I've gotten roses as early as March and kept them in my basement until May when I could plant them. Because I have mine inside under lights I'll either pot them up and let them start to grow or, if they're bagged or boxed, open them up and keep them watered. Outside every year is different. I take my cues from the weather. Last year it got warm and stayed warm early here and I had blooming roses by the first of May but the norm is the end of May. I have to uncover the potted roses and get them off of the flower bed they spend the winter in by the beginning of April so the perennials in that bed can come up. So those are first to come out of winter wraps. By that time the forsythia is usually blooming (mid-April) so I'll start cleaning out and pruning the roses in the ground. I like to have things pretty much cleaned up by the first of May. That also gives me a handle on what kind of winter damage and losses I've had so I can begin to plant in May.

Interesting how some things change while others stay the same. Avalon: My Vets Honor gets a fair amount of morning sun. I have to say that it is a heavy feeder and performs best when fertilized consistantly. Belinda's Dream is a work-horse in my garden where I have almost as many of it as I do of Elina. I recently purchased two Pope John Paul II after being pleasantly surprised by the growth of one that I ordered from J&P in the Fall on own-root. I was able to find it at a nursery in Miami. Appearantly a nursery up in Central Florida has begun to take up the slack left behind from MerryGro and is selling J&P roses on Fortuniana rootstock under the name of Armstrong Roses. I've spotted a few of these roses at my local Home Depot in Pembroke Pines. Well, bottom line, and a return from my tangent, PJP II is creating quiet a sensation in my garden. Peggy: My hat goes off to you. I can't get into OGRs. I can just imagine that they're huge in their pots. I was just up to the Cool Roses farm this weekend and Geoff echoed what has been a growing problem in my garden, regular thrips. He said that the weather is keeping the Chilli Thrips at bay but that the regular thrips are reaking havoc everywhere. I was warned against overly using ConserveSC and to stock up if I found any for sale as it has become restricted due to nurseries over-using it to combat Chilli Thrips. In other news: My raised beds project is 40% complete and coming along nicely. I hope to post pics some time in the future. Enjoy our Spring while it lasts Florida!!! Adrian.

Kordes rule in my z5/6 no spray Massachusetts garden. I have also had great luck with some of the Easy Elegance roses. "Yellow Submarine" has gorgeous yellow blooms all summer, even though she only gets about 4 hours of sun, "Music Box" which was a brand new band last year so not prolific at flowering yet but has blooms of pink and yellow swirls and "Centennial" which sadly seems to be out of production and my favorite has beautiful softest pink to cream tea rose like blooms. No scent though. Yellow Submarine courtesy of rose solutions Macy's Pride courtesy Easy Elegance website All of the Easy elegance roses are own root grown and nursery stock has a two year guarantee. I have "Macy's Pride" on order another creamy/soft yellow rose. The only thing their roses lack is scent. For DA I have good luck with Heritage, Charlotte and Windermare which is a blooming machine though not heavily scented. Bolero was decent as was Julia Child although Julia is not very hardy. The Kordes were exceptional though and most came through the winter with very few issues, a few broken canes from heavy snow and minimal tip death. As a plus some of them even smell delicious :-) Sharon

All the plants have buds and Munstead Wood is the first to bloom-- 9 flowers have opened and 9 more developing. I gave them water and nothing else for weeks, then as they started getting bigger, sprinklings of bloodmeal and half-doses of fish emulsion. At some point I tried giving them a bit of diluted potassium with indeterminate results. (Maybe because I got muriate of potash instead of the potassium chloride, sulfide or whatever it is that's supposed to be better?) Once I gave them water left over from cooking beans (no salt) and they seemed to like it fine. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the whole plants yet, but they do seem like they are taking off. Though Munstead Wood, Lady of Shallot, and Jude the Obscure are growing with big open spaces between canes-- I don't know if these are the reported David Austin octopus arms, or pest damage to terminal shoots that would otherwise fill out the center of the bush, or particular growth habit in Houston, TX weather, or if it's just something it'll grow out of after a year and some pruning. The other, younger two plants that I've messed with the least, Lady Emma Hamilton and Brother Cadfael, have much more attractive foliage and look more bushy/shrubby. LEH has sixteen buds already and is nicely rounded, while BC, who has been growing tall thick canes and took the longest to leaf out and bud, looks more like a sturdy column shape. They are all at least two to three and a half feet off the soil level. So far the scent on MW is very sweet, like berry candy and rosewater (rather than dried rose petals), and seems stronger after a fish emulsion feeding. Can't wait for the others! Thanks to everyone for being present on this forum. I've been going through a lot of posts and learning a bunch!