I mix them all the time. The roses don't seem to mind at all, and only a technical rosey person is apt to notice that you've mixed them. The main reason I mixed them is that our Floribundas seem to bloom constantly, or more rapidly, than the flushes on the Hybrid Teas. In between flushes I'll still have blooms on the floribundas & minifloris. I also adore variety and don't have any 2 of the same rose planted anywhere. I've mixed Hot Cocoa, Kanegem, Koko Loco, and Ann Henderson into our beds. I obviously have some sort of obsession with oranges & russets. Don't discount Grandifloras, either. We mix those in as well; Rock & Roll and About Face are in 1 of our beds. Some Hybrid Teas have many of the properties of their parents, which means that you might plant something classified as an H Tea, but it blooms or grows like a Floribunda or Grandiflora anyway.

strawberry hill, your post is so interesting. I've never tested my soil but knowing that it's basically decomposed granite (in some places solid granite just 1 1/2 feet down) is a good clue. Growing the right roses for your area, as has been emphasized on this forum over and over, is in my opinion the most important lesson to learn. Having once chosen the right ones, there are still steps that can be taken, as you point out, to fine-tune the results. A lot depends on how much you can or are willing to do. I've found that coffee grounds from my husband's coffee consumption, alfalfa meal and adequate water are the simplest way for me to have good-looking roses. Judicious pruning also has its place. Poisons never will; I'd give up roses first. It's part art, part science and part the will of the roses to live and thrive. It's a little different for everyone, and it is endlessly fascinating. Ingrid

Here's mine.. fledermaus or mocca or capucinno. Bare in mind the bulb had suffered alot of trauma. My friend put it in his fridge for a couple months in a plastic bag and it was mouldy when i got it. I hacked and cut it before planting. It rotted despite me only watering it once and had a bad case of red scorch, all the buds were burnt and moulding with only one opening. Before it opened i hacked into it again and it didn't get much light. The scape rotted off and i hacked into it again and it is sending up another scape. I feel like the Freddy Kreuger of Hippi's, slashing away at this poor bulb. lol It wouldn't open any further once i cut away at it but i think the form would have been nicer if it did. I also removed the pollen from it as i didn't want it staining as i was trying to dry it.

I am thinking that water your collect from your roof is on the acid side - too many cars, too much exhaust... we are not in a pristine world anymore... and the smoke from Chinese still mills is reaching Pacific coast of North America 24/7. My understanding is that AVs prefer the pH of 6.4-6.8, otherwise they do not absorb nutrients well enough. The second issue with rainwater - it doesn't have calcium and magnesium micronutrients that are always dissolved in a tap water. So oops. In some areas water is not good for tender plants - high Ph, high solids - usually it the water that comes from artesian wells. If the plant collection is large and watering it with a store bought Spring Water is too much, some people buy a RO filter that produces almost distilled water. For RO water Michigan State University developed a fertilizer that compensates for the missing micronutrients so you can get it. For now - repot your plants in a food fresh soil and try a bottled water for a while. Normally the tap water is OK, exceptions are dissolved solids over 200ppm, preferably around 150 ppm, normal tap Ph is around 8-8.5 - they add buffer - something Ca ang Ma salts to prevent sedimentation in the pipes. Usually it is compensated by the peat in your soil that produces humic acid if kept warm and humid... like in our houses. The last exception is if your water treatment plant uses chloramine instead of chlorine. Chlorine in water evaporates if you keep the water in the open for 24 hours. chloramine not so. You can neutralize it with chemical from an aquarium supply store. All this info you can get in your water treatment facility. They should send you a yearly report anyway.