Reine Des Violettes looked a little crispy,... but several other Hybrid Perpetuals looked absolutely gorgeous...! For example: Baronne Prevost and Marchessa Boccella looked totally lovely and happy. Thanks, Jeri. I'd ordered cl. Maman Cochet, and I guess at this point the best thing for me to do is just give her a shot and see how she does.

OMG, Christopher! Look at all those red HT roses!! Wonderful pics. Thank you. I love your red roses with purple clematis. (My two favorite colors.) I have yet to acquire Chateau de Clos Vougeot but REALLY want to get one from RVR after I make room in my driveway pot garden, and I would love to grow another Guinee and Don Juan someday. Obviously, I completely grok your dark red rose mania. I currently have Mr. Lincoln, Black Magic, Black Bacarra, Deep Secret, Velvet Fragrance, Nigrette, Barcelona, Black Gold, Dusky Maiden, and Red Pinocchio. A couple of these are total pains, but I pamper them anyway. Lucky little buggers! Carol

Ani, leaves harbor pest eggs and disease spores. By removing the leaves you open the canes up so they can be sprayed with the Neem or a dormant oil spray. It really has nothing to do with hardiness or root growth, just the general health of the plant. Roses in our local climate start to drop their oldest leaves as a natural growth cycle. By removing the leaves, we're doing what nature is going to do for us anyway. The only spray I use in my garden is one round of Volck's Dormant Oil spray after I prune in January. When using any oil-based spray, the temperature has to be under 60F, including reflected heat coming off block walls, so it can be tough getting even one round sprayed. The dormant oil spray helps to suffocate eggs and spores and should only be sprayed when the roses have no leaves. Because I often have roses from other people's yards come through mine for raffles or trades, I'm also trying to keep a disease called San Jose Scale out of my garden. Some great nurseries to purchase roses from in the metro-Phoenix area are Berridges, 4600 block E Camelback, Bakers, 40th Str & Osborn and Harpers, Hayden, south of Thomas. These aren't the only nurseries, of course, but they're well-known for quality roses and knowledge of rose culture.

Guys, it's much much cheaper to produce budded roses than own roots. Here in Europe and in the Middle East there are specialist nurseries who produce rootstock seedlings as species roses are used which come true from seed. These are sold to the hybridizers and rose producers when 1 year old. They plant these with machines in the field in the Fall. Then in early Summer they bud them. A mature mother plant can provide hundreds of buds. Not the same with cuttings. A competent budder, who is usually 'self employed' paid by the piece and comes from Eastern Europe, can bud at least 1000 roses per day. Success is almost 100% guarranteed. Then the plant is left in the field for another year and then uprooted by machine and kept in cold storage until fall when it can be sold either retail or to wholesalers or to retail nurseries who will pot them up and sell them come Spring. End result you have a plant produced cheaply and on a rootstock that you know is generally suitable for the field conditions of your target market.