Comtesse du Cayla got very big, very fast in my home garden. It's sizable in the cemetery, too, but that plant is 15 years old. Mine is four yrs old, and easily five feet tall and would be eight feet wide if I let it. Nice rose, but the other gripe I have is that my blossoms crisp at the edges when its hot. I'm a water miser at home, and the cemetery CdC doesn't have that problem since it's in a bed that gets virtually flooded when we water. The Old Blush that we have in the cemetery has only a touch of mildew in cool shoulder seasons, and blooms almost all year long. It's a wonderful rose for Sacramento (although Jeri also wonders if we have an especially good clone). If you are near Sacramento, you can come see many of these roses in the cemetery. The San Jose Heritage Rose Garden has almost all of them, too. In Sacramento, we will be selling some of them at our Apr 18 Open Garden, too. I'm usually there on Wed and Sat mornings and always glad to share what I know about the roses. Anita Here is a link that might be useful: Sacramento Historic Rose Garden

Laura, any success thus far and down the line is mostly a result of everything I've learned from first, the people on the Container forum (Al and others), who taught me how to make my own mix, and from you and others--John, Mike, Vlad, and more--here on the Citrus forum, who inspired me to take another chance on a Meyer and have given me the knowledge I need to care for it. I've wanted a Meyer, and roses, for so many years, but felt it was impossible here; my first Meyer, some 4 years ago, was miserable almost from the start and died--I didn't know what to do for it and was terrified to re-pot it. I would never have had the nerve before to mix my own planting mix, or to bare-root a tree when re-potting, for example, and I've done it now with all my formerly sad potted roses and my two new citrus, thus far with great results! I've read both forums for days (mostly nights) at a time! and admired your beautiful healthy citrus trees--yours are gorgeous!--and learned so much from your experience. I hadn't gardened in years, and I have a very small very challenging spot, but these forums (also Antique Rose forum, where I'm spending a lot of time now) are the reason I am gardening now. My dreary little space is already transformed, since April, with herbs, strawberries, blooming and budding roses, flowering/scented perennials, and my citrus trees, and already I find many bees and butterflies visiting. It's incredibly rewarding and a great little retreat for me. THANK YOU ALL for your inspiration and help! Sheba

Hey guys, first of all, thanks to everyone that's helping. I've learned so much in the past two days. Specially Dave and Al...thank you teachers! :) So sorry about in the instrusion, I'm another one with fiddle leaf problems. I think I was sold a sick FLF...the guys just told me that it was in direct light all day long, so I thought the brown spots were justified. Until I got home and realized the soil was really compact...really....compact and soggy...and loads of rocks on top, which probably wouldn't help. So what I've did pretty fast, I went into despair...I've tried to repot it...and..of course I the roots just broke in half, and they were almost black and quite smelly... I didn't have anything around other than regular soil with perlite, so I just moved the lyrata and the now shorter roots too a new dry vase with some brick pieces at the bottom and that soil...the soil it's very loose and didn't compressed whatsoever. Didn't watered since, two days now. So after reading all of your kind info, Tomorrow I'm going too: 1. Clean the remaining roots as well as I can without damaging it more.. 2 .Repot, with 5:1:1 mix...Pine bark, Turf (should I?), Perlite; and some brick pieces in the bottom. 3. Water the lyrata once like flushing, right? And then again.. 4. The bottom leaves are very very rigid almost like they are about to break, I've read one Al's comment about "the end of life" process of these leaves...Should I cut the last leave and put the trunk deeper so it forms new healthy roots? (if this makes any sense at all) 5. Pruning, I was thinking about cutting the top (last picture), but as the bottom leaves are so stiff, maybe they aren't able to produce that much "food" and I should keep the top one for now? (I'm I thinking stupid??) 6. The only I had to cover the pot was sawdust, with which I have been lucky in protecting my plants from pests and mould. Again...in a despair act..should I maintain this? Can you help me please?? I'm based in Sintra,Portugal; very warm and humid location, actually humidity is a problem around here. Any advice is most welcome! thanks!

Robin & Gudang's hep and advice... robin98(NZ(9b)) 23 hours ago Len, don't be too down! Of all your plants this one is the trickiest, if that's any consolation. How was he when you got home? 1 Like Bookmark Edit|DeleteLen M 21 hours ago Thanks so much for the reassuring words, Robin. I have to say that I am much better today than I was when I left out for work on my last trip. I returned home last night to find Fürguson was not as bad as I imagined he'd be. His leaves at the bottom of both stems were dry, curled up and pretty much dead. Some of his larger leaves had brown spots and he was drooping extremely badly....To the point where I'm wondering if his petioles will ever rebound & lift his large heavy leaves back up? Also, his stem seemed a little shriveled from midway down & the greener part of the stem toward the top was quite soft. Last thing I noticed was the soil was SOOOO dry almost throughout. Of course I refrained from watering him, but I do wonder if this is normal for the gritty mix or is it b/c I failed to soak the bark for an adequate amount of time? I sure hope to receive answers and advice soon. I'll sit tight until then. In the meantime here are the photos I took of him before flying out this morning... Not as brown & shriveled as I thought he would be... Dead looking shriveled bottom leaves :( Some browning on the larger leaves... The 2 new leaves that sprouted on top of the stem w j-hooked roots. Still very flacid. They're being supported by a branch I found in my backyard & I wrapped the limp new leaves with one of the only leaves that had broken off from the bottom of my Fiddle during the repotting. Again, thank you, Robin for taking the time to show interest in my Fiddle's well being. Len Like Bookmark Gudang TropEq 20 hours ago Yeah, seem good enough for plant that just got extreme root pruning. For healthy tree, i don't clean soil on the rootzone since too many root hair in there. I just fix root position and cut only the root that extremely circling, so after repot, no need to wait till it rebound to it's normal condition. On your case, the tree need to regrow root and root hair, so it will need more time to metabolism normally. During developing root, the leaves will suffer since no suply energy for them so some will fall. In extreem, it will reduce stems so only few inches of the trunk above the ground that it keep alive, with new buds as old stem replacement. On your case i ussualy give foliar feeding since root still unable to give nutrients for the leaves. Only few absorbed, but it's better than none. robin98(NZ(9b)) 20 hours ago You're very welcome. I'll try to give you some advice, but first off have to say I've never made or used gritty, hopefully someone experienced with that will chime in to help you. And I'm a bit useless with the root pruning - I had to smile when I read that part, because that's pretty much what I do : trim the long roots straight across the bottom but chicken out of doing anything major! It will be a week in the new mix by the time you get back, so I wouldn't pull it out again. He'll have been putting energy into growing new fine root hairs, and you'll just set that process right back again, making it harder to recover. It sounds it was best to change the old mix, if it was staying wet that long. That would have been trouble in winter. I'd let it recover now, get through winter, build up some energy reserves in spring then repot with more thorough root pruning in summer. I'd also suggest using 511 for the soil mix as it retains a bit more water (while still being aerated) which gives you more leeway than gritty. If it gets hot where you live in summer, and your job takes you away for a few days at a time, you might find the gritty dries out too fast. Right for now its care will be a bit different, while it's recovering. Put it in a warm bright spot, out of direct sun or drafts. Keep its roots moist while it is re-establishing (my understanding of gritty is that the top levels dry out pretty fast so you might need to water more often and/or put something on the surface to keep moisture in the upper levels, correct me people if I'm wrong...) Usually you're not supposed to fertilise until you see new growth, but that also might be different with gritty. New growth means roots have regrown and now energy can be directed to the leaves. When you see this move it to more sun and let it dry out more in between waterings. I wouldn't cut any leaves just yet. Hope some of that helps :)