I got Mirandy as a band from Burlington last month. It's completely yellow, very chlorotic. Burling told me to give it nitrogen, and she is right. Since it's a hybrid tea, I made the potting mix more alkaline by putting in some of my clay soil (alkalinity suppresses fungal growth). Mirandy didn't like it, so I changed the potting soil to neutral by using Organic MiracleGro (pH of 7). I gave her some blood meal NPK of 12-0-0. Normally this green up things fast in my garden, but not Mirandy. Then I gave it sulfur, Mirandy didn't like it either.

I have a pale but productive Christopher Marlowe that greened up quickly with Schultz soluble fertilizer for acid plants NPK of 32-10-10, with all trace elements and triple the amount of iron. I gave Mirandy this, and she sprouted new dark green leaves immediately.

I remember reading about how weak of a grower Mirandy in the Encyclopedia of Roses, but her bloom is large and very raspberry fragrant. My hunch is that weak grower needs a good dose of nitrogen and trace elements. My other hunch is that roses that tolerate alkaline soil, such as Golden Celebration, Paul Neyron, and mini-roses (descendants of China roses) REALLY HAVE a fungal issue on acidic soil.

My neighbor planted her mini-rose right into our alkaline soil, pH of 7.7, and it blooms really well with zero fungal diseases. But when I put the mini-roses into green bag MiracleGro potting soil (pH of 6.5), they lost all their leaves to blackspots.

Mirandy doesn't tolerate alkaline soil, so she's disease-free in a neutral pH. Even when I gave her sulfur, she didn't break out in blackspots like Paul Neyron. She definitely responded to a fast acting, soluble NPK of 32-10-10.

Luxrosa - I'm in the same zone / climate as you, and haven't sprayed. I have Chrysler Imperial, Oklahoma, Crimson Glory and Mr. Lincoln for highly fragrant red HTs, all on Dr. Huey. They are all healthy (although Crimson Glory gets some PM). Chrysler Imperial is my favorite. Regan Nursery in Fremont is the best source. Reminds me that I MUST take a drive down there to see the entire place in bloom. I've only been there in September for their sale.

Hi Lux,

You might want to contact Cliff Orent and ask him. I saw his wonderful collection of hp's at Eurodesert last year before the garden was dismantled. However some hp's were already gone by the time I first visited. I bought some gorgeous red ones, but of course Cliff would be more familiar with the healthiest ones long term than I would. One that I bought, Francois Premier, Cliff told me he planned to keep one for himself as it is a superb rose. It has proven to be so in my garden as well. Very clean leaves and fragrant red flowers. Another red that has performed well for me is Comtesse O'Gorman. Her flowers look like red peonies. She tip roots too! But I don't know of where you might be able to get them budded, or even at all now. Vintage is sold out and the ones they had were own root.

I bought another Eurodesert hp, Directeur Alphand, as a baby band from Vintage in the fall. I didn't see an adult plant at Eurodesert as the mother plant was already sold. I only allowed mine to produce one flower last fall, but I can't recall quite how red it was or whether it was more in the purple tones. It's now in the ground and has buds but no open flowers yet. I checked it yesterday. No rust.

Melissa

I bought Mirandy for my sister in 2010 because it's the fragrance she remembers from our grandmother's plant. Then I bought one for me in February of this year. So far she's blooming beautifully, no disease, very robust. I have very alkaline soil so let's hope she stays as happy as she is now.

Thank you, lou, for that info. Own-root Hybrid Teas perform differently from the ones grafted on Dr. Huey. If my own-root Mirandy doesn't improve, I'll look for one grafted. I'm glad to hear that Mirandy can handle alkaline soil. There's hope for my own-root!

I bought a Queen O The Lakes at a local nursery earlier this year. No idea if it's own root or not, it had a little faded tag with the name and a VERY faded photo of the blooms on it and that's it. I didn't mess around with it when planting, I find that I get a rash from some roses so it was a quick out of the pot and into the hole affair (and then the pink knockout I got that the same time managed to poke me in the arm and I ended up with...yup...a rash).

It is just coming into a nice little flush right now after we've had a few good rains. Very pretty, but at the back of my bed so I can't easily smell it (or get pricked while weeding!).

I snagged it up solely because of the name, but I do like it.

My neighbor had Mirandy when I lived in Austin, TX.
It was planted in very alkaline soil (limestone bedrock in less than a foot!), with morning sun and mid-day to afternoon shade.
It was never sprayed or fertilized, and it was BEAUTIFUL!
Austin is very dry, so if you're in a wet climate it might behave differently.