I understand what you are saying Sammy. I don't want to go into the details, but I was just not able to care for my yard during those years because of some personal and health issues. My family didn't do much of anything during that time, either, other than just keep the grass cut. Now they see me becoming interested in it again, and it has also sparked their interest. So we are working together, which is a great thing. My life is back to a point where I am able (and willing) to devote some time to this, and I really want to do it. I can easily do an hour or two each day and more on the weekends. I'm trying to figure out which of the roses has gone back to the old root. None of the suspects still have their tags, so I can't even tell what they are SUPPOSED to be. There are 4 of those, and I think I will definitely get rid of them. They all bloomed early and the blooms were all along the canes, like an old climber, but nothing since then, just long canes growing with no buds. Does that sound like something that would have gone to old root? I know I never bought roses that were supposed to look like that. I started spraying kind of late, I guess (1st time was June 6) but you can really tell the difference - the new growth since then is not covered with BS and insect damage. So it must have helped. I thought I would do it every 2 weeks, but is once a week better? I bought some annuals and have put them in the empty "holes" in the rose beds, just to have something pretty to look at this year. I may try a few perennials in the fall, since people keep telling me that they are a lot less work than roses, but I really do love roses the best! I'm looking forward to being able to post my own pictures in the rose gallery here. One of the nicest things that has happened is that I had a Butterscotch climber that was buried under vine weeds for 3 years and I figured it was dead or gone to old root. But I found it still alive about 6 weeks ago, and I gave it some fertilizer, it shot up a fat healthy cane, and yesterday it bloomed - the right color! Made me feel so good. Now if I can just convince it to put out one or two more canes, it will be even better!

Update Some things to note-- the raspberry coloration comes in more once the bloom is fully open and reaches maturity. If possible, it becomes more stunning. Two of the three scapes have opened all of their flowers. It seems the second pair of blooms are less double than the first. However, they also have loads of pollen, which I will collect for whoever wishes to hybridize with this bulb. The bulb is small-- roughly 4 inches in diameter and despite 3 scapes and very fully flowers, it has had little wasting. So here are the latest photos taken today.

evonne, now we're back to where we were before. And your link is very specific about papaver rhoeas, what I read in two different sources pertained to field poppies but assumed it would apply to mine as well, same as what you're saying. But stage found differently. Maybe sometimes they do self pollinate. I doubt we can resolve the discrepancy unless I just try it and see what happens. Not good to keep crossing them to the same genotype though which I would have to do to keep these going if it even succeeds. Today I went out, and two are blooming simultaneously. So it isn't clear if it applies to a single bloom or all blooms on the same plant. Do you think because of the two going now (and hopefully for the rest of the buds), they will swap pollen? No, I read it again, and it says same plant or another plant of the same genotype. My you've got your terminology down better than I do. I wonder what they do to select what I would call a sport but may not be the right term for poppies. At some point in the evolution of any plant with self-incompatibiity, it must have worked or we wouldn't have so many poppies that come true from seed. It appears many don't as they are sold as mixtures such as Angels Choir. In the above photo from WA state, they must cross pollinate, self sow, and produce uniform flowers the following year or they're perennials. This is all new to me, in the dim recesses of my memory, I knew that corn self pollinates, but the link covers that, too. Some plants don't have the inhibiting factor. Others do in certain families. Must be a reason for it going one way for some and the other way for other types, suppose the experts can only speculate about that. I'm guessing for our now infamous Cherry Brandy Rudbeckia, they must have gotten a new bloom and used seeds from that for multiple generations. Where it is now, it reverts to all sorts of things. I wonder how they do select out poppies then or if they can. What about that unique grape poppy? I think it might be a rhoeas, too, but am not sure.

LINDA:thank you for looking and commenting. NaNCY in ky,Its suppose to go down to 27 here tonight, so it may do in the other buds thats left on coral FANTASY. there is 3 or 4 buds left on it,, i hope it waits till after this cold front gets away from here and it warms back up again.The weather here is like a roller coaster. iT was 80 degrees here on Tuesday and finally got to mid 50's today.,and the north wind was cold. CELESTE.Thank you for your nice comments.gee, your winters are really long up there.Roses start blooming here in april usually.Late APRIL. RITA.Thank you for your nice comments. I tried my best to get all 3 of the Hot Lave blooms in my photo, in a way to see each of them head on, but was just no way to do it.Each bloom was so pretty and opened up really nice.I sure wasn't expecting all 3 buds to open at one time. berry,Judy and cindy, thank oyu for looking and commenting. Jean