I have this also. On DA Charles Darwin and Double Delight (standard) They are in different parts of the yard different light hours. Maybe even my Moonstone (standard) They are not blooming well. I really haven't lost a lot of leaves. The stem black is only on Double Delight(bareroot this season). My other Double Delight is fine. For me I was wondering about being under the Eucalyptus tree and it's oil. But I don't think so because a lot of others thrive. It is frustrating because on one plant the leaves dry out and on another they stay hydrated yet look this way. I am guessing the different make up of each plant. My gut feeling is there is a fungus among us. So I will be spraying accordingly and see if that helps. Daisyhair how old is your rose plant? Allison

you have an e-mail gg

Gene, I take about 10 feet off of the top every year. I usually only leave 2-3 leaf nodes of current years growth. That encourages branching (multiple branches) though Black Mission often tends to only send up one new shoot per branch. You have to keep pruning, till it gets the message. I prune some branches back a little further, otherwise the tree tends to get 4-6" taller each year, so pruning some branches back into two year wood allows new shoots to form at a lower height. If you prune to the bud that is oriented in the direction you want the new growth to go, you can encourage the tree to be wider. If the last bud is not pointing up, it will encourage this wider behavior.

They look like the SB that I ate at Marty's house (They were delicious) and it came from JR and so did my SB baby and my baby had 10 figs on it when I got it and they began to ripen. They looked just like the pics, here. I tried a few, but the tree was too young for them to be very good. It was tall when I got it from JR and he said if I liked it, that would be good because he would have to chop off half of it to mail it to anyone. And that was fine with me. It's about 4 1/2' tall and I'm happy with it. I will often say that I have a certain kind of tree and add--That is, IF it really is what kind of tree it was said to be, because I'm so disappointed to find that several of the trees I got are not the real McCoy. :( I KNOW JR's Scott's Black is the real thing. noss