I am so happy someone asked this, as I also LOVE yellow roses and since I am very new at growing roses in general I am always looking for new suggestions for yellows. I have both Shockwave and Julia Child, and it is extremely hard to choose between them. To me it honestly depends on which is more important to you, vividness of yellow, or scent. The color on Shockwave is an amazingly vivid Crayola-yellow, the color doesn't fade until right before the flower blows, they last surprisingly long on the bush, and it seems to produce buds continually. They aren't the most fragrant yellow, there is a pleasant mild fragrance that I definitely enjoy, but Julia has it beat on the fragrance side of things. Shockwave also seems to have more of a hybrid tea habit, it is much taller and skinnier than my Julia (but she's still young yet) Julia is my newest rose and hasn't really had the chance to show me what she can do in terms of volume of blooms, but the few she has had so far have been very lovely, they are a much richer butter- yellow color, fading to soft yellow and eventually to white as the flowers age. So far the flowers seem to last a little longer on shockwave, but I think it's too early yet to really tell. My Julia has a decently strong licorice fragrance that I have heard will only get stronger as the plant ages. I can't wait to see her in full bloom, about 12 buds popped up out of nowhere in the last day or so, and she has only been in the ground for about 2 weeks! That HAS to be a good sign :) I have a midas touch HT that is growing up from a bare root I planted this spring, it seems to be growing fairly slowly, but that is probably my own fault because I had to move it from the original planting location (shame on me for my incredible indecisiveness) It seems to be finally putting on some more growth, hopefully it will continue to do well, I will update as it comes along. One more thing, my least favorite yellow award has to go to Happy Go Lucky, although the blooms are beautiful, and the foliage is a lovely bright glossy lime green, the flowers both loose color very quickly and don't last long on the bush at all. When it blooms only the inner half of the rose is truly yellow, it starts turning white from the edges in before the flower is even halfway open. It does flower fairly continually, so I will probably keep it around for a while, but it certainly isn't my favorite. I took a chance on this one, it was a new rose from Weeks this past year (I think) and I couldn't find any reviews on it anywhere, and I bought it on a whim. It was described as being a rich non-fading yellow, but certainly does not live up to that in my garden. Oh well, maybe she will get better with age. I think if I really HAD to choose, I would probably go with shockwave, purely because I LOVE that bright lemon yellow, it just puts a smile on my face. BUT, I am super glad I don't really have to make that decision, because I'd much rather have BOTH. I don't know if I really helped with your decision at all, but I hope so! I'm sure you will fall in love with whatever you end up with! Jessica.

Hi Rose, its quite possible too much water. Here near chicago its been warm and i notice lowest leaves are similar as your description. In my case its the water coming out of watering can and or hose hitting the lowest leaves each day sometimes resting on top of soil thats doing it for me. Martin Chicago Ebay ID - Dieseler6z92 Member- Garden Web, Figs4Fun, Friends of The Fig Society

I doubt you have a disease per se - plant diseases tend to be rather specific to individual plants rather than widespread throughout a garden. For example, rhododendron problems generally will not affect laurels, madrone diseases are not common to magnolias, etc. And ivy is virtually disease-free!! It is far more likely that there is some deficiency or other problem with the soil itself. Poor drainage, chemical contamination, excessive compaction, lack of fertility - any of these can create sufficient stress in otherwise healthy plants so that they perform poorly, display off-color foliage and/or become susceptible to insects or common fungal issues that are secondary to the primary problem. Do any of these things srike a chord? Have you had a soil test done? Anything different with the garden beginning late last year - a different type of mulch used, a spraying service, perhaps the use of weed 'n feed products on your lawn, neighbors using pesticides, construction activity that could disturb roots or alter drainage? Unfortunately, soil issues are not easily diagnosed just from photographs, although may provide some indication. You might be better served by hiring a consultant to view your garden personally and evaluate the situation. A local nursery may have a CPH on staff that could offer such a service or direct you to someone with these qualifications or you could inquire at your local extension office. Feel free to email me the photos if you like (email address on member page) and I'll give it my best shot, but based on what you describe, I truly think a personal, onsite evaluation is your best bet for getting to the root (no pun intended!) of the problem.

Thank you! I've been using an online digital library of maine dragonflies as my research guide, but the picture there only showed one yellow spot, not the several like in my photo. I double checked my other pictures, which included a side shot, and there is indeed a white face which I didn't notice before. Now that I've searched other pictures of this skimmer, I've found several others showing the line of yellow spots. Is there a regional explaination for the variation? Is it more likely that this is a female? Thanks for your help again!