There's a thread on Mons tiller fries in the sun, see below: "Mine fried after an hour or two in the sun, more so than my other tea roses so it's no longer with me in my hot garden. Clementina Carbonieri did the same thing. A pity, since both are beautiful roses. Ingrid." ***** From Straw: I'm adding own-root Yves Piaget on my rose-order for next year, along with Young Lycidas and Romantica "The McCartney" rose. I researched again on Yves Piaget: the person who grows Yves both as own-root vs. grafted reported wimpiness for both. Someone from PNW (rainy & cool) climate also reported Yves being wimpy. Robert Rippetoe in his Rancho Mirage climate of exreme heat, drought, and alkaline sandy soil .... grows Yves Piaget and uses it in his breeding program ... so it must be very good for him. I figured out what makes Romanticas works: fluffy potting soil for the roots to get big, then transfer to fertile clay. I have Yves Piaget's children bred by Robert Neil, I put gypsum in the pots, and they went beserk with growth. Ingrid in this forum once grew Yves, but it didn't do well in the heat ... she has loose de-composed granite soil high in potassium. That's different from Ingrid in Thousand Oaks, who has clay. According to Wikipedia, high potassium or high nitrogen drives down calcium. The Romanticas have a higher demand for calcium than other roses, they are very sensitive to salt, so saline soil is not suitable. Calcium in gypsum is used to de-salt saline soil. That explains why Mons.Tillier works for Jaspermplants in Arizona, but didn't work for Ingrid with high-potassium soil. Arizona is alkaline clay high in calcium like my Chicagoland clay ... I'm next to a limestone quarry. Calcium is known to firm up tissue of plants, and helps with drought-tolerance, which explains for the success of Romanticas in my limestone clay. Here's an excerpt on calcium from the site http://www.oxyfertil.com/royaume-uni/role-ca-mg-plante.html · increases the plant tissues' resistance and allows for more erect stems · contributes to normal root system development · increases resistance to outside attack Here is a link that might be useful: Does your Mons. Tillier fry in the sun? This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Fri, Jul 12, 13 at 10:58

Thank you, thank you -- all of you. I am going to try to post some pics I took today. I am hoping they will be more revealing. Sorry that last one is so blurry. Berndoodles, thanks for the pics of leaf hopper damage. I think I certainly have that, don't you (referring to the pic with the lovely bugs)? I also found some webbing, so I think maybe I have spider mites. Oh, joy! And I also think I have powdery mildew. I would love anyone's advice. I sure wish I had a flatbed scanner. My daughter has one, but she is out of town. And I wouldn't mind if we had a Bug Man out here in Colorado. However, I took samples to my local nursery and the very nice rose lady there confirmed that I have several separate problems. She thought that the drooping rosebuds were caused by thrips and told me to go home and cut all of those drooping buds off and dispose of them. She thought I had powdery mildew, too, and also spider mites. She advised that I use Bayer All-in-One spray, so I bought that, but after reading the instructions, I decided to try Neem Oil because the instructions said not to use when bees are active, and they are very active on Ballerina, at least during the day, but maybe I could use it at night. I sprayed yesterday very thoroughly with Neem oil and will repeat in 7 days. However, since my roses are so badly infected, and with multiple buggies or whatever, maybe I will have to go toxic. Another problem with me using a toxic spray is I have large pots of herbs close to Ballerina, in fact right beside it. I think I could cover the pots with black trash bags or something. But I also have black raspberries whose vines are kind of intermingled with one of my New Dawn climbers. I'm not sure if I can cover all of them enough. Maybe if I used a hand sprayer rather than a hose-end sprayer it would be easier. So what do you think? Thanks again. Marlene

I have a Black Willow (Salix nigra) in about a 15 gallon pot, that I intend to pot up to a 25 gallon next year. So far, it has done well. I did forget to water it at one time in early summer and it dropped all of its leaves. I thought it was a gonner. I scratched the stem to see if the cambium layer was still okay, and it appeared to be. I resumed watering it, trimmed off the dead portion of the stems, and it grew back just fine. Willow is extremely easy to root. If you can find some close by, you can cut a few 3' stems, and stick them in some dirt, watering them daily, you will probably have roots in no time. Willow contains a chemical that promotes rooting and is often used as a "rooting" agent when attempting to root difficult plants. So, it has an unabashed desire to perpetuate. For me, I only grow the one because these trees are dioecious. I don't want to end up with a male and a female that produce seeds. I don't have enough room. Willows are also know for their need for water because it is not recommended that they be planted near sewer and/or water lines. The roots will more than likely seek out these lines, get into them, and can cause a lot of headaches and damage. I think the Blue Arctic Willow is supposed to be hardy thru zone 7, but it still may be too hot in Missouri to grow them well, or for any length of time. Probably would do fine in the Northwest's zone 7 - very different from Missouri, though. I know I wouldn't attempt it in my zone 7a because we just get too hot on a consistent basis. Good luck! Susan

Thanks for the compliments, I've learned so much from this forum. Some great gardens to steal ideas from and exposure to new cultivars that three years ago, I had no idea existed. Home Depot has been replaced by Rich's, Garden of Eder and JCarlson. I like the idea of a dwarf bosnian. I don't know have one and don't know much about them. I considered adding another Picea Pungens Sester's Dwarf, but I already have one in the yard, I struggle with design and moved things around a few times to get to this point. I plan on removing the sidewalk and putting in a larger sweeping curve of pavers. At that point, the boxwoods will go (my wife likes them) and I'll move some more things around. My cooler stuff is on the property line on a berm I built last spring. Maybe I'll share that next year if I can get it closer to how I'd like it.