Kippy, when I first planted the old hill, I rented a power auger. My sister sat on the motor to keep it from slipping down hill while I tried to bust holes in many areas just to begin getting water into the soil. After tons of manure (literally!), I could sink a fiberglass shovel all the way to the handle with one push! Who cares if it looks like poop? Or, that it smells like a sweaty horse for a few days? Or there may be weeds in it? Anything that germinates in damp horse manure pulls up EASILY, and weed seeds blow in on the wind; get tracked in on every shoe which walks into a garden and on every animal which visits it. Truck load after truck load turned that awful adobe into potting soil where columbine, penstemon, buddleia, even gladiolus self seeded all over the place! I gave away seedlings for years! This was the old Newhall garden, Mother's Day, 1994. It was only possible to get about 70% of it in one shot from the facing hill. It was expanded one full bed on the upper end of the slope before it had to be dismantled to permit construction of slopes to support condos. The soil was amazing after 18 years of horse manure. VERY good stuff! Kim

Multiflora is highly susceptible to chlorosis, the lack of iron (and sometimes nitrogen). The most common cause here is the alkalinity of our soil and water. If for any reason, the plant was deprived of either of those nutrients, or the temps were just off enough when the bud was formed, it's going to be lighter colored. I frequently had to heavily amend the soil to acidify it to keep my heavily multiflora based roses their right colors. Many other types are also susceptible to the issue. I had chronic chlorosis (and light colored flowers and foliage) on Blue Mist, Reine des Violettes and a number of others for a long time in the old Newhall garden. Now, I just don't grow them if they have the issue. A client has Gartendirektor Otto Linne which FREQUENTLY throws chlorotic canes and nearly white flowers. I told her if it offends her, cut it off. Otherwise, leave it alone and once the appropriate nutrients and temps arrive together, it will green up. Kim

What we used wasn't rebar. It was the largest size of that rebar-like stuff that they sell at Home Depot and Lowe's for plants. Maybe close to 1/2-in diameter, and 8 ft. long. I was somewhat apprehensive, because I have seen EvS become pretty big in Southern CA. The "mother" from which this was taken was a massive thing, trained to a big, big archway over a gate, in Sandy Gaal's garden, in Ojai. The link below, this MAY be EvS -- it's not labelled, and didn't take the photos. But it's survived on that now for easily 6 years. Maybe 8 years? I haven't touched it to cut it back for 3-4 years now, and it's still a huge ball, so I must have done a surprisingly good job of tying it. Jeri Here is a link that might be useful:

Jeri, I was a involved with the rose society about 12 years ago. The soil amendments that I use today come from their advice, but have been recently modified due to professional soil analysis tests. In past gardens, the situation was more ideal as I hired professionals to put in the first landscape/garden. I insisted upon thorough soil amending prior to anything being planted. The yard I have now, well... I am working with what already was in place; a neglected yard. My yard now has both clay and sandy soil. The clay has drainage issues and a pH of 8.6. The sandy soil has no drainage issues generally speaking and a lower pH. This is my third garden here, and generally speaking, we run into caliche when excavating for pools, and it is usually down much deeper than the holes we dig for roses and plants; not to imply that it absolutely cannot exist in less depth, and, it is more commonly found in some areas of the valley. My first pool excavation resulted in caliche being hit at about 5' in one portion of a larger section. Modern roses rule here; that is modern roses grown on Dr. Huey. That is all available at our local nurseries as well, with the exception of an old Austin or two at an independent nursery. Years ago, I successfully grew a few Austin's, a Sombreuil and a Zephrine Drouhin, which confirmed for me that there are OGR's that thrive here; but, they were all grafted. I also contacted a member of the local rose society who now seems to be inactive. She had a list of OGR's that perform well here that I found, and have selected some of my roses from her list. I am going against the norm in Las Vegas by making rose selections that aren't in the modern class. There is not a single rose that I can think of off hand, recommended by the society, that was not a modern; and mostly hybrid teas and floribundas etc. Learning about the OGR roses and their specific needs, and what to do with these bands etc.,is not the focus of most rose gardeners here, and thus I chose not to utilize local gardeners as a resource. What to do with my soil and the status quo, modern grafted roses primarily ordered and planted bare root, that I know. My soil which can be found in other cities that also sit on the Mojave ( a large chunk of So. CA, So. UT, and West. AZ.... could have some commonality with others. Determining what is best for my own root plants, that is where I lack and seek knowledge. This post was edited by desertgarden561 on Sun, Sep 29, 13 at 17:11