If you think it's your soil, and you're willing to try again, perhaps this will help.

First, don't plant the band directly into your soil -- baby it from Spring in a pot. For potting soil, consider my modified "Mel's Mix" from Square Foot Gardening. The original mix was equal parts peat moss, vermiculite, and compost. I looked at this and broke it down to functional components -- 1/3 nutrient-poor organic base, 1/3 nutrient-poor inorganic base, 1/3 nutrient-rich organic base. My modification was using 2 parts peat moss, 1 part shredded mulch, 2 parts vermiculite, 1 part perlite, 2 parts Bovung dehydrated manure, 1 part used coffee grounds (I don't have any compost working here yet). Into this, I mixed 1 cup Jobe's Organic Knock-Out Rose Plant Food (or whatever organic dry mix you prefer) per 2-gal container.

Once you see it starting to put out a good amount of new growth, feed it "weakly, weekly" with half-strength fish emulsion -- with seaweed, if you can find that kind of mix. Make sure the pot doesn't dry out, and keep it where it gets a good amount of sun until the heat of Summer arrives -- then move it to where it gets morning sun and afternoon "bright shade."

When the main heat of Summer has passed, get ready to put it in the ground. If you have really bad clay, try to make a hole twice the size of the pot, and set the native soil aside. Make some more of the potting mix, and mix it about 50-50 with the native soil from the hole. Use this to backfill the hole after putting the rose in the ground. You'll have extra soil -- so use this to form a sort of "doughnut" around the newly planted rose to catch extra rain and irrigation. You can level it out with mulch on top -- you'll still have a sort of "pool" around the rose for catching extra water for its first year, being as the mulch will have more air space between the particles than the soil mix below.

If you keep doing this sort of thing whenever you plant in the bed (be it for roses, perennials, annuals, etc.), you'll be putting pockets of better-draining soil into the ground, which will break up the clay faster than simply laying materials on top. Also, the vermiculite and perlite is inorganic, so it won't break down over time. It's still good to keep adding organics on top, and I'm noticing that in my bed, it is slowly making its way down into the native soil, but doing this will help a new baby band get going faster.

:-)

~Christopher

You could try a grafted plant. I have one grafted on Dr. Huey and it does well. I also have clay, but I've amended it over the years. CdC does bloom more than BP, which I also have. BP also puts out octopus canes, which are very unattractive. I am going to try to get it to climb a bit. I had to dig up all my BPs (own root) and they are in pots now (I have 3, 4 if I dig up the one that sprouted up after I dug up the others). I may plant them in a mass with a obelisk to see if that would display them better.

Instead of buying dinky little bands, why not buy own-root plants from places like Roses Unlimited or Chamblees. I'm not sure how large their potted own-roots are, but they are decidedly larger than bands and they are ready (after a several days outdoors to get acclimated to your environment) to be planted directly into the garden.

Or a grafted plant would also work.

Kate

I agree that if you have planted an own root band directly into the soil, that might be the problem. I pot band roses I get immediately into one gallon pots, and let them grow roots and get bigger in those pots for 6 months minimum, sometimes 12, before putting them in the ground.

Jackie

I have a 'Comte de Chambord' which I got from Mr. Moore quite some time ago. It is in the clayiest clay soil in my garden; and indeed it is very very slow to put on any size as a plant. Still, I keep it, as the blossoms are very nice, and it makes every attempt to rebloom with some frequency. It responds quickly and well to fertilizer (I usually use Mir-Acid). Many Damask Perpetuals seem to dislike clay soil, I've noted; but eventually they seem to adapt and settle in OK.

And "Yes!" to what others have posted about growing from bands. When I receive mine, I immediately transplant into a gallon container; and, if the plant grows as expected, I then grow it on in a 2-gal. can to a good size before planting out into the open ground.

Some roses given the above treatment grow happily out of the one-gal. can, continue to thrive in the two-gal. can, then, planted out, simply sit and pout. These, after I've given them about six months to get into the spirit of things, I dig up, and put back into a two-gal. can, where they usually return to thriving. Eventually, once they put on good growth, I try them out in the open ground again. Half the time, they get on as they should; the others, if they go back to pouting, are summarily executed as an example to other plants in the garden which might be considering an uncooperative attitude.