mscottw2 I did not catch the winterizer fertilizer part so disregard my balanced fertilizer recommendation from earlier. Just out of curiosity have you done a soil test recently? That would tell you if you need anything like P, K, and PH adjustment. My advice on those is apply once a year either in Fall for the last application, or the first Spring application. OK you got me a little confused with your questions of when to start what because you mention Halts, Urea, CGM, and Blood Meal. So I will try to sort things out best as I can, but are you organic, semi-organic, or synthetic organic? I am confused. If you want to do organic get the CGM down now as it is a pre-emergence and fertilizer. If you can afford it, just use CGM all year round as a fertilizer, I do on my personal lawn. That way you do not have to worry about timing of anything. Not sure about pre-emergence timing in your area Z9, it may still be to early for chemical treatment. Do you have a means to take soil temperature? If you do you are looking for temp of 55 degrees, or if Forsythia grows in your area you can tell by it being in full bloom. So here is the deal if using chemical pre-emergence wait until the soil reaches 55 or you see Forsythia in full bloom , if using CGM it needs to go down about a week or two earlier as it takes time for it to work One last word on pre-emergence. If you go the chemical route I would suggest looking for Dimension rather than Halts. Dimension last longer and targets a larger spectrum of weeds. Regardless of which you choose, make two applications spaced 8-weeks apart. Finally a few words on fertilizers. Yes I think it is OK for you to start now. Officially there are 5 weeks of winter left, but not for your area. Its possible you might get a light frost, but doubtful. It wonÂt hurt the grass, like I said just water if you hear a cold snap is coming. Next either go organic or synthetic organic. Like I said earlier just use CGM all year round if you can afford it, and then just forget about pre-m. Or use CGM for the first two applications, then switch to Soy Bean Meal rather than Blood Meal. For synthetic organic use a slow release urea product. Either start the year off or end the year off with a balanced urea like 20-5-10, and then use straight nitrogen for the rest of the growing season. Hope that helps, but I was confused.

I love mine. I planted it last fall, a 4" band from Rogue Valley Roses. It has a few canes to about 6' now, and is putting out several more to fill out. The foliage has been perfect. It has almost always had a bloom on it, though I would say it blooms in flushes. The flowers are usually light pink, though some start a light orange and fade to pink. It is sometimes compared to Mutabilis, but so far, the color range is more "pastel." We've had severe drought here, and I've watered at best once every two weeks. At best it gets six hours of sun. The soil is well and deeply amended, though.

PS. Location is north central Texas. And I'm sorry about the photo aspect ratio. That was my first post so I'll have to go find out what the requirements are. But clicking on the image gives you a good look at it.

Thank you vaporvac. I think it would make a beautiful pairing with ZD. I haven't had KH in a shady spot, but if it is anything like ZD, years ago I had one growing on the north side of my house. It wasn't as vigorous there, but was getting better and blooming more every year. A "helpful" neighbor told me he would get the tree out of there that was growing in the middle of it, he didn't kill the tree, he killed Zeffy! Anyway, I liked it in that shady spot, it wasn't overwhelmingly huge. So far mine hasn't had a problem with blackspot. Marlorena, thank you. I have been noticing your pictures, you sure grow some beautiful roses and other flowers. I have always admired English Gardens.