De-lurking here to say it's not just you! We had a strange spring with wild weather swings (up to 40F from daytime to night), and I have to say...this is the crappiest rose season I've had in 8 years. Very abundant number of buds--probably the most ever--but the quality of the individual flowers just stinks. Like the worst thrips damage ever, but each and every rose has it. Some roses had stunted/balled/withered buds, others had blackened petal edges, still others didn't bother with blooms. My Queen Elizabeths, easily the most prolific roses in my garden, haven't bloomed yet. There are some old, established bushes that hardly went beyond their pruned size and only spewed a few deformed buds. Thrips are normally a problem on my light colored roses, but this blight is affecting every color. The later developing buds are better--if on the small side. It's the roses that developed first (late April to early May, which is quite late for us) that were the worst. Surprisingly, the roses that seemed to shrug it off best were some of my David Austins--Jude, the Dark Lady, and a few others. But some of the DA's (Abraham Darby) and other shrub roses and climbers (like Sombreuil) were just horrific. My mom came over and said "you know, if you just look at the roses from the house, they're not so bad." Sigh. And we had such a lovely, rainy winter (for us) that I was sure the rose flush was going to be awesome. And the numbers were truly impressive--hundreds of buds on some of my small (3 ft) bushes, which is the best I've seen. But again, the actual quality of the buds was the worst I've ever seen. Some tried and true winners from my garden were hard pruned just because I couldn't bear to look at their browned/blackened/crinkly/balled horrible little blooms. These included: memorial Day, Queen Elizabeth, Sheer Bliss, Peace (sob), Marilyn Monroe, Daybreaker, New Zealand, Just Joey, blue Nile, Evelyn, Abe Darby, Charles Darwin, Autumn Sunset, Golden Something(normally gorgeous downturned sunny yellow blooms, but this time they didn't even open!),Chicago Peace, Tamora, Pink Peace, Mirandy, Mary Rose, Secret (double sob), McCartney Rose, Tiffany....I could go on, but I'm feeling kind of nauseous. To put it in different terms: I have over 160 rose bushes with few repeats, and this year I have only brought six cut blooms into the house. SIX. But who can really blame the poor roses? Last week we hit 100 degrees on Monday, and on Thursday the high was 54 with rain (snow in Flagstaff, poor buggers). What is a plant to do in these conditions? Apparently, they sulk. Now it's getting to be blistering hot again, with humidity in the single digits. Spider Mite season. I won't likely see a good bloom until September, and then the deer and javelinas will be moving in for their Autumn feast. I'm thinking of getting into daffodils. At least the lilies, Shasta daisies, coreopsis, and cannas are doing well. And the glads look like they might actually open this year (last year they were all duds). I'm off to sulk myself. Heather

I think a lot of plants have the most energy right when they start to spring back to life this time of year. That you can do all sorts of torture to them now and they will recover just fine because they are so pumped up and actively growing. But there is this touchy period when digging and dividing or potting up upsets the balance. There is basically no way to determine when that magic moment is - so I say, if the sprouts look healthy go ahead and dig and pot up. If the plant looks weak, leave it alone unless you would rather go ahead and replace it. In my fruit area I have plenty of doubled up plants, because I thought one was dying so I cut it back and planted a new one only to have the original plant return later and now I have two of them growing side by side (when they get bigger, one of them will have to go).

In addition to the ones that Marlene gave you, some red to dark red to red-purple ones that I grow and like (and are type 3) include Mikelite, Carmencita, Kermensia, Avant-Garde, and Gravetye Beauty. Additional ones to look at include Allanah, Rosemoor, Serenata, Burning Love (AKA Vitiwester), Monte Cassino, and Voluceau. None look exactly like Niobe, and some have really different flower form, but it's worth checking them out. Photos often have different colors than the plants in reality, so if there is a nursery or public garden or a friend that has clematis you can visit, go look at them in person. Often the smaller flowered plants have huge numbers of flowers even if each flower is smaller.

I finally got some of my greek pepper seeds to sprout! I don't use seed mix ... I just strain my potting soil and use that and haven't had any mold issues. I put sandwich baggies over each starter pot and put them on the back porch. The idea just popped into my head the other night and it's working. It's keeping them so much warmer than not being covered. I may get some peppers by Christmas. lol I feel your pain Dirty ... I have auto immune syndrome ... my doc is skirting the word lupus for the moment. I know how it feels to have a good day and then feel like a truck ran over you the next. Gardening and nature help me to keep my spirits up. So sorry to hear about your health issue Greenthumbs ... sending good vibes your way. :)