stuff around our house thank god!
I'm highly sensitive to poison oak... Just the thought...lol

I just wear thin material winter gloves but I see in your case they would not work...

My wifes getting bad Hay fever from our dry weather also...

Good idea on planting the tomato plants... I will have to try thay next year as our tomato plants withered a couple weeks ago and I took them out...