I am a total newbie to roses but I love and cherish my 2 Lincolns and I believe one of these days yours will reward you, but it takes patience and understanding them!

First check the soil drainage! My fat and bushy Lincolns get far less full sun than your slow-growing Lincoln. If your other Lincolns are doing fine, it has something to do perhaps with the drainage in that area. Poor drainage can severely impact a rose. This has nothing to do with vendors. Lincoln is well, Lincoln!

Here is just sharing what I've learned about Lincolns...

My mistakes:

1. with young roses and short roses, always protect!!! against monster rabbits. They will eat and destroy all your young leaves.

2. I am a severe hacker and pruner of roses because I like to control the shapes of my roses. I want them to have a fat bushy shape and used to deadhead severely (cutting as much as a foot of cane). This is a big no-no with Mr. Lincoln!!!

3. Lincolns resent!!!! pruning. Never deadhead more than 8" of stem. I usually stick with the 5 leaf deadheading rule. Lincoln will bloom much!!!! faster this way.

What I did right:

1. I realized from the get-go that Hybrid Teas are heavy feeders, ESPECIALLY MR. LINCOLN!!! I can't emphasize this enough! if anyone tells you just pile on the composting, the rose tone, I say nope! If you want to really have a lush fat Lincoln with multiple canes with faster blooms you have to intervene!!!! Lincoln is a naturally leggy rose and has often been called Lincoln-the-one-cane wonder with naked legs. This is its true nature. Leggy and naked looking but with the most fragrant blooms ever! He is a slow bloomer because the beautiful exhibition blooms he will create take a long time to develop. He's not a sloppy hybrid tea like Fragrant Cloud which just pops up pouffy cabbages right and left. His blooms require a lot of nutrients and energy to develop. But you can coax him into blooming faster (see below).

2. What Lincoln loves is fish emulsion and alfalfa tea. If you feed him those 2 things you will have giant blooms and a fat bushy Lincolns. Rose tone does very little for hybrid teas, I have found. It's fish-emulsion/alfalfa tea which they really love. For lazy me, who wants a fish emulsion-alfalfa-seaweed-humus all-in-one, I rely on Gardenville Sea Tea. Whenever I do feedings of Gardenville I always see immediate bursts of new growth. This never happens when I use my once a month feeding of rose tone or Bradfield organics. It's the sea tea which the Lincolns go crazy over. Mine are only 1st year roses and have already reached the 7' marker several times.

As serenasyh kind of alludes look closely at the soil that Abe Lincoln is growing in. All roses, except the Rosa Rugosa's, need to be growing in a soil well amended with organic matter that is evenly moist but well drained with a soil pH in the 6.2 to 6.8 range.
The soil any plant grows in is the most important part of the garden and it cannot be skimped on.

Yes indeed to the PH side of things I went into this lincoln red knowing it as a challenge and being more informist in it's growing habits the organic side of things are very on key with PH I even measure the ph of the compost tea I water with and drainage is not a problem here with the only exeption being the rather lardge and odd amount of rain during the New England Spring and Summer this year. I have made a plan to use the fish emulsion mixes for next season as it is to late to worry about it now and I congrat you on the "one leg wonder " comment a definate growing thing that is happening that I didn't even mention. The fish emulsion/alfalfa tea idea is all set for next season

While knowing your soils pH is important the pH of any water you use is not so important and will not significantly change your soils pH in the short term. Drainage is also important and that can include too fast drainage since you want moisture held in the soil but not so much that it will exclude air (another important part of the soil) nor sit around and cause root rot.

All I do know is I check the compost tea PH to ensure it is in range of what one needs cause I rest sure that if the compost tea PH is way off scale it too can have a LONG term effect on the soil

I don't feel the water PH is that important either.
Because rain water has a PH of 5.6 - 5.8

What PH range are you using for your compost tea?

JIM

rain is the primary sorce of water for my roses open a bucket the rain stops close it and it rains LOL the tea as mentioned is a ready compost that sits in same bucket that measures in a range of 6.4-6.7 when ready for use I never gave rain PH a thought as I dont think it realy is needed

I've tested rain water here more than I care to mention for its PH level. Just been curious, rather than concerned.

Our rain water mostly tests around 5.6 - 5.8 normal rain PH levels.
I have even seen it lower, like 4.9 PH levels. That would be your more acid rains.

I have no idea if rain PH varies in different parts of the country or not?

not only does rain PH change in different parts of the country I also found that it changes from strom to strom depending on factors of how long it rained whats the outside temp when it rains and yes I too see many swings in rain PH ranging from 4.3 to 6.3
if on the low side of 6.4 I just mix in more or less compost tea to get it to a 6.8 and let it set for a day and recheck again heat as well can sometimes change rain and compost tea PH Ref the meters meters meters post