Did you notice how many roses listed in Pickering's catalog have no ARS ratings? I think that is because these roses were not introduced in the USA or at least not at wholesale level, so the ARS does not respond to them, or, it will pick them up very slowly and will rate them many years later. That is too bad because there are excellent roses by Harkness, Fryer, Kordes, Tantau and other breeders that seem to be non-existent for the ARS sometimes for many years. Therefore, I suggest that don't be a sucker for the ARS ratings but rather pay attention to which roses are recommended by gardeners in your growing area. Or. I just checked Margaret Merill's rating that is still 8.3. -according to Pickering. Well, when I started growing roses many years ago, I got this rose because of its ARS rating, and it was one of my most horrible roses along with Baronne Prevost (that rose had even higher rating) despite my obsessive spraying. MM does very well in California but it was an unmitigated disaster on the east coast. Rose growing is easier in CA, so obviously RIR gets much more votes in about individual roses than, let say from NC, and this will distort the results - no matter how well Phil Schorr & his committee work. I never doubted their effort and honesty but once I checked the numbers coming in from various districts I new that the ARS rating will never be reliable. Karl, believe me, it is hopeless effort to try to correct the CA reports because of the sheer numbers. I am not member of the ARS but for a few years I filled out (or tried to) the RIR reports. However, I soon realized that since I do not buy the newest HTs, or rarely do, and because fragrant and disease resistant roses have became more and more important for me less and less roses I found on the current RIR review lists. (True, in the last two years I tried to avoid any temptation as far as roses and gardening were concerned, so my comments refer to years prior to that). Prairiemoon, for example, if you want to grow disease resistant roses check out the ADR ratings. I seem to remember that the main list also was published in English. Or, check the list of the very disease resistant roses listed by Pickering and compare that with the ADR list. I grow Floral Fairy Tale (2003), Laguna (2004) and the Lion's rose rose (2002) in this terribly humid climate - all are great roses, none have ARS rating while many 2006 US intros already have very high ratings. Don't get me wrong, I don't imply that those roses may not deserve the high ratings - but it certainly shows that widespread US distribution influences a fast ARS rating that may or may not have anything to do with the real garden value of a particular rose.

I'm in coastal So Calif, and have grown Margaret Merril (one L) for a number of years. She tends to be extremely disease-free here for me, although I have been experiencing big mildew pressure for the past couple of months, and I noticed a bit of PM on her just this week for the first time ever. I have never had rust on her, and I have several roses who are rust-susceptible. Anyway, she is always extremely fragrant and has a tendency to want to grow big, so if you want to keep her smaller, I'd recommend deadheading her hard. She's one of those roses who starts to make new shoots high almost before the old ones are done (sorta like Frederick Mistral and some others ). So she can quickly grow huge if you don't keep on top of it, and sometimes you need to be ruthless and deadhead really low to keep her in bounds. She reblooms extremely fast, and doesn't sulk a bit at this treatment. It has been one of my neighborhood walker's favorite rose in my yard for a long time. When I dug up my original one b/c of the oak root rot fungus in my front yard, this guy actually came to my door to ask what happened to Margaret, LOL! I assured him that I would be replacing it with a potted specimen that I was already growing.

Thank you all for your kind comments. They have made my morning! I put a few plants in the yard four years ago when my husband and I built our new home. I had no idea I would be bitten but the gardening bug the way I have. I love every single aspect of it, from planning to playing in the mud, even pulling weeds. I thoroughly enjoy photographing my garden blooms and arranging them in bouquets. We live several hundred feet off of the road in the woods and the property is not visible from the road. So I really appreciate the opportunity to share what I do with everyone on Garden Web. So thank you all for humoring me and having a look. Also a big thanks to Beth and Iris gal for help with Mondiale??? rose. I have tried to do several google image searches on Mondiale and came up empty handed. The picture on the tag did look like my rose when it is first opening. I have been meaning to try a knockout rose and I guess I have. Does anyone know what kind of knockout it might be? Carrie

That is so odd about DdB, no I don't have any Eucalypts anywhere nearby. I noticed the downward-pointing floppy wilted (yes, also slightly rolled) leaves when it was still in the pot I bought it in and even returned it to the nursery to ask advice. I was sure it must be verticillium wilt or similar. They said it was normal for DdB. I 100% know it had enough water as it was in a pot getting watered everyday! I even watered twice daily to see if I could change the new wilted growth but nothing happened and it wasn't even hot. I had significant misgivings about planting it in the ground, I guess I'll just keep an eye on it!