*sigh* so beautiful. Most of my snow's melted and now it's drizzling. Just to get us prepared for another storm that may come in next week. The highs next week will be in the lower 40s to the upper 30s. That's OK, I can live vicariously through you, Sue, & Zuzu & Mike & Betty & Rita & everyone else!!

I'm so glad I didn't wake up early enough to water the garden, Sue. By the time I got up, I could see it was going to rain any minute. It really poured. I hate this. It's cold and rainy. Yuck!

Austin roses are unbeatable, and I'm so glad the Ida Belle rose survived. It's really special!

Toni, I have no idea how that rose smells. It's only 18" tall. I only smell roses when they're at nose level and they hit me in the nose as I walk by.

Really nice photos, Sue - especially the last one.

Here is a picture I submitted for the database which I think is a great example of blackspot. One of my few HTs. I do spray every two weeks but quit for the year back in September. But the Fall has been warm and wet. Most of my roses not quite this desease prone but eventually this would happen to them all if I never sprayed.





Also here is an exaple of the spotted blooms one gets around here if one doesn't spray. I don't see this in summer as the fungicide takes care of keeping the blooms clean.

Yep, that's a good example of black spot alright! I don't spray so I see that often.

I couldn't stand it. If the leaves on my roses looked like this all the time, or even most of the time I would dig and toss all of them. It is just too ugly to look at!

Wow, that's some nasty looking stuff. Never get that here. On the rare occasions I *do* see blackspot, I usually spray it with GreenLight rose spray. But that's very rare, except for Austrian Copper. That one can develop blackspot in 0% humidity, I swear. I just let it go, it's off in a corner and it doesn't bother me to see it with blackspot because I don't see it!

I see that every summer !!! then I have just sticks with roses on them for a while I need a home remadie becouse the store stuff is exspensive

I just have to live with my black spot. Even if I had time to spray them on a really strict schedule, never missing a day but following the safety guidelines and just doing 20 a day, it would take me 100 days to get all of them, and by then the first ones would be covered with black spot again anyway.

I have no where near as many roses as Zuzu but they are spread out along about a mile of fencelines - also not easy to spray. Like Gloria, I end up with blooming sticks on the Hybrid teas, but most of my roses are now old garden types that resist black spot quite admirably.

I don't have very many HTs. I just don't like them as much as I like Floribundas and old garden rose lookalikes. But since I spray anyway, it has never been a problem. My property is not that large and I can reach all my roses with my 100 foot hose and hose end sprayer.

I sent a message to Vintage Gardens to see whether my Jazz Club (not) is actually Geant des Batailles. Gregg said the photos match and the description matches, but its vulnerability to disease would be the clincher. He said Geant can't hold its leaves for even a week in Sebastopol without spraying. This mystery rose of mine is no more prone to black spot than anything else in my garden, so I guess I have to keep looking for an ID.

This is the photo he thought looked the most like Geant, and it probably is the truest depiction of the color. If I go to his garden again, I'll take a blooming sprig with me and try to match it to one of his plants.

You'll get a kick out of this photo, I'm sure. Two rose orders arrived in the mail today. Three roses from Roses Unlimited and four roses from Heirloom.



I wrote more about these two orders in my blog. In case you want to read my take on this, it's here:

http://garden.org/blogs/view/z...

I just think it's so ironic that the Heirloom roses cost a dollar more than the RU roses.

I saw your blog, good comparisons.

That looks about right. I have ordered from both places and those are a very good example of what one commonly receives. For me the small twigs from Heirloom have never been any problem. I plant them directly in ground (no potting up to get them larger) and by the following spring they have grown like weeds. Of course the ones from Roses Unlimited grow really well also and have the head start of NOT being miniscule twigs when one receives them.

Have an order on the way from Heirloom, so was interested to see this!

I received an order from Heirloom a few months ago that was quite different. The roses were much larger and all of them have already bloomed. The size really seems to depend on the time of year you place your order.

One thing I do have to say for Heirloom: Not one of these minuscule plants is a one-cane wonder. I'm accustomed to getting those from Vintage and Rogue Valley, and even from Roses Unlimited, so it's a nice surprise to get a tiny plant with a good cane structure.

I'm actually glad I've started using Heirloom as a source again. When I placed my first order years ago, I received two little sticks, one of which was no more than a toothpick, with no leaves. They both survived, but one is still only about a foot tall after 6 years in the ground and the other turned out to be mislabeled. I've placed a couple of orders in the last year or two, however, and have had very good luck. No more toothpicks!

Thanks, Zuzu, for the great info. I got some really healthy climbers this week from Brushwood.

Zuzu, could you tell me what kind of labels work best on roses? Thank you!

Sorry, Janice. I don't use labels. I make maps of all my flower beds. Labels always seem to disappear or become illegible.

Which climbers did you get?