Okay.... so it looks like I'll have to evaluate AF this season and see how she does. I originally said that I give my roses no special care... no spraying because we live along a tidal river with lots of birds and animal life... no dusting, no fertilizing.... just renewed compost each spring and watering occasionally. We have a wide variety of roses, love them and try to be as organic/non-chemical as possible. But I can still recall the color ... the ruffled petals and fragrance of the Angel Face I grew about 30 years ago in my first home. Loved that rose!

When I first contacted Kim about roses, he gave me a reading list of books written by several very successful breeders. My favorite author is Jack Harkness, but LeGrice is right up there. Harkness's book Roses is a very complete and insightful study of species roses and their hybrids. You can learn a lot about what traits various species roses have brought into the rose gene pool. LeGrice ... is incredible. If you want to learn about bloom color ... read LeGrice. The other books were equally as important as they gave me a sense of the timeline of the development of modern roses, and studying them gave me even more information about the traits found in the rose family. Cultural information may be "dated" and biased because both of these breeders were from England, but the knowledge they share about the botany of the plants is detailed and very much worth learning. I read these books periodically because every time I read them, I am bringing more personal knowledge and experience with me and see the information with "new eyes". I also made my own lineage trees by hand because HMF did not have the lineage report feature online. Even though I can go through a lineage report on HMF and understand it, I think the exercise of doing my own lineage reports and looking up the species roses and the other roses included in the lineage gave me a deeper understanding of the make up of the rose. A seedling may look like it is a good rose, but you really won't know if it is a worthy cross until you have carried it forward for several years. A juvenile plant often performs differently in many ways than a more mature plant. It takes time to learn how to see roses through a "breeder's eyes". You are on your way, but you have only had the opportunity to touch the surface of what it takes to breed good roses. Also, it takes time to reach the point where you can learn from the best teacher of all things roses .... the rose. I love your enthusiasm. You'll need it to help you to meet your goals. Smiles, Lyn PS... keep in mind a lot more has been learned and written about the science of breeding good roses since these books were written.

Kasie - I've tried the traps. I bought 2, and have set them each about 20x. Not one single gopher. I have found the "giant destroyer" brand bombs that seemed to be working, so I'm not giving up on gassing. The putzy red and black ones they've been stocking at HD and Lowes have been useless - I end up digging them up, un detonated. If (when...sigh...) this happens again, I will try to see if I can get rootstock to again produce roots - mostly as an experiment. I've tossed 2 of my losses: Angel Face - WILL replace, Tantalizing Red - will not replace, then Pink Peace had some tiny straggling roots left, and I chopped her down to about the relative size of her remaining roots leaving all the low leaves I could, and replanted her and am soaking her daily. She isn't dead yet... Caged 3 more roses last night after coming home from work - Bolero (missing all but a few feeder roots), Young Lycidas (whoppee - roots intact), and Intrigue (most roots intact). That now makes a total of 8 now caged. Just about 70 something to go. It's a good start. !

Thank you soooo much for sharing these pics, especially the full shot ones. I recently bought an AF and am loving the blooms and fragrance. I was wondering what it might look like once it's grown up. : ) I'm in a similar dry but cooler climate than you. I was thinking of putting it in a bed along a west facing house wall to provide more sun and heat. It is also along a path to the front door. The wall is yellow so I think it will contrast nicely. I have two 'Livin Easy' in that bed, too. One would be on either side of AF but about 4 ft. away with some white cosmos and dianthus in between. Hopefully that won't be too gawdy but I do like a lot of color. Thanks again! I am so looking forward to mine becoming a beauty like yours one day. : ) Diana