I have three specimens of this cultivar, all from Bob Fincham of course. Bought as probably the same stock grafts over the previous three years. First, full sun is best IMO, though perhaps in severe heat/sun it may burn a little bit? No experience with this so far in my mild zone, similar to Dave's. Next growth rate. I think my specimens have grown about 4-5" a year of the upper most branches and an inch or two less on the lower ones. To me it doesn't seem particular slow or fast, I'd suggest the plant might be 3'x2'(widextall) in 10 years. A medium dwarf would be my best description. One caveat, Bob Fincham has stated that he has seen unusual faster upright growth. Given that sometimes it does this, I would say that the growth rate on this plant isn't very stable. Mine seems to be growing faster then Dave's and some may grow slower/faster in different climates. Time will tell or perhaps one of the super-seasoned experts might chime in. A final note, I find this plant to be superior to 'Chief Joseph'. Blasphemy to many I know, but it's incredibly bright in Summer and Fall and still a nice color the rest of the year. And it would be hard for it to be as fussy as the Chief. -Will

Thanks esh and qq... I drove around town yesterday seeking different sizes of Drakes to get a better idea. esh, you are right...they do seem to have a sort of "lollipop" look for awhile, as they get tall quickly. That's ok with me, so I'm relieved on that point. Someone in the LA/MS forum (I'm from MS and my hubby is from LA...hence our desire for the St. Augustine) told me that one they had grew 15 feet in 5 years. qq -- This concerns me a little, but the weird thing is, when you go to sites like UGA Co-op, it's listed as a recommended tree. I guess maybe every plant is invasive in one place or another? I hope I am not doing the wrong thing though. I'm down to a list of about 5 trees that would work in the space and only 1-2 of them are available. Chinese Pistache was originally my first choice, but you just can't buy them around here. I'm a relatively new (just in the last 5 years or so) gardener and it drives me about nuts to look in all of the gardening magazines and see all these great looking new plants and trees...and then not be able to get them locally.

First thing that I'd look to are iron deficiency and pH. Here's a chart with the basics of systematic leaf conditions. It's not always so cut and dry, but these are the basics... http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/hydro/symptoms.html Since it's the easiest fix, I'd get a water soluble micronutrient product and use that first. A common formula is Iron, Zinc, and Manganese (not to be confused with Magnesium.) If it works, and you're growing in the ground, then check with your local county ext. to see if it's a common deficiency. If it is, then you know the fix. If it isn't then you'll want to discover what could be interfering with nutrient uptake. Common causes are imbalances where a surplus of one nutrient/mineral affects another, and pH issues. Good luck. :-) Oh, it could be herb. drift, but iron deficits aren't uncommon. Edit: Dave posted while I was typing... I basically agree. Especially since micro-nutrient supplementation is so simple, and plants usually respond quite quickly to their application, I'd try that first. If it's herbicide drift, they're damaged beyond repair, and there's no sense worrying about that until you've ruled out the easy fixes.

Hey Deborah, I've gotten a couple more roses now, bringing the total to close to 100 roses. I've lost some over the years but have a lot of my original collection that I posted about 3 years ago. For the most part they do get really big, a lot of them even bigger than the estimated sizes that are listed on sites like helpmefind.com (which I use a lot as a resource as far as mature rose sizes). I guess that has a lot to do with having a longer growing season than most (not as long as yours though!) I will say this as far as rose wisdom goes: I now know to pay attention to the growth habit of a rose before buying it. If the growth habit isn't upright and bushy (but not overly so, wider than tall doesn't work in a rose bed with a lot of roses in it), then I probably won't be interested in it. There are specific roses I have in areas where I want climbers. Trying to prune a climber as a bush doesn't really work. Also, it's not a huge deal if my roses don't go dormant in the winter, freezes don't kill them in this zone (there was even a huge cold snap this February in Texas and even though temperatures dropped to as low as 8 degrees and some of my roses died to the ground those were all own-root and came back from it really quickly). I was always really worried about the fact that my roses didn't ever go dormant even as colder weather was approaching. This information is obviously zone-dependent so if you do live a colder zone it's a good idea to hold back on pruning/fertilizing as colder weather approaches. Another thing is that it's very true that prepping the soil where you're planting the roses is far more important than how you feed them afterwards. For the most part I don't feed the roses all too frequently but the soil they're in had a lot of time put into it. The holes were dug deep and wide, and plenty of organic matter was mixed into them. Another thing that I don't think some people realize is that they should really let their roses do their own thing until they do reach their mature sizes or close to it. They want to grow to their mature size, pruning too much before that (other than removing dead growth) is probably more of a hindrance to the roses than anything. That goes back to one of the things I pointed out earlier, trying to control a rose's growth habit is a losing battle, and if you want to put a rose in an area that needs a smaller rose, don't keep chopping back one that wants to grow big. Find one with similar characteristics that has a smaller mature size instead. I don't really take pictures of my roses and I do have some weeding to do in my rose bed, but I will post back here with some pictures...eventually. I will definitely keep you in mind though! Just want to get the weeding done first, it looks shameful as-is!