There's a thread on Mons tiller fries in the sun, see below: "Mine fried after an hour or two in the sun, more so than my other tea roses so it's no longer with me in my hot garden. Clementina Carbonieri did the same thing. A pity, since both are beautiful roses. Ingrid." ***** From Straw: I'm adding own-root Yves Piaget on my rose-order for next year, along with Young Lycidas and Romantica "The McCartney" rose. I researched again on Yves Piaget: the person who grows Yves both as own-root vs. grafted reported wimpiness for both. Someone from PNW (rainy & cool) climate also reported Yves being wimpy. Robert Rippetoe in his Rancho Mirage climate of exreme heat, drought, and alkaline sandy soil .... grows Yves Piaget and uses it in his breeding program ... so it must be very good for him. I figured out what makes Romanticas works: fluffy potting soil for the roots to get big, then transfer to fertile clay. I have Yves Piaget's children bred by Robert Neil, I put gypsum in the pots, and they went beserk with growth. Ingrid in this forum once grew Yves, but it didn't do well in the heat ... she has loose de-composed granite soil high in potassium. That's different from Ingrid in Thousand Oaks, who has clay. According to Wikipedia, high potassium or high nitrogen drives down calcium. The Romanticas have a higher demand for calcium than other roses, they are very sensitive to salt, so saline soil is not suitable. Calcium in gypsum is used to de-salt saline soil. That explains why Mons.Tillier works for Jaspermplants in Arizona, but didn't work for Ingrid with high-potassium soil. Arizona is alkaline clay high in calcium like my Chicagoland clay ... I'm next to a limestone quarry. Calcium is known to firm up tissue of plants, and helps with drought-tolerance, which explains for the success of Romanticas in my limestone clay. Here's an excerpt on calcium from the site http://www.oxyfertil.com/royaume-uni/role-ca-mg-plante.html · increases the plant tissues' resistance and allows for more erect stems · contributes to normal root system development · increases resistance to outside attack Here is a link that might be useful: Does your Mons. Tillier fry in the sun? This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Fri, Jul 12, 13 at 10:58

Hah, well, I don't know if I'd call myself a pro, but I AM addicted to pots and plants in them, LOL. Last time my mom visited she stopped counting potted plants on my little patio at 300 pots, lol. I guess I've gotten a bit out of control, but like you mentioned, when they're heat and desert adapted they're not much work to keep happy. I travel several times a year for 3-10 days at a time for work and pleasure so things need to be able to survive without me for that long or longer, even when I have a house sitter I don't ask them to water my plants. Fluffy stuff like geraniums and pansies are fine for that long in winter, and I reduce the number of fluffy flowery things in summer and usually plunge those into a deep plastic tub (thank you Ikea) with several inches of water. Anyway, most 90% of my pots are filled with cacti and succulents for easy maintenance. Here are some quick, sloppy recent pics of my patio, which faces due south with half covered and half uncovered: Off the top of my head, succulent plants for shade or partial shade here are some easy winners: Haworthias, Gasterias (especially!), crown of thorns (Euphorbia milii), Kalanchoe, Stapelia, and many types of aloes (good ol' Aloe vera is a great container plant). For more sun, some good succulent plants are lots of smaller growing cacti (Mammilaria elongata, Notocactus, Cleistocactus (tall growing), mini agaves, Stapelia, some aloes (although not full hot burning sun all day in summer), and the chubby/fat types of Euphorbia (E. anopla, E. cereiformis, E. horrida and friends). I also have fantastic luck with slipper plants (Pedilanthus) in containers in half a day's sun. For non succulent plants I do love amaryllis (Hippeastrum) and Asparagus ferns, and spider plants (Chlorophytum) are surprisingly drought tolerant. I'm sure other folks will chime in with lots of ideas. Let us know what you select and how it works out. Happy gardening! Grant

Just went out to add some mulch to my beds, and saw a few plants that I forgot to mention earlier - so here's my complete list of drought tolerant items from my beds: Smaller things: Blue Daze - just water every few days till established, mulch & forget about it Mexican Heather (both purple and white blooming varieties, they've been coming back every year for about 7 years, just weed-whack them in the winter after they go brown, or they get leggy when they come back in the spring) LANTANA!!! - blooms like crazy, don't bother watering it after the first few weeks. I have the type that stays close to the ground, purple blooms, but there are upright varieties, and blooms in pink, yellow, red, and purple... Dwarf Mexican Petunias - multiplies like crazy, and lots of blooms in full sun, if you plant in the shade, it looks nice and leafy, but no blooms Echinacia (full sun to part sun - it's my first year with this one, supposed to be pretty hearty and heat tolerant) Shrubs/Trees: Oleander (needs full sun to bloom & fill out) Bottlebrush (evergreen with neat red flourishes in spring) Plumbago (light blue clusters of blooms, butterflies FLOCK to it, blooms April to September in my yard) I've added the link to the Texas Superstars website below for you to have a look Here is a link that might be useful: texas superstar plants

Re-check what Frank Gatto, the owner of rose-nursery advised for his high-rain acidic PNW location, and HE LIMED ONLY IN MARCH, and no more afterwards !! I checked on liming and lime DOES BURN in hot weather, and cause wilting & scorching of leaves from its extreme alkalinity (pH over 10). Roses Unlimited formula for planting hole is a bit complicated, so I post a simple formula below (I also mix in 2 cups of alfalfa meal for growth-hormone). Frank Gatto's roses are grafted on Dr.Huey (prefers alkaline), so he's heavy on liming! I would use less lime (1/2 cup) for large & years-old established rose in high-rain climate. Farmers routinely use lime with nitrogen in spring time since lime boosts nitrogen uptake. https://goodlifenw.blogspot.com/2012/07/seven-essentials-to-growing-healthy.html "SOIL — For planting, Gatto mixes 50 percent native soil and 50 percent organic compost or potting soil and adds a cup each of bone meal and Garden Lime per bush. He also gives established plants a cup of lime in March, for optimal soil pH." I translate this to 1/2 potting soil and 1/2 my clay (on top), also mix in 2 cups of alfalfa meal plus 1 cup Plant-Tone (has bone meal), and 1/4 cup lime to neutralize the acidity of 2 cups of alfalfa meal (or 2 TBS of lime to neutralize the acidity of 1 cup of alfalfa meal). For LARGE established rose (grafted on Dr.Huey), Dr.Huey rootstock prefers alkaline pH, versus own-root prefer neutral pH, versus multiflora-rootstock prefers slightly acidic: "Gatto advises giving roses small but frequent meals, as opposed to large amounts of fertilizer less often. He uses a balanced granular fertilizer with an N-P-K number no higher than 20 (such as 15-15-15), along with a blend of organic meals including alfalfa, cotton seed, fish, blood and kelp. "I give each one a handful (about a half a cup) every three weeks." Water thoroughly after feeding." So he uses 1/2 cup of chemical fertilizer 10-10-10, plus 1/2 cup of organics like Espoma Tone per LARGE bush (3' x 2') every 3 weeks for grafted-on-Dr.Huey (heavy feeder). Big-fat-foot-long-Dr.Huey-rootstock needs heavy fertilizer, but for tiny own-roots, I skip chemical fertilizer altogether and use only 1/4 cup organics every 2 weeks. Since pots leach out nitrogen more, I use 1 TBS. Osmocote per month, plus 1/4 cup organics (Lilly Miller) every 2 weeks per pot. There is 6% sulfur per 1/4 cup of Osmocote PLUS NPK 15-9-12 (applied every 6 months per 2 gallon pot or 4 square feet, per label instruction). Sulfur is for growth & dark-green leaves, but Osmocote PLUS DOES NOT HAVE calcium. Since we have heavy rain in spring, plus heavy rain in fall. I limit liming to early spring, or late fall with cool weather. Lime does burn, so best in cold & week-long rain. Below is the Squire (older Austin rose), which has bush beauty (nice color), plus heat & drought tolerance (very thorny). Blooms have zillion petals, so the repeat is slow. The Squire with dark-green leaves prefer alkaline so does well with liming. I also give it potassium to prevent blackspot after blooming. Potassium should be twice more than calcium per rose-tissue-analysis: