Hi alioca: Best approach with Annie is to mix fall leaves in the planting hole, plus 2 cups of gypsum (calcium sulfate), that's sold for $4.59 for a huge bag at Menards. Gypsum will lower soil pH, plus break up heavy clay.

Austin roses are fragrant like Annie. For great fragrant cutting roses, I would buy Evelyn, Carding Mill, and Tess of the d'ubervilles from Chamblee's Roses in Texas ....these rose like alkaline clay, and MUCH bigger size than Burlington's tiny bands. Chamblee Roses come in gallon-size big pot, worth the shipping cost, since they can be planted right into the ground.

Burlington roses sell Marie Pavie & Marie Daly ... both can perfume the entire garden, better bush-shape than Annie, but MP and MD can't be cut for the vase like Annie.

I prefer the fragrance of Austin roses in the vase over Annie. Annie is a musk-rose, the scent will perfume the entire garden like MP and MD, but to sniff an individual bloom ... Austin fragrances are much better, plus lasting longer in the vase.

Hi Alioca: Can't post pics. on this forum recently, internet problems. Annie survived 2 winters since I grew that in a pot for 5 months until the root-ball became 2-gallon, then planted it 4 inch. below soil level.

It got cold too early, but I hope things become warmer after this freezing weekend .. If the soil is still soft, then I'll mix in leaves to fluff up my hard clay.

In the spring, I hope to get Pink Peace (intensely fragrant, but died last winter) ... and Big Momma rose (super fragrant) .. both are sold at local stores. But these are grafted on Dr. Huey, so I would have to plant them deep for winter-survival.

Hi Jim: since the other thread was long, so I'll continue our discussion here. The 3 roses you plan to buy sounds great: Earth Song, Prairie Harvest, and Living Easy. The 3 roses that I really want are: Young Lycidas, Firefighter (to replace the one that died), and a dark pink rose.

Swinging by to say hello Straw & alioca! I can not add much to this thread as we do not have any fragrant roses besides Mister Lincoln and I would NOT recommend him...lol

I'll let you two figure things out...

Very cold here today! Its 29 degrees here at 1pm... brrrrr
Windy & snow blowin around...

Hi Jim: Cold here too ... not used to being cold this early. Speaking of fragrant roses ... I start to sniff fruits & veggies and find which ones are heavily sprayed with pesticides.

I sniffed a bundle of spinach a few days ago ... that reeked of stinky chemicals. The Organic ones have zero smell. My kid likes sweet bell peppers (red, orange, and yellow) ... local store used to have those imported from Holland, very good. Recently they got peppers from Mexico instead. It tasted funny, off-scent. So I sniffed that .. that had a chemical odor. Peppers from Mexico are heavily sprayed with pesticides

Same with strawberries .. I burnt my nose a few times sniffing them, plus itchy eyes. Organic strawberries are also sprayed, but to a lesser degree, so I buy regular strawberries, and wash them at least 4 times.

Does washing off any type fruit help get all/some of the chemicals off? Or does chemicals just absorb into the fruit through the skin and no way to get it out?

Hi Jim: Great question. Strawberries can be washed off easily, but skin like grape is more retentive. No amount of washing can undo the foul odor of sprayed spinach and kale. Apple and cucumber skin can be peeled off, but NOT so with grapes.

Chemical sprays definitely change the taste and aroma of fruits and veggies. I saw these giant Fuji apple, coated in wax, with zero scent. But a bag of smaller organic Fuji apple is so fragrant, that it's sheer delight to sniff. I buy things because they taste good or smell good, rather than based on the organic label.

Recently I bought a head of red organic cabbage .. it was the best red cabbage that I had eaten in my entire life. It was good enough for my kid to snack on .. she calls it "purple carrot stick". I made the most wicked spinach salad, it's good with any veggies, be it sliced cabbage or kohlrabi. I'm learning how to use my mandolin to slice my veggies for salad. Here's the Yummy spinach recipe below ... I should had doubled the recipe, since the dressing is so good, can be used for the next days.

Spinach salad with bacon

1/2 pound sliced bacon, cut into 1/2-inch strips

1/2 cup minced onion & 1 pinch salt & 2 cloves garlic, minced

1/6 cup apple cider vinegar & 1/8 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup water & 1/6 cup white sugar & 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/3 cup bacon drippings & salt plus black pepper

1 pound baby spinach leaves

1 (15 ounce) can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained

Quartered boil eggs, thinly sliced & 1 cup sliced cherry tomatoes

Brown bacon until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Reserve 1/3 cup of bacon drippings. Cook and stir until onions are golden brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic for 1 minute.

Stir cider vinegar, rice vinegar, 1/4 cup water, sugar, and Dijon mustard into onion mixture. Increase heat to medium-high and simmer. Drizzle reserved 1/3 cup bacon drippings into onion mixture. Add cooked bacon and stir to combine. Combine spinach, black-eyed peas, boiled eggs, and cherry tomatoes in a large bowl; toss to combine. Drizzle hot bacon dressing over spinach mixture.

Thanks for the info and recipe Straw!
I'll get my wife to make it...Before she got MS she cooked in resturants. She still likes to make things but just not as often as she once could...

Well I hope alioca you can find your perfect fragrant rose for your garden...
Wish I could be of more help...

Hi Jim: The above spinach recipe is really yummy ... the vinegar really dissolve the bacon's grease. I use no-nitrite low-fat bacon from Trader's Joe. It's so healthy that I cooked 1/2 pack, and only get a few tablespoon of fat. Preservative-free bacon is worth the money.

I pull out my German V-slicer Mandolin to slice veggies for raw salads. Hubby cut his finger using that the 1st time, so I searched for kitchen-glove to protect cut. Found a few nice ones, stronger than leather, but safe for food.

I'm going to return one brand-new leather glove to Menards, I found that it's made in China. I got an identical old one that gave me terrible rash. I plan on using cut-safe kitchen-glove for the garden. Leather glove shrink, and become tight, vs. the kitchen-glove is stretchable. Since it's food-grade ... hopefully they won't put chemicals in there. See link below for kitchen-glove for $8, many time stronger than leather glove, and cut-proof.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cut-resistant gloves for $12.5 on Amazon

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sat, Nov 22, 14 at 11:14

Thanks for info Straw!
Its been 10 degrees here the last 3 nights... low 20's in the day...
Everything is now stunned and ready for sleep for sure...

I feel bad for NY getting all that snow there bounds to be deaths from it... :-(

Hi Jim: It's freezing cold here too .. nights are in low teen's. I look forward to this Sat. warming up to 40's. Hopefully the warm spell will thaw my bags of top soil. I haven't winter-protect my roses yet ... I usually dump topsoil on top. Thank God I stored 1/2 of the bags inside the garage, where it's warmer.

I never envy anyone ... everyone have their burden. My kid got accepted in the gifted-6th-grade program .. it's more like a curse: lots of homework & tests &quizzes. The stress on my 12-year-old daughter is worse than when I went to college. The higher one goes up, the more stress. There's a college professor who's so pre-occupied with his job, that he left his healthy infant in a hot car. His only son died, then his wife gave birth to a 2nd son, but he's born retarded. There's another female hospital administrator who left her infant in a hot car, since she was preoccupied with her work.

The more isn't better. That applies to roses, I would rather have a few roses that are healthy & which I enjoy ... than too many to cause extra-work. I enjoy this forum with a few nice members so much more than the regular rose forums where it was stressful: the nit-picking, the ego, the greed & show-off, and acquiring the latest roses.

Quality is always better than quantity. I would rather have one nice friend, that be exposed to a large group ... some could be very negative. I would rather have my kid go to an average school and be happy ... than this gifted & selected program where she's burdened with expectations and tons of homework.

Yep going to warm up here also on Saturday...

You dump top soil over the root systems or bury some of the rose canes with it?
I never tried that...
I apply compost but not to close to the canes...

Yes I would rather only have a few good roses...

Hi Jim: Yes, I dump soil over roses to winter-protect. Soil has natural bacteria that suppress spring fungal-growth. That's how I reversed the damage done to a few roses by cow manure.

The bagged top soil here is VERY alkaline, pitch-black (they put wood-ash to impart the dark color). Wood-ash has many anti-fungal properties. Compost can be acidic, neutral, or alkaline, depending what's in it. Since I put mostly leaves (acidic), rotten tomato (acidic) ... my fresh compost isn't the best. I don't use it unless it rots for at least 1 year ... at that point most stuff are neutralized.

We have cute baby possums that pick out the alkaline stuff to eat from my compost: their top choice is sweet potato peel. They never care for rotten tomatoes. They eat the sweet potato peels 1st, before eating the cat-food that my husband set out for them.

Compost here rots about 1 year or so before I use it...

Going to start warming up tomorrow... 40 degrees ...lol
We had one night recently that it dipped to 7 degress... brrrrr

Hi Jim: It's dark & rainy here, but at least warmer today. Found out that my winter gloves are made in China. I had to reverse them inside-out, then hand-wash them. I should had bought the more expensive cut-resistant gloves, I got the cheap one for $8, and found that it's made in China.

I'm still taking NOW omega-3 fish-oil pills, but 1 hour before bed ... always have great vivid dreams that way. The night I skip the fish-oil, my sleep quality isn't the best. I'm vitamin-D deficient so I try to eat more eggs & mushroom .. these are rich in vitamin-D. Recently found out that runny-eggs are more nutritious than cooked eggs.

Our favorite TV-show is Masterchef junior ... these young cooks really teach me a few things: like soft-boil eggs take 3 min., and how to use the mandolin to slice RAW veggies.

alioca, although we live in different zones, you cannot go wrong with the David Austin roses for fragrance. Munstead wood, The Alnwick rose and Sharifa Asma are a few suggestions. Hope you find the rose of your dreams!

StrawberryHill, I am glad that you posted this spinach salad and dressing recipe. I have been looking for a good one for a long time. I have to try this. I was hooked on this salad when I had it at a restaurant 15 years ago. I bought the store dressings but they were not the same as the nice ones I had at the restaurant. Thank you for sharing.

alioca, the nicest fragrant rose for me is Tiffany. My garden space is limited but i have to grow 2 Tiffany roses for their scent.

Hi Kousa: Thank you for the suggestion of Tiffany rose for scent. I tried a 2nd spinach dressing recipe with balsamic vinegar, but it wasn't as good as the one I posted here.

Hi shopshops: I second your suggestion of Sharifa Asma for great scent ... I grow it in my zone 5a garden. It's very compact, doesn't take up much space. Also second your suggestion of Munstead Wood ... a friend sent me a bloom of that, and it was knock-off your socks delicious scent, very unique that no hybrid-tea can match. Folks also rave about the Alnwick rose.

Of my fragrant, disease resistant roses, Heirloom is a gorgeous rose that might work for you. It has given me very little trouble here in 6b.

Here is a pic of Heirloom from last Spring. She is actually a much deeper purple.

Hi Treehugger: Thank you for posting that, that is truly the most marvelous bloom of Heirloom ... I love that color. May I ask what type of soil do you have? Sandy, Loamy, or sticky dense clay like mine? When I grew Heirloom rose in a pot (MiracleGro potting soil at pH 6.5) ... the color was BRIGHT PURPLE like Barney the dinosaur. That was a Heirloom grafted on Dr. Huey ... so I think Dr. Huey picks up more aluminum to shift the color to the blue range, thus the gaudy purple.

Last year I bought Heirloom as own-root and the color was more pleasant, just like your pic. Is your Heirloom rose own-root? Thanks for the info.

Strawberryhill, Se is actually a gorgeous pinky smoky purple which never comes through in pics. I am in PA now by the way. We have slightly acidic clay soil. It is very unlike my soil in MD which you know as sticky clay. This is clay but easily workable. It is hard to explain. That is very interesting that the rose color can change like that. Barney! HA! That's terrible. I bought Heirloom from Heirloom rose nursery. I'm not sure if it was own root but I am kind of thinking so because it took 4ever to take off - like a couple years.

Hi Treehugger: Heirloom rose is in St. Paul, Oregon, they are OWN-ROOT roses. That's where I get my Heirloom hybrid tea as own-root.

The other Heirloom GRAFTED on Dr. Huey, I got that from local Walmart. I killed it I could not stand the deep harsh purple color. Jim from this forum is from Tyrone, PA. Sticky clay is more alkaline, and workable/loamy clay is more acidic. My alkaline clay at pH 7.7 is sticky like glue, and becomes rock-hard when dry.

Besides aluminum, manganese .. Dr. Huey can pick up iron really well. All 3 elements are fungal-promoters, but they also make leaves dark green and roses' colors deeper, more toward the blue range. Thanks to your help, I'll going to buy blue-roses GRAFTED ON DR. HUEY, since I want deep blue color like your Blue Moon rose.

Well in about 3+ months I'll be planting new roses.
Still seems like a long while away...lol
Roses start waking up here at the end of March so thats not to far off.
Great thread!