I'm so sorry to hear that, Jim. No wonder the nursery here told me, "don't plant your tomatoes until June 1 .... One year I planted my tomato & flowers too early, and they became stunt for good by the frost. Now I buy BIGGER tomato, and plant 2 weeks earlier than June 1. Bigger tomato can withstand cold temp. better, but it's still risky.

The freeze Friday night into Saturday really took me by surprise Straw. I look at 4-5 different local weather forecasts and they all said it was getting down to 37-38 degrees with no freeze warnings... BUT it actually dropped to 29 degrees... :-O The high for that day was 73 degrees so it dropped 44 degrees!....

Spent a lot of the day replacing flowers and tomato plant etc... Everything back to normal...

Placed some mulch around flowers at the side of house because we are not getting much rain this year...

Here's that area I took out our Viburnum Bush...

The pic I posted of my sisters roses above last Thursday shows nice clean leaves BUT today Sunday and only being May its developing Blackspot already... Even though we have not had much rain we get heavy dews every night and leaves are wet until later in the morning...

Thank you, Jim, for those pics. I like the color of your sister's rose-bud. That place which you took out the bush, looks like a great place for roses. With regard to what you wrote: " O The high for that day was 73 degrees so it dropped 44 degrees!" Wow! That's a big drop in temp. I don't trust high of 70's .. I always wait until it's AT LEAST above 80, then I plant tomato & flowers. It's usually safe after Mother's Day, after May 15 and after it reached 80 degrees to plant stuff here in my zone 5a.

We will make barbecued pork ribs today, Sunday May 24. The neighbor made some yummy barbecue ribs yesterday which tempted me !! We usually have ribs with a big plate of veggies so that balance out. I still take my Brewer's yeast, it really help with my hayfever & allergies.

Barbecued pork sounds awesome Straw! LOL on neighbor tempting you...

I'm not planting anymore roses until I find some that do well here besides D. Knockouts... lol...I wasted way to much money on roses in the past... Hopefully Thomas Affleck, Easy Does it , Earthsong, Prairie Harvest do well...

I do know Home Run, Carefree Sunshine, Carefree Celebration would do well here but we do not care for single flowers... Carefree Celebration might be ok....

Carefree Celebration is awesome at the rose park, very pretty & healthy .. way more flowers than Julia Child. Julia Child is more appropriate for drier climate. I WAS NOT impressed by Julia Child when it's cold & rainy, but I WAS VERY impressed by Carefree Celebration. Finally got barbecued ribs right: I use Penzey's Northwoods seasoning (has maple syrup) sprinkle that over pork-ribs. The rule is to cook at high temp. 420 for 5 min. per lb. of pork. MAKE SURE TO COVER IT WELL WITH FOIL. Since I have 4 lbs. of ribs I set the oven at 420 degree for 20 min. (4 x 5 = 20). Then I lowered heat to 250, cook for 1 hour more, then I take it out, pour barbecue sauce over, re-cover with foil, and bake at 250 for another 15. It was really tender & delicious. Total cooking time: 1 hour and 35 min for fresh ribs. Cooking for 2 hours is better if it's frozen & thawed ribs (has more water).

Did the blooms appear small on Carefree Celebration? Articles & reports say 2" - 2.5" sized blooms...

Our D. Ko blooms are 2.5"-3" which is ok to us...

Yum Yum your making me hungry Straw...lol

Hi Jim: Carefree celebration is the rose behind my profile, click on my profile pic. and you'll see. I don't remember it being that small ... I remember it as being much prettier than Knock-out. I picked 3 Mary Magdalene blooms today .. should had picked it BEFORE the rain, the rain washed away its wonderful myrrh scent. If you like dark-red, Munstead Wood has an amazing fruity scent. I don't have Mustead wood but Seaweed in CA sent me a bloom to sniff, the scent is out-of-this-world. So far zero blackspots on my roses, except for the newly bought Pink Peace (grafted on Dr. Huey) but it has only 2 leaves with one black-spot per leaf, so it's hardly noticed.

Search your memory Straw...lol... People are saying on Gardenweb, Daves Garden, and sites that sell Carefree Celebration that bloom size is 2.5"....???

It doesn't really matter because I'm still considering it for next year....

http://www.heirloomroses.com/carefree-celebration.html

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.40581.1

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/171353/

https://www.edmundsroses.com/dp.asp?pID=24825&c=15&p=Carefree+Celebration+Shrub+Rose

Hi Jim: If you see Carefree Celebration in real-life, IT GLOWS like a sunset, so I don't even notice its bloom-size. All I saw was glowing-colors, and tons of blooms. We have both Chicago Botanical garden (5,000 roses) and Cantigny park (1,200) roses ... and no rose bush take my breadth away like Carefree Celebration: I kept saying, "Wow !!" when I first saw it.

In contrast, I am NEVER impressed with Julia Child ... it has an ugly angular bush-shape, not much blooms in cool & wet weather. Perhaps Julia Child does better in hotter & sunnier climate, or more acidic soil. For impressive BIG-BLOOM rose, but without scent. Leonardo de vinci rose wins every time. Google that you'll see.

I searched and everyone is out of Carefree Celebration for this year so I'll order it early next year...

I just remembered I forgot to check RU for CC... I'll email them...

Leonardo de vinci rose very nice Straw!

Here's Thomas Affleck

Double Knockout shot

Very healthy ! Lots of Buds. I love the color of your Thomas Affleck. Will post my pics. soon ... took lots of them today.

Awesome Straw!! Can't wait!

Thomas Affleck bloom today...

My sisters rose:

D. KO:

Thanks for posting those great colors: I love them all. I took pics. of my roses, but haven't decided to post (they have buds only) .. So I'll wait until they bloom, then post later. My tomato look MUCH BETTER this year. Previous years of mixing Tomato tone in the planting hole isn't a good idea. Even gypsum is supposed to mix in THE FALL before planting, rather than at planting time. I can see the logic in mixing 1 cup of Tomato-Tone (higher potassium) in pots, since pots leach out nutrients. But for roses IN THE GROUND, mix in 1/2 peatmoss (for sandy soil), or 1/2 wood-chips or leaves (for clay soil) like Heirloom roses suggest make more sense.

My clay is so rich in minerals & nutrients that mixing in Tomato-Tone in the planting hole is an overkill. It might work for less fertile soil & loamier soil.

Glad to hear your tomato look better this year Straw...

We only had 1 tomato plant (Celebrity) then our neighbor gave us a cherry tomato plant so now we have two...lol... My wife likes those smaller cherry tomatoes...

Thanks for info Straw!

TA & KO:

We are finally getting alittle rain...

Wow! Thank you, Jim, for a treat to your garden: Your roses are ridiculously healthy & lots of buds. I love the glowing color of Thomas Affleck (super-healthy too). I like bright & deep colors. My Mary Magdalene (white beige) is blooming, but it's depressive color in a vase. I can't wait until my deeper colors bloom.

Question to everyone: What have you done this year that contribute to the health of your roses? Thanks.

I can't wait to see your rose pics Straw! :-)

I have some rose leaf tips curling and becoming brittle in the backyard. I'm guessing because of this recent frost because the frost really wrecked havoc with our backyard flowers... (I had to replace a lot of them)... Plus some flowers are still stunted...(leaves blackened, wrinkled, etc.)

It rained alittle the other day but not enough to even soak into the ground so we are still in a drought. Grass is actually starting to turn brown already... This usually does not happen here until July...

Other than that all is good...lol

Straw I'll show you what the frost damage did to these plants... All these plants looked basically the same when we bought them at our local Greenhouse. We put some of the flowers out back and some were on our covered front porch doing the frost...

These here were on our covered front porch they look really good right now! Nice big leaves and blooms... No frost damage to these...

This one is the same plant and now its stunted now and no blooms. We have 3 of these plants out back and they all got stunted...

Jim: Thank you for those pics. I agree with you that frost can stunt plants FOR THE REST OF THE season. My neighbor did that to her geraniums, and I did that to my tomatoes one year: 3 plants planted too early were 1/2 the height & production compared to the ones planted after June 1.

I did that again to 3 Basil plants: planted too early when the temp. were high 30's. They are still tiny, compared to the basil that my neighbor bought recently. Cold temp. can stunt plants for good, that's why zone 5a roses are really small. Only Austin climbers like Crown Princess Margareta are immured to frost.

I looked and looked for a vendor that still had Carefree Celebration available for this year BUT no luck! RU does not carry CC....

Heirloom Roses or Greenwood Nursery should have it for next year....

Chamblee nursery has Carefree Celebration at the lowest price among the bunch. Heirloom Roses UP their price to over $20 ... even more expensive than Roses Unlimited.

I could not find it on Chamblees site... Please send me the link Straw!

ALSO that smaller D. KO rose I transplanted 3 weeks ago is looking great and blooming. I went AGAINST what all the rose books , articles, etc. tell you about transplantng/watering and things worked out way better! (Now that's here and may not apply to other areas...) And No fertilizer was needed...

Wow! That looks great, esp. when transplanted 3 weeks ago. Good drainage & moist soil works well. Also Chamblee used to carry Carefree Celebration years ago, but NOT this year. Question to everyone: How do you private-message someone in Houzz? I can respond to e-mails from Jim, but I CANNOT start an e-mail to anyone (including Jim). I probably don't have the right settings in my profile. Thanks for any info on how to message someone, and what are your settings in your profile?

Here's the deal Straw... When I transplanted I watered the rose bush well about 2-3 days before I transplanted. I then moved the rose bush by digging up as much of the root system as I could. Then I just watered enough so soil was alittle moist but not soggy wet. (Too much water causes the leaves to actually look like they need more water here...) Then I did not water again until like 3 weeks after transplanting......(Even through the high heat I did not water..) And its blooming and no yellow leaves at all...

BEFORE: I watered them a lot right after transplanting then the next day when leaves were still limp I watered again thinking it needed water then again the next day so I was actually watering them to death as all leaves would turn yellow and fall off... lol

ROSE SLUGS: Yep we got Rose Slugs early this year so they were already on the roses bushes before I got to plant Marigolds. Then with the recent frost I had to replant Marigolds because it killed the first batch...

I'm not picking them off because I want to see how much damage there going to cause....

We finally got some rain that soaked into the ground! All flowers, roses, tomato plants loved it! :-) Our city water can not make them grow like rain water can...lol

Thank you, Jim, for the info. As to message one another within Houzz: I figure out why I can't send you (Jim), messages, nor Enchantedrose (Sharon). YOU NEED TO TURN ON "allow everyone to message" in your advanced settings, in your profile. People can send me messages since I turned on the "allow everyone to message", but I CANNOT send out messages to those WHO DID NOT TURN ON "allow everyone to message".

For more info., see below:

roselee z8b S.W. TexasMay 22, 2015

Noticing that some of us don't know how to send messages to one another with Houzz since it is different than it was with the old G. W. I thought I'd post this little reminder.

To send a message to another member of Houzz:

• Click your icon or go to 'Your Houzz' at uppper right.
• Click 'Edit Profile'
• Click 'Advanced Settings' on the left bar
• Scroll almost to the bottom to 'someone messages me'
• Click 'everytime'
• When you receive a message Houzz will will send you an email saying you have received a message.
• Go to 'Your Houzz' The link will be within the email
• Click 'Messages' and you can read and reply all within Houz.

Both sender and recipient have to enable messaging for this to work.

*** From StrawChicago: I replied to 3 of your messages, Jim, regarding Carefree Celebration: Chamblee used to carry that, but THEY NO LONGER DO FOR THIS YEAR. My 3 messages won't go through unless you TURN ON "allow everyone to message me" option in the advanced settings of your profile.

We are getting MORE soaking rainfalls today Straw... :-)

I updated my settings Straw... Thanks! I had that only people that followed me could write me...lol

Now anyone can write me...

Straw, I recieved all 3 of your messages on Houzz... I even replyed back to them...

Hummmm ???

Thomas Affleck today:

Sisters rose bush... Many more buds to open yet... It is going to be pooped out after its done blooming... I counted 40+ buds on this tiny 14 inch by 14 inch rose bush... I'm keeping this rose bush no matter how severe the blackspot gets...

From drought to flash flooding here today... Our street... :-O

Jim,

I'd be so ecstatic and happy if I could even manage half the quantity of blooms you have. Sometimes when I see these kind of successes it makes me want to give up but then I get over it and buy all sorts of different things to try and superboost them.

Thanks to you and everyone for sharing your experiences and knowledge.

msdorkgirl(11), superboosting fertilizers do not actually work... Actually using them could harm the soil which in return could harm your roses...

http://www.rose.org/phosphorus-fallacies-too-much-of-a-good-thing/

Where do you live? (general) What type soil do you have?

Fertilizers to high in Nitrogen can cause roses not to bloom well...

Not enough direct sun on your roses (6+ hours is needed)

High heat conditions can cause some types of roses not to bloom much...

Poor soil conditions...

Not enough water...

Fungus diseases such as Blackspot or Powdery Mildew, etc...

Some roses just naturally do not bloom well...

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

I did not realize you were growing your roses in containers msdorkgirl(11):

I haven't grown many container roses but here I use Miracle gro potting soil and have tried several fertilizers in the past. Fish w/ Kelp , Gardenville Sea Tea, Algoflash, Miracle gro, etc.... All worked ok...

I fertilized once per week here...

Feeding depends on how much you have to water as the more you water it leaches out nutrients faster...

RoseTone may not work that well in containers because it needs to break down before rose can use it... Potting soils in my opinion do not break granular organic fertilizers down very efficiently..

Pots need good drainage...

I water a container until the water is coming out the drain holes... Because salts build up faster in containers and need washed out...

We mainly only get Aphids and rose slugs here so I do not deal with those insects you speak about..

If you have a lot of heat maybe provide some afternoon shade for your containers...

Like msdorkgirl, I'm very impressed with the amount of blooms Jim has. He has the perfect soil pH for blooming: around 6.5. Agree with Jim that fertilizers high in nitrogen can cause roses NOT to bloom well. Even in my zone 5a, where winter-kill roses to the crown, I am conservative on nitrogen. The highest nitrogen I ever use is chicken manure, at NPK 5-3-2. Even at nitrogen of 5, chicken manure is a bit-high in nitrogen, I have to supplement with high-potassium such as sulfate of potash, red-lava-rock, or cocoa mulch.

In hot weather, more potassium is needed. Potassium is essential for water-retention and for blooming & root-growth. Calcium is leached out in pots via rain, and in my pots experiment in constant rain ... the pots with gypsum (calcium sulfate) added was healthier than the pots without.

I'm going to HD and the local garden supply center in the next couple days to see what I can get here before resorting to online ordering. I think I recall seeing a soil sweetener at the L place so I can get my ph in the pots closer to 6 rather than the average 5.4.

Should I really try and find a way to protect the roses for the hot afternoon sun?

I haven't applied superbloom in a while, we'll see if I can be strong and actually donate it instead of cheating and doing weak doses of it to the newer plants. Then I'm going to price out the potting mixes again since I should be getting some David Austins soon. Sigh, probably gotta price out pots too.

I'm going to try getting more holes using my dremel into the existing 15g pots without taking the plant out. If it's a disaster, then I'll have to reserve next weekend for the repotting project.

Straw, from the hydroponic store, I bought this Cal Mag product --- I have a couple roses with short stems supporting big heads (Grande Dame, Tahitian Sunset, Summer Love) --- would this help as a foliar supplement or do you recommend something else?

msdorkgirl(11), if it is super hot where your at then yes I would shade them some in the afternoon... In hot climates those containers can really heat up... ( be like having roots in a hot oven...) Keep those containers well watered in hot climates...

Agree with Jim about shading .. that can be done by a tall chair, or posts and shade-cloth. I like shopping at Meijers' garden center, since the entire area is shaded with a black cloth, their roses are super-lush & lots of blooms. Then I go to HomeDepot, where they don't shade their roses, and they all fry out during August ... even when they marked Double-Delight down to $5, their roses look so bad that no one buy them: zero blooms, withered sticks.

If you google "shade cloth for garden", you'll see posts & black shade cloth. Amazon might carry them .. it will save lots of time in watering & more blooms. Msdorkgirl, thank you for that link to Cal Mag Product, if it's a soluble ... then can be applied DILUTED to roots. A cheap alternative is to use SOLUBLE gypsum (calcium sulfate) plus cheap Epsom Salt (magnesium sulfate).

What type of native soil do you have: sandy, or loose & loamy? The big-heads bloom need BOTH calcium and potassium for the canes to be strong enough. My Chicagoland is known as strong-wind, where it's the norm to have wind gusting to 40 mph. Not a single branch of Crown Princess Magareta was broken, although each stem support from 6 to 10 buds. But Pat Austin got many canes broken ... I forgot to give it sulfate of potash this year .. it only got chicken manure NPK 5-3-2 (has calcium, but low in potassium). My soil is exceedingly high in magnesium, and adequate in calcium (tested by EarthCo.). According to hydroponics website, the ratio to potassium to calcium should be 2 to 1, with magnesium needed in lesser amount (half of calcium).

I re-post the mineral-composition of red-lava rock, which Crown Princess Magareta got the most. You can see that lava-rock has more magnesium at 2, versus 1.3 calcium.

http://www.palmercc.com/lavarock.htm

Mineral Content

Nitrate Nitrogen.................................4.0 p.p.m.
Phosphorus........................................6.0 p.p.m.
Potassium.........................................59.0 p.p.m.
Zinc.........................................................6 p.p.m.
Iron..................................................10.0+ p.p.m.
Copper...............................................5.5+ p.p.m.
Magnesium.......................................2.0+ p.p.m.
Boron.................................................10.0 p.p.m.
Sulfate.................................................7.0 p.p.m.
Organic Material...........................................5%
PH.........................................................8.2 Units
Calcium..................................1.3 Meq/100 gm*
Manganese...........................0.6 Meq/100 gm*
Sodium...................................0.1 Meq/100 gm*
Cation Exchange Capacity..3.2 Meq/100 gm*
* Milli-Equivalent per 100 grams

msdorkgirl(11), Straw answered your questions above...

But I have a question msdorkgirl(11)... Do you grow all your roses in large pots?

Just so I know if were talking about garden soil/ roses in the ground or potting soils/ potted roses... Thanks...

Too much magnesium like my clay-soil makes soil very sticky (like mud) thus impedes root-growth. I have seen lots of harm with too much magnesium (yellowing of leaves & stunt-growth & less bloom & less fragrance). Even when I over-dose on calcium sulfate (gypsum) the result is stunt growth, but lots of blooms. Gypsum (calcium sulfate) is always better than limestone, since gypsum is neural pH, versus VERY HIGH pH up to 10 for limestone, which stops all blooming.

I'd like to find out exactly what the name of my sisters rose...

Just took these pics with another camera:

Anyone know??? Thanks...

Reds do the same thing close but look ok at a distance:

Wow! Looks very good, Jim. Lots of buds .. I like your sister's rose a lot. Very healthy, how did you do that?

I applied compost last October to it and that's it... It's in a area of the yard with really good draining soil...

I'd love to know the name of this rose bush so I'm going to make a new thread......

I have all my roses in containers, have Francis Meilland, Wild Blue Yonder, Scentimental, Summer Love, Intrigue, Tahitian Sunset, Neptune, Touch of Class, Chicago Peace in 15-20 gal so they're 6 foot tall and higher (hence me asking if it is really necessary to setup shade cloth, it would be a real project for me to do that).

I've been moving every 4-5 years, so don't want to erect anything permanent or costly.

The rest (15+) are in 10/5 gal depending on how big they are. I have used mixtures of MG and other potting mixes, no garden soil.

One would think since I have such control using containers I would have a better handle on their health, but I have been kind of haphazard in what I've done and tried with them. For now, I'm collecting a whole lot of information and letting them rest for a cycle or two (as of June 1st anyway, so we'll see how long I can sit on my hands before I do something).

I do envy your pretty, perfect leaves. Someday hopefully, I can aspire to that.

I'm not familiar with the size of 15/20 Gal pots... I take it they are large enough to handle 6ft high roses with probably large roots attached???

msdorkgirl,

According to comments from other people on HMF about Francis Meilland it does not do well in real hot climates in full sun... You can read comments here:

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.40552.3&tab=32

You can go to helpmefind.com and look at comments from people on the roses you have...

http://www.helpmefind.com/roses/

And I wish my rose leaves were perfect....lol... Believe me they are not....

This is probably my last year of Francis Meilland if he doesn't do good ... I've had him for three or four years now and he's been a 5 bloom per year producer (grows tall, canes are thick, blind shoots all over). Considering my other roses aren't so stingy, I've really struggled justifying him in my garden. This time, I will try to be more specific in my treatment of each rose instead of applying the same stuff to everyone the way I used to do. Cross my fingers, he'll give me a little more, because when he does bloom, he's really pretty, really long lasting, and has a pleasant smell. He's also my only white rose so far.

Light-color roses (white, yellow) and dark red do best with partial shade. My Golden Celebration (yellow) and William Shakespeare 2000 (dark red) gets only 5 hours of morning sun. Our temp got up to 70, and Golden Celebration was wilting (all 50 buds were droopy). My fault that I gave it too much chicken-manure (high-in-salt). Roses in full-sun can't take salt well, zero-salt organics like alfalfa pellets is best. Standlee alfalfa pellets is the brand without added salt nor sugar. Red lava-rock is slow-released, and won't burn, same with diluted soluble. Since you don't get winter-kill like my zone 5a, go easy on the nitrogen, and load up on potassium (helps with water-retention). The higher the nitrogen, the higher the salt, be it chicken-manure, urea (salt index over 90), or ammonium (over 80 salt index).

Francis Meilland sounds like Frederic Mistral for me. Fred was super stingy, 5 blooms 1st year, less than 10 blooms 2nd year (with horse manure). The third year I was so mad that I dumped SOLUBLE sulfate of potash & SOLUBLE gypsum in the spring, and Fred gave me 40+ blooms for spring flush. French roses, esp. Meilland, LIKE IT ALKALINE and high-potassium & high calcium, since France has a vast region of alkaline soil & high calcium & less rain-fall.

Hawaii with lots of rain & acidic soil, you will be better off with Austin roses (bred in a rainy climate). I used to know a very nice Pakistan guy in English rose forum. He posted pics. of the roses that do well in full-sun, very hot Pakistan climate (up to 110 degree). He used shade-cloth. They are: Fragrant Cloud, Double-Delight, a few French Meilland roses, and Evelyn. Angel Face does well in full-sun, but it died through my zone 5a winter.

I'd like to take the credit for having lots of blooms on our roses this year but I CAN NOT....

WHY? Because we just happen to have good garden soil in our area... And its just the type of roses we grow here... It's that plain & simple!

How do I know?

Well because my neighbor does NOTHING to her roses year after year... No pruning, No fertilizing, No watering, No dead heading... And they still bloom and look like this...lol

So I'm just lucky to have what we got....

Wow !! That looks great. I'm convinced that the STRUCTURE & make-up of the soil matter to the health of roses. The most blooms I had seen was Easy Elegance rose which I bought from HomeDepot: it's fluffy potting soil ... with chunks of pine-bark at the bottom mixed with blue-Osmocote (equal nitrogen to potassium ratio). Those pine-bark chunks retained water very well.

We get more sunny days rather than not, rain in the evening to promote BS, of course. I looked it up and it said that we have 6 hours peak sun --- I think all the roses get sun for 8-9 hours at least. Sorry the photo is upside down.

We don't have Standlee Alfalfa pellets in Hawaii, I keep meaning to ask my friend to go to the feed store and check out what Alfalfa they do have, but no such luck. Resorted to buying Alfalfa hay which I don't know how to actually use in my container pots, and the rabbit food pellets too.

BREAKDOWN OF BLOOM PICTURE

Paul Neyron - 2nd bloom looks different from its 1st bloom (just got it this March, so any specific recommendations, please let me know)

Remember Me - my most healthy rose plant right now with smallish blooms for me, I actually don't really like this rose but it's performing just to spite me

Summer Love - yellow, loves the sun, always blooming, good size blooms, had a Roundup scare three weeks or so ago, but it's back again, always makes me happy

Nicole Carol Miller - I love the coloration, it is an inch or two smaller in bloom size compared to the one in the Urban Garden Center

Chicago Peace - sickly, sickly plant with two canes from the bud union, but it produces a pretty bloom every cycle so I can't bring myself to get rid of it

Gorgeous !!! I love the vivid colors. I love your Nicole Carol Miller and the yellow ones. Chicago Peace likes it alkaline, it was bred from Cantigny rose garden nearby me in 1960's. The park has alkaline soil like mine. Rabbit-food pellets have salt & sugar added: will promote fungi like black spots.

Alfalfa hay: I already tested it, very messy on the ground, and promote rose-slugs too. Gypsum mixed into the pots will help to de-salt the fertilizers used, plus calcium help plants to cope with heat & promote stronger tissue to prevent fungal infection. Roses Unlimited in South Carolina recommends the below the planting mix:

Soil Mixture: per planting hole

1. 1 (one) cup of 46% superphosphate

2. 1 (one) cup of dolomitic lime

3. 1 (one) cup of Mills' Magic Rose Mix { order at 1-800-845-2325 }

4. 1 (one) cup of gypsum

5. 1/4 part compost (approximately 2 gallons)

6. 1/4 part peat moss (approximately 2 gallons)

7. 1/4 part good top soil (approximately 2 gallons)

8. 1/4 part red clay if available...substitute with good grade of commercial potting soil

I bought many roses from them, over $500 worth, so I researched all the above. I already tried 46% superphosphate in Queen of Sweden planting hole: IT DID NOT WORK in promoting blooming. I don't use lime, since my soil pH is 7.7, but that would be beneficial for someone with acidic soil. My take on Mill's Magic Rose: it has sewage sludge (Milorganite), I already tested that on my pots ... the high-iron & high-salt promoted black spots. Another lady killed over a dozen of her roses with Mill's Magic Mix. Yes to 1 cup gypsum, that translate to 1/2 cup per pot. Yes to compost in the ground, but NOT in pots. Yes to peat moss in pots (very acidic at pH 4), if balanced out with lime (pH near 10). No to peatmoss in the ground: it glued up with my clay, but great for sandy soil.

Fantastic looking blooms msdorkgirl! :-)

Why would 1 (one) cup of 46% superphosphate be needed... Yikes!

Never cared for Mill Magic either....