I'm having trouble w/photos today, the macro lens is hard and I don't want to change lenses. Are these a little better? I put the cam on a monopod, bumped the ISO, used external flash, and dialed in an aperture of f14 to get better DOF, and still they're not too good. Tear off the brown? That's easy enough. But it hadn't rained that much before, and Hettie, my new rose in a pot had it, ruined a photo I submitted to HMF actually. Seems ok with her now. I finally planted the two of her, same general area, and no sign of anything wrong yet, no browning on blooms. I am SURE I have powdery mildew on Gruss and Thomas Affleck on the east side just don't want to take any more photos and am fighting for room on both my hd's until I clear tons of stuff off, which will take forever to sort through. Can I spray those with Lysol before it gets any worse? The humidity since that rain is terrible, more rain expected, so high humidity will be an issue off and on, mostly on, throughout the rest of the summer until fall when it eases up. This rose, and I'm not sure which pink one it is, bloomed beautifully, now this. Although it faces south, this rose got enough sun to bloom its first flush, nice blooms, but it does get more shade than the ones closer to the street.

Hi Sharon & Jim & other cold-zoners: Jim is right about Seil, zone 6a, who lost over 50 roses in pots last winter. She put them against her house, then piled leaves on top. I lost Double-Delight, bought as a band in May, grew to be 2-gallon-root-ball, planted 6 inch. below ground, plus mounding 3" of soil on top. Why? It's on a dry hilly area. It died because of dry spring, rather than cold winter. The most successful wintering was a neighbor who planted hybrid-teas at least 4 inch. below ground, then piled up DRY bark-chips to 6 inch. high. All her hybrid-teas survived our coldest zone 5a winter. I piled up leaves on my hybrid teas, and they broke out in black-spots from wet leaves. Something dry and fluffy on top would allow rain & snow to penetrate to roots below, but NOT TOO WET and NOT MATTING like leaves to encourage surface-fungal-growth. Hubby got me 2 big bags of free wood-chips, I mixed that with my clay, put that stuff on open-faced garbage lids. Then I planted my bands (bought from Heirloom July 24) in holes, placed 4 inch. below ground. Then I piled up the wood chips & soil mixture to a 6 inch. height. The fresh wood chips make it fluffy, and the soil provides bacteria to suppress fungal growth. Target has Organic fertilizer (feather meal, blood meal, bone meal, sulfate of potash) with NPK 5-5-5 ... just as good as Rose-Tone, but 1/2 price, only $3.50 per bag. So I mixed that stuff with wood chips, native clay, and dumped on top of my newly planted bands. I don't like leaving soil above ground, since they are frozen solid, but the bark-chips break up the clay, make it fluffy & HARDER FOR THEM TO FREEZE. Jude the Obscure & Sharifa Asma were planted right before Thanksgiving but they survived last winter, because I made the soil fluffy with cracked-corn ... which made it hard for the clay to freeze, plus provides moisture in dry spring. But the corn is acidic, and both broke out in black-spots in summer. I learn my lesson and use NEUTRAL PH fresh wood-chips, it's free, plus IT'S NOT ACIDIC like pine-bark or corn, both at pH 4. Leaves are also acidic at pH 5 to 6, perfect for fungal germination. Agree with Jim about icky rose-cones, I lost 1 rose thanks to the rose-cone blocking out water .... They are totally useless & expensive. This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sun, Sep 14, 14 at 13:46

Hi Jim: Thanks for updating me on your garden ... You sister's rose bush looks good. I wore disposable gloves when I pulled weeds, but the friction broke my gloves. We have lots of poison ivy & poison oak, so I throw away disposable glove after weed-pulling. We are in a dry spell and my hay fever is miserable. Organics is great for plants. My tomatoes in front, just clay & gypsum, are withering. My tomatoes in the backyard, clay mixed with leaves, on a raised bed .... are green & lush like early spring. Instead of planting roses DEEP, I tried another method, planted them 2" below, then add 4" soil mixed with bark chunks on top. It's like a partial-raised bed. Roses are much healthier that way. When I planted them too deep, the roots can't expand past the poor-drainage sediment below. Now I make sure that they have at least 2 feet fluffy soil below in case of heavy rain. Still have 2 roses in pots: Jude the Obscure and Heirloom ... no black spots on them, only mildew. They receive rain-water for the past 2 months, I'm too lazy to fertilizer them ... let's see how good the root-growth is with gypsum & Tomato-Tone previously mixed in potting soil. Will report the result once I transfer them into the ground.

Be very careful what Kordes roses you buy Straw! I was on a Kordes website and they have a rating system on that site... Up to 4 star can be given for BS resistance... BUT some of there roses they only gave them 2-3 stars for BS resistance... I personally will only try the roses they rated 4 stars... http://newflora.com/kordes-roses/arborose-collection/ For instance Lavender Veranda® Rose is only rated with 2 stars so not good! Rose of Hope was rated a 3 so not sure if I will try it or not? Plum Perfect is rated a 4 but from doing research winter hardiness is in serious question and it seems to do best in hotter locations... We do not know name of my wifes flower... Sorry Straw...Someone walking by our house today asked also... Chamblees Kordes roses: Beverly rated 3 stars for BS and 2 for Mildew Brilliant Veranda rated 2 Stars for BS and 2 for Mildew Carmella Fairy Tale rated 3 stars for BS and 3 for Mildew Coco rated 3 stars for BS and 3 for Mildew Cream Veranda rated 4 stars for BS and 4 Stars for Mildew ***************** Dark Desire 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Fiji 4 for BS and 4 for Mildew ************************ Fire Opal™ Kolorscape 4 for BS and 4 for Mildew ******************* First Crush 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Flamingo Kolorscape 4 for BS and 4 for Mildew *********************** Golden Fairy Tale 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Heart Song 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Iceberg ????????????? Innocencia 4 for BS and 3 for Mildew ***** Jolie Veranda 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Kardinal Kolorscape 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Kosmos 4 for BS and 3 for Mildew ***** Lavender Veranda 2 for BS and 2 for Mildew Lemon Fizz Kolorscape 4 for BS and 4 for Mildew ************************ Lion's Fairy Tale 4 stars for BS and 3 for Mildew ***** Lone Star 3 for BS and 2 for Mildew Mandarin Ice 4 for BS and 4 for Mildew ********************* Pink Enchantment 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Plum Perfect 4 for Bs and 3 for Mildew ***** Polar Express 4 for BS and 4 for Mildew *********************** Poseidon 4 for Bs and 3 for Mildew ***** Purple Rain 4 for BS and 3 for Mildew ***** Raspberry 4 for BS and 4 for Mildew *********************** Rose of Hope 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Roxanne Veranda 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Roxy Vigorosa 4 for BS and 3 for Mildew ***** Ruby Ice 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Savannah 4 for BS and 4 for Mildew ******************** Seminole Wind 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Shreveport???????????? Solero Vigorosa 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew South Africa 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Summer Romance 4 for BS and 3 for Mildew ***** Sunbeam Veranda 2 for BS and 2 for Mildew Sunny Sky 4 for BS and 3 for Mildew ***** Tutu 4 for BS and 3 for Mildew ***** Wedding Bells 4 for BS and 3 for Mildew ***** Westerland???????? Winter Sun 3 for BS and 3 for Mildew Zaide 2 for BS and 3 for Mildew NOTE: Some of these Kordes roses are newer so take ratings with a grain of salt... Hard to find real life info on these roses.........Hardly any info on HMF about them yet...