aggierose, your question re pot size is not dumb at all- I wondered that for years myself! The answers I came across indicate that unless your potting mixture (for young plants) is very light, nutritious, and free-draining, the closed environment of a pot holds too much moisture and too much air remains driven from the soil for too long. True, open ground CAN be so saturated (as after a heavy rainfall) there is no oxygen (especially in clay soils) in the soil, but usually water moves through the soil fast enough that it isn't a problem. Roots stop growing when there is no oxygen, and do so temporarily after a heavy rainfall. So your babies may be getting swamped (this can happen in heavy soil if you just amend a hole with lighter soils - the hole ends up being a sump that traps water). Also, if they are recently potted they have lost a lot of tiny feeder roots - so they need to replace those, plus you will have leaf yellowing and drop as the plant give up leaves it can't support right now, until the feeder roots re-grow. Which won't happen if the soil is heavy and oxygen -less. Without being there it is hard to say, I would be hesitant to tell you to repot again into a smaller pot and lighter mixture. If the plants re in danger of rotting outright you will have to, gently. Do the canes/stems still look good? Lastly I am still suspicious of your soil mixture - for me I have very, very rarely purchased ANY soil that I didn't need to amend (preferred) and a LOT of what I see has all kinds of junk in it - long-term fertilizers, wetting agents - it's getting harder and harder just to find good soil that I can lighten up with Perlite, sand, etc. That includes so-called African violet and cactus mixtures. For my own experience it is better to mix your own! I might try more than 2-3 hours of sun, at least more partial sun if your heat is strong. And do not fertilize at all until the babies are really growing!!! 5-inch tall plants need small pots with a light, free-draining mixture - you might try re-potting to a smaller pot and putting the small pots into the big pot (double-potting). Pack the space between the pots with insulation material (I've used newspaper, mulch, packing peanuts, even old dirt!)

Sunnysideuphill, what made that garden bed fail before? You may need to address that issue first. I've personally never had any problems planting roses in a bed that previously held either roses or other plants. I think if you ammend your soil with plenty of organic matter you probably won't have a situation of rose replant disease, especially if you till in the ammendments and then let the bed sit through the winter before planting again. It seems that rose replant disease is a very real problem in England. David Austin recommends re-planting just to the side of where the previous bush was. Otherwise he says to remove the top part of the soil and replace it. From all the research I've done on the subject, it doesn't seem to be much of an issue in the U.S. If it were me, I would lean towards preparing the bed this fall, for spring planting. Roses can be transplanted, but they are much happier if you are reasonably sure of where you want them first and then plant them. Most of them truly resent being disturbed once planted. Sandy

That should be very nice in bloom, indeed. I can't wait either. I hope you don't mind, but 50% of the photogs in my screen saver are yours. If you do mind then I have to take them out, which could be good and bad. Bad, because I will miss them and good because then I won't have half the office waiting for me to go in a meeting so that they can crowd in front of my computer and watch all those beautiful photogs. Aamir Waheed

I'm miiiight be turning our porches and pool deck into pot ghettos now? Yipes! Since my first post on this thread I've added a potted Diamond Eyes and a whiskey barrel Alexander Mackenzie to the back porch, and a potted Ebb Tide to the pool deck. This is in addition to the 3 gallon babies that have wait to go in the ground behind the patio, and the 7 other babies settling in to the pot ghetto nursery on the front porch. This might be indicative of a problem? ...Although I do have the flower snob hubby seriously talking about a greenhouse now. Heh heh heh.