Bunnies munch thin canes here as in smaller than a pencil...They do not seem to bother the larger canes... So that's why I protect young or freshly pruned roses with fencing until they get bigger. Much easier for me than spraying stuff etc. to try and repel them....

Straw did you read above that I changed my mind and gave Thomas Affleck to my friend yesterday?

Mister Lincoln still has not showed any signs of life yet...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gee my friend just brought back Thomas Affleck so I need to decide whether to replant and try again or give away to someone else???

My friend is getting rid of all the roses I gave him over the years and any other naked BS-ed rose he grows which is most of them...lol... He is keeping a couple climbers, knockouts, double knockouts, Home Run, Julia Child, and a few roses he got at our local plant nurseries which have done good...

153 different types of roses will be dug out from his property... I'll help him as he doing it next weekend...

Yes, Jim, I read about your digging up Thomas for your friend. Thornless roses are precious .. I hope Thomas Affleck work for you in a different location. Roses are lots of work: esp. with pruning ... and thornless roses are so much easier. I'll get horse manure this year since I have less roses to take care of. Winter-kill is a blessing ... winter takes away the weaker roses.

Well Thomas Affleck is planted back out front in the ground...lol

My friends getting rid of most of his roses not only because 175 roses are hard to care for but because most of them are naked more days out of the season then they have leaves so he sort of really disgusted with roses...

I hope Thomas Affleck works out here but I'm not holding my breath... TA was full of disease last year... :-/

Another entire day of soaking rain here...They say April showers will bring those May flowers...

I feel bad for those areas of the country with drought conditons. Not only is that tough on roses but the super high bills the have to pay for water use! I've read they can spend $500+ dollars monthly to water roses! Our water and sewage bill runs $69.99 monthly and I think that's high! LOL...I can't even imagine paying 100's of dollars for water/sewage use!

Hi Jim: Our water & sewage bill is $49 a month. I installed 3 rain barrels, which saved lots of money. We are next to the river, plus many wells .. that's why the water is cheap. Our grocery bill is very high, I try to eat healthy: FRESH fruits & veggies rack up the bill. Recently I try to keep the cost down by using more oatmeal ... the oatmeal-raised-pancakes is absolutely filling .. I posted the recipe in the other thread. I had 1 piece for breakfast, and went shopping for 4 1/2 hours without feeling hungry. Bean soup is cheap but acidic, so I put bones in there to neutralize the acids. I'm using my slow-cooker more often, it saves money .. I can buy cheap & tough meats and make it tender. Now taking care of my body is more important than taking care for roses. A few roses is nice to sniff, but I'm glad that winter killed lots of my roses. Lots of trees along side-walk also died during last year's harsh winter.

Our town outlawed rain barrels because of Mosquitoes causing West Nile Virus..

Only plants I water here are those in pots.

Here some rose/flower pics from last year:

Double KO

Thomas Affleck:

Hi Jim: Those pic look fantastic, lots of blooms !! Is your Double-Knock-out own-root? Lots of blooms and compact ... looks much nicer than the Grafted-Knock-out. My grafted-knock-out was HUGE, that's why I killed it. Big & thorny roses need a large space, and can't be grown next to the patio.

The grafted-Knock-out don't survive long ... they used to plant a bunch of them at Walmart's parking lot ... they all died during a harsh winter, so glad they are gone. Grafted-roses don't look good in a cold zone when it's bare & big & thorny. I pruned my roses yesterday .. major rash in my right hand by wearing leather gloves. I'm allergic to the chemicals in the gloves. I should wear nitrile glove 1st, then leather outside, but that gets stuffy.

Yep that double knockout is own root... Grows to 4ft high and 3ft wide... All our roses are ownroot Straw...

Yikes on the rash! Hope it clears up fast Straw!

More pics from last year....

Blue Petunia:

Mister Lincoln:

DECENT WEATHER AHEAD: Still not much growth to our roses but they are trying to leaf out...lol

Today was sunny and near 70... wooooooo

Grass is starting to turn green and looks like its starting to grow...

I cleaned yard up, pulled weeds, mended everything that needed it, and pruned roses... Not much else to do until grass needs cut. I can't plant anything new until latter May...

Hi Jim: Glad to hear from you. We put our 3 rain barrels out ... Lots of rain last night.

I would love to have rain barrels again to water our container plants but our town outlawed having them...

Well I cleared some grass/sod away today to make little flower beds... I want to plant flowers in the ground out front this year instead of using pots like last year... Too much watering and fertilizing when flowers are in pots...lol

If I put them into the ground here I do not have to water or fertilize them at all during the season and they will still bloom nonstop...Just lots of deadheading to do...

PIC FROM LAST YEAR USING POTS...

HI JIm: I agree that in-ground retains more water than pots. Plus in-ground looks nicer. Could not sleep last night until I take magnesium. Looks like I have to take that every day. Our water is high in calcium, low in magnesium. Here's a link to U.S. report on those levels across the country:

Government document on the
magnesium level of bottled water vs.
tap: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1495189/

Hopefully you start getting peaceful sleep Straw!

Getting things tidied up...Can't wait to plant a Easy Does it rose bush and flowers in May...

That's Mister Lincoln in that container but he still is not showing any signs of life...

So what's going on in your garden straw and everyone else on the forum??? Your welcome to post here... Thanks

I TRANSPLANTED THOMAS AFFLECK OUT FRONT BY HIMSELF (SICK WARD)...lol

Found a good source for alittle horse manure so going to apply it under and around Thomas Affleck...

Leaving soon to go to my friends house to start digging up roses he no longer wants... It rained so the ground is nice & soft for doing SP-ing...

So what's going on in your garden Straw and anyone else on the forum??? Your welcome to post here... Thanks

We took out 76 roses today at my friends! Wow what hard work...lol... Gotta take out at least that many tomorrow also...

Be careful all of you guys/gals whom have pruned roses... Looks like next week temps will dip into the mid 30's for about 3-5 nights in a row here...Keep an eye on your future weather patterns in your area...

I have high fencing around all our pruned roses so on colder nights I can completely cover each rose bush with sheets or blankets if needed... (We don't have a lot of roses...)

Hi Jim: did you kill 76 roses? Or could you save them for your garden? I found that rhubarb has many nutrients, so I asked my sister in CT for some. She sent me at least 20 rhubarb plants !! I had to beg my neighbors to take some. I'm looking forward to making rhubarb and strawberry pies !! I hope we get cooler weather.

I didn't want any of those roses Straw... All those roses got tons of BS and that's why he is getting rid of them..... I think like 25 or so roses were given away and the rest will get burned...

I'm really choosy these days about roses... I only want highly disease resistant ones that do well here... Thomas Affleck is lucky I'm giving him another season...lol...

Good ole rhubarb... I haven't had any of that since I was like 16 years old... Strawberry pies sounds real good.. yum

I hired a armed guard to watch over the rose that once belonged to my sister...lol... That little guy is actually a original Gijoe (Hasbro) I had when I was a child back in 1970-71... So he's roughly 45 years old.. And he was actually made in the USA...lol

I love that picture. AWESOME !! The guy looks good LIKE NEW. They don't make toys like the old days anymore We had to buy from eBay poly-pocket (little dolls) for my daughter, since the old dolls have nice head ... compared to the new dolls with GIANT heads. I don't trust toys from china, they reek of chemicals. I have been posting in Kitchen Table Forum. One of my thread is "What helped your sleep?" See below, it's interesting that so many people mention magnesium helping their sleep. I would love your feedback in the thread below, Jim ... thanks:

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/what-helped-your-sleep-mattress-foods-supplements-exercise-dsvw-vd~3020616[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/what-helped-your-sleep-mattress-foods-supplements-exercise-dsvw-vd~3020616)

Magnesium I'll have to look int that.... :-)

I had to put mulch around that rose or else our dog tries to dig up the rose or gets muddy when it rains...

Hi Jim and Straw! I haven't been back to the Forum as I have been trying keep up with the weeds that are growing gangbusters in my beds and lawn. Wish my roses are doing that well. I lost Neptune, a Francis Meilland, Gold Medal, Rainbow's End, Dick Clark, and Graduation Day this winter or early spring. I don't know when they actually die but they have not sent up any green growths yet. Even the ones that are growing new growths, some new growths don't look too good. They look rather yellowish. How are your roses doing?

Sorry to hear that Karen... We lost Mister Lincoln which was in a container... Our in the ground roses seem to be growing back real well so far...

Yellowish? Have you had a lot of rain?

Hi Karen and Jim: My sympathy on your losses. We had a COLD and DRY winter, which killed my "surface-root" roses like Romantica Frederic Mistral. Bolero is hanging on .. I'm going to move it away from the tree, so it can survive another dry winter. A zone-4 person stated that roses die in the winter NOT from the COLD, but from the dryness. I agree. My most vigorous roses are the ones next to the patio (lots of water underneath), or in partial shade (soaking wet). Austin roses are deep-rooted, so lots of them survived, except for Evelyn in a raised bed, she survived but NOT as vigorous as the ones in wet & partial shade ... these have at least 1 foot of green stem.

No, I don't have alot of rain. I believe you are spot on, Straw about roses dying from dryness and not cold. I also made the mistake of planting roses in raised bed. All of the ones that died this year were planted at the edge of raised bed.

Winds can dry out roses...

Cooler temps can play havoc on rose leaves also Karen...

I was looking at my Roses Unlimited order form and it says they will be shipping our roses out May 4th...I usually do not plant tender plants until May 15th or beyond but no problem...

SHIP DATE - 5/4/15 BY UPS

Prairie Harvest @ $17

Earth Song @ $17

Easy Does It @ $18

total amount for roses - $52

Shipping - $16

P&H - $5

Total amount due by money order - $73

Should you wish to use credit card, there is a $5 processing
fee.

Those are real pretty roses, Jim. I hope they do well for you. Please let me know how they do and how they are scented. I am really into fruity scented roses. Yes, it's been really cool. There was one day when the temp got up to 70 and then it dropped again. The rose foliage looks rather ratty and yellowish and vey small . I think that you are right, that the cool weather has something to do with this. If the weather warms up, do you think the leaves will get normal looking?

Also, I am sorry about the loss of your sister. Can I ask when did she pass away? What was the reason? Was she ill?

My sister passed away May 10th 2014 at the age of 49 from lung cancer...

Yes when the weather warms up the rose bush will start taking up nutrients better..

The rose Earthsong does well in alot of places...

Our Thomas Affleck rose bush had moderate BS and PM most of last year...

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.35273&tab=36

I noticed today the leaves look so green & healthy so I'm hoping for a better year but only time will tell I guess ...TA has limed Horse Manure around him this year...

TA was actually transplanted twice this year, once in March and again in April when I tried to give to my friend and he brought TA back...lol... So he is coming back real good inspite of all that transplanting... I'm surprised!

Well warmer weather is finally here to stay for awhile... :)... I've been cutting grass every 4 days and pulling weeds here & there to keep things lookin ok...All roses/shrubs looking real good so far! I'm guessing most of our roses will start blooming in early June this year...

Roses Unlimited might send out our roses this (Monday/May 4th.... :-)... If so we should receive them by this Thursday... I'll soak them for awhile to make sure there is no insects in the potting soil then I'll go ahead and plant them in the ground...

Our local greenhouse told me to wait 2 weeks and hopefully they will have our Marigold plants ready...Then I'll get Marigolds planted mid May and I'll probably plant one or two tomato plants...

Hi Jim: I love the pic. of your Thomas Affleck, super-healthy & nice leaves. Good idea to soak the root-ball in water. I didn't have any thrips for over a decade, then I ordered roses from Roses Unlimited, then I got thrips for the 1st time. Then we got that brutal winter -30 below zero, then NO thrip for last year. Thrips don't survive my zone 5a winter.

Too bad I threw all those stinky cod-liver oil ($6 for many pills) ... Someone in Amazon reported that he got the BEST-DEER repellant by mixing some cod-liver with water, and sprayed on his roses. When I cut the cod-liver-oil capsule, some of its oil squirt to my hair ... it was so stinky that I had to wash my hair the 2nd-time in one day !!@ I got some on my hand, and had to wash my hand repeatedly to get rid of the stinky-fish smell ... that was worse than Asian fish-sauce !!

yes fishy stuff smells real bad....lol... PU! When deer get real hungry they will eat most anything...I'm glad we have no deer here to worry about...

Thomas Affleck has the best looking leaves out of all our other roses...I'm really hoping TA does better this year than last year... Last year TA arrived from the vendor (ARE) with Blackspot and PM so it was a tough year for TA...

Had some bare spots in the yard from the dog so grass seeded those areas this past Thursday... I'll try holding off cutting the grass until this Friday so hopefully the grass seed will start sprouting by then...

I started about 20+ Marigold plants from seed and they seemed to take forever to sprout even being on the heating mat but they are growing now...

Most of the compost I put down in the fall is nearly gone already but I probably will not put any more down until fall as it is not aged enough yet...

So far we have not received as much rain this Spring as we usually get...

Hi Jim: Dry here too. I went to Menards today to get my annual flowers. Spent over $20 .. I get lots of herbs. I like herbs .. health is more important than flowers. I saw lots of roses for $7 with blooms at Menards. Also saw one really thorny with RRD. The pots are really dry at the store. So glad it rained today.

What type of roses do they sell in your area Straw?

Here mostly only Ko's because our stores and greenhouse only sell what moves out fast and doesn't BS so easily for our area...They have tried selling other roses in the past but they did not work out because of BS...

My sisters rose came from a local greenhouse or store so its probably very disease resistant here .... (Not sure what it is though..?)

They sell lots of new variety at Menards: Francis Meilland (huge & vigorous & at least a dozen buds). Blue-for-you looks wimpy so I think that's an own-root. Lots of Double-Delight, Julia Child, Angel Face, Fragrant Cloud, Sonia, and a new hybrid tea which I forget the name. No Knock-outs, but lots of new-generation-landscape rose (Drift roses). My using Menards lawn-fertilizer (high in nitrogen, no weed & feed) last fall? That result in tons of dandelions. My neighbor is right, Scott & Weed & Feed works best. I hate to use chemicals, but I have to dig up at least a dozen dandelions a day ... harder work than roses !!

Wow! Lots of rose choices to buy in Chicago... Like I said, very limited selections here....

Even some of the new generation roses do not do well here either like OSO Easy...

I'm tempted to try Julia Child someday... There is a rose bush about 2 blocks from here that looks just like JC but it gets tons of BS... I asked the owner but they didn't know the name of it so I'm really not sure if its JC or not?

I remember years ago I injected straight vinegar deep down into the roots of each dandelion in our yard and it killed em... It was lots of work though...lol

Our Dogwoods bushes, Viburnum bush, slowly getting leaves but almost there...lol... I have the dogwoods and Viburnum wood mulched as they seem to love wet moist soil...Plus the dog doesn't get muddy...lol

I started Marigold seeds... Alittle tough to get started this year! So far this is how many I got to sprout...

THANK YOU, Jim, for those fantastic pics ... Great camera you got ... it's like in real life. I have a rough day today with my kid's breaking-down with the stress from her gifted-6th-grade program. Boy !!! I wish that she's in the regular program: more fun, less stress, but they make her do college level-work. That's bull, why robs kids of childhood? Just because it's a gifted-program doesn't mean they have to torture kids. There's the news recently about some 3rd-grader girls tried to poison a teacher with hand-sanitizer ... she's allergic to it so these kids smeared them everywhere !! My kid just takes it internally and gets depressed or feel like a failure .. but others lash out at teachers when the teachers are icky. My worse teachers were elementary level, the best ones are at college level. How were your teachers, Jim?

Some of my teachers were very nice but others very icky as you put it...lol

I hope your daughter adjusts but a 6th grader doing college level work does not sound good... Major stress for sure! Gee!

I noticed Aphids have just arrived here... I did not fertilize so there has not been any real fast tender growth... They don't bother/hurt roses much here so if I see them while checking the roses I'll knock them off but otherwise I don't worry about them...

Last year we got Aphids early but soon after I planted Marigolds I seen no more... So I'll be planting Marigolds in about 1 week or so...

Hi Jim: I bought marigolds too. Haven't planted my annuals yet .. too busy with my kid's school. I bought Pink Peace today at Menards. Another guy was buying Mr. Lincoln and he raved at how good its buds smelled. Menards have roses in pots, lots of blooms, only $7.99.

Pink Peace is a cool rose Straw!

$7.99 WOW!

I just paid $78.00 for Three Roses at RU... :-O Compared to $7.99 each...

Mister Lincoln does have a great scent but he's such a stingy bloomer...lol... Our ML is dead! No growth yet at all so I'm assuming he is deader than a doorknob.. I'm not going to replace him... No more fussy roses here....lol

Only the best without fuss will stay...Decent Bs & Mildew resistants to diseases, good bloomers, good growth habits, etc. etc...

I planted some small Marigolds seedlings I started out at the side of our house today... About 7-8 of them... Got to get 18 blue Petunias soon to put in between the Marigolds... Need more Marigolds too...20 more...lol

Roses Unlimited called and our roses will arrive tomorrow (Friday) or Monday by UPS...

That's exciting, thanks for letting me know. I love blue petunias .. I like blue mixed in yellow ... great color combo.

Francis Meilland with a dozen buds? Not on my almost two year old plant ... it was grafted on, grew to over 6 foot, but has only been giving me 1 bloom per two months, if at all. I've pruned it down some, but just a lot of blind shoots for me. Straw, if you have any suggestions, please let me know. My other plants are limping along, but are not as stingy as my FM.

Roses in Hawaii are $20 at the big box stores, nurseries too. And obviously shipping is atrocious from the mainland, so I envy the $7.99 price tag.

Thanks!

Hi msdorkgirl: I love your username !! I'm a dork myself, like wearing pajamas in my garden. Yes, it's Francis Meilland with tons of buds in a big-pot at Menards store. I would had bought it, except I got tons of pink-roses already. What type of soil do you have in Hawaii? Roses are water-hog & nutrients-freak and they do best in nutrient-rich soil. Plus they bloom best if the water is slight acidic, like rain water at pH 6 in my Chicagoland. Rain water is more acidic at the east coast, at pH 5.6.

If you use tap-water to water your roses, they won't bloom well since tap-water is treated with calcium hydroxide, which raise the pH and make nutrients less available. My tap water pH is 8.6, and roses don't bloom with that. I have to lower the pH with sulfate of potash (26% sulfur), or soluble gypsum (17% sulfur). Now I use a rain-barrel to collect water, and my roses bloom lots more.

Francis Meilland is a Romantica (French roses). French roses are water-hogs and bloom best if OWN-ROOT, rather than grafted on Dr. Huey rootstock. My Frederic Mistral (French rose) used to be stingy for 2 years , then on the 3rd year, I put sulfate of potash in my tap-water, and it gave me 40 buds for spring flush. Roses won't bloom if there isn't enough potassium or phosphorus in the soil. So 3 things that prevent roses from blooming:

1. Wrong pH: either soil or tap water too alkaline (pH above 8), or too acidic (below 5).
2. Not enough potassium or phosphorus in the soil. My own-root Comte de Chambord is 8 inches tall, 1 foot wide ... really tiny rose, but it has 7 buds. I put grind-up sunflower seed in the planting hole, plus alfalfa pellets. My 2nd Comte de Chambord is much bigger, but only 4 buds ... I put only alfalfa pellets. My 3rd Comte de Chambord is GRAFTED, and it's tiny, only 2 buds. All 3 get some chicken manure on top.

3. Too high nitrogen in fertilizer. I once put blood meal on my marigolds, and they shot up to 3 feet tall, zero blooms for the entire year. I did that to my roses too, using NPK 10-5-4 (too high nitrogen), and they didn't bloom for 3 months !! Lesson well learned, I stick to LOW-NITROGEN, like alfalfa pellets at NPK 2-1-2 (equal ratio of nitrogen to potassium). Good luck.