Well, considering how much a fan of own-root roses here in my cold zone, this was an eye-opening exercise. I went through my entire alphabetical list of 800 or so roses, a majority of which are flori/HT/grandiflora roses, and noted any that I considered excellent on own roots. It turns out a lot of outstanding bloomers that I vaguely had considered floris or HTs were actually shrubs, and many of my best HTs were in fact grafted. Dang. I have a bad survival rate with bare root roses, but it looks like I should be cautious with the HT own root roses on a second round. My impression was that the floribundas weren't particularly bothered by being own root and very few of mine were grafted, but by far my best bloomers among the HTs tended to be the grafted ones. Who knew?? Here's my list of the definite prolific or otherwise robust roses in these categories: Floribunda: - prolific Bolero Floral Fairy Tale LavaGlut Mandarin Ice Grand Duc Henri Occhi di Fata Pinocchio Suni Louisa Stone/Guinevere Pillow Talk Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale Impatient Roman Holiday Alice Pat Champagne Moment Bad Worishofen/Pink Emely Eutin Hot Cocoa HTs Beverly Francis Dubreuil Cubana Comtesse de Segur Dames de Chenonceau Acropolis Aloha Headliner Nigrette (no worse than it would do grafted) Papageno Lafter Maid of Honor Spiced Coffee Golden Buddha Birthday Girl Grandif �" Paloma Blanca Paw Maw Lagerfeld Earth Song (extremely well) Mother of Pearl I ended up needing an honorable mention for the HTs, with roses that are robust and vigorous growers, but not terribly prolific or frequent rebloomers. I figure that can be true of any of the HTs and it wouldn't depend on them grafted or not, so for what it's worth here are the good HTs on own roots, for me: Peggy Rockefeller Karl Herbst Intermezzo (surprisingly hardy for a lavender Dot rose) Neptune Henri Matisse Careless Love Charlotte Brownell Harry G Hastings Madame Delbard Break oâÂÂDay Sophisticate I agree that Double Delight is a very weak grower under any circumstances, but virtually microscopic if own root (and I've tried several times). It refuses to die before lingering several years, but never thrives own root. Cynthia

Karen, I'm sure the grass is greener, and the citrus, palms, birds of paradise..LOL..It's difficult growing tropicals in z5..there's a lot of work involved. And we do our best trying to figure what our plants require. Remember, you're in z7 so you can keep plants out longer or bring them out earlier than I can..IL is quite arid in winter so I have to set out humidifers and fountains. Believe this or not, our elctric bill is much higher in winter than it is in summer..lol..the opposite of everyone else in US..Because we don't use ac or ca our summer electric bill is low..about 48.00 a month..this includes fans, washer and dryer, lights, 3 tvs running, vcr, computers..in winter our utilities rise. That sux..I try duplicating tropcial climates by using fountains, humidifers, and lights. oh well, what can we do? Toni

Deborah, Yes, all the roses you have listed are eligible to be exhibited. You are correct none of the roses listed appeared in past or present ARS publications. The six you mention are but a few of (by a rough estimate) of thousands of roses missing from the 2004 official "AEN" publication. The problem is that the CRL contains Roses in Commerce and Rose Registration updates. When a rose is listed, it may have a "NR" (not registered with "IRAR") or the new CRL notation, indicating rose introductions have not appeared in any ARS publications. When a rose first appears in the "CRL" with the "NR" notation, the following year it generally has an approved exhibition name "AEN". The problem is ARS does not post these "NR" changes in the next AEN publication, in the "Rose Registration" column of the American Rose or the handbook. This is preciously one reason why ARS should reinstate the Combined Rose List "CRL", as an official recognized publication to verify an "AEN" as the ARS Board approved in 1999. (Not a "temporary AEN" until the name is listed in one of the ARS publications). As it is stated, if there is a difference between what is in the "CRL" and the ARS "AEN" publication, ARS publication will prevail. Posted on the GW on 5-12-04 was a listing of all roses in the 2004 "Combined Rose List" having the new CRL notation, indicating these roses have not appeared in any publications of the American Rose Society. This only covers roses with the CRL notation. There are roses in all the back issues of the "CRL" with "NR" notation that need researching, to find out if the "NR" listing have been changed and now have a "AEN" designation, like all the roses Deborah had on her list. All of Deborahs roses started out with this "NR" notation, but were changed the following year having an "AEN". In the meantime her roses will be included in the next monthly posting on the GW of new or any corrections to the new 2004 "AEN". It may be to everyone benefit, if judges and exhibitors check their rose against what is in the 2004 "AEN" for missing or incorrect information. E-mail this information to me, and it will be on the next GW post. Waiting until the new 2005 "AEN" is published to share this valuable information, is doing an injustice to all exhibitors. The Combined Rose List is not a source for verifying AENs; it is only to be used as a reference if a rose is not listed in an ARS publication, but considered having a temporary "AEN". And as ARS stated, the handbook is no longer a reliable ARS publication as it previously was for verifying AENs. (See the post on new judges manual arrives). 5-13-04 Ronald Schwerdt

Hi Jim: Mas mentioned that she's applying silica ... known to strengthen cell-wall. I checked on potassium and disease-prevention, and found this in Wikipedia, "In agriculture, some cultivars are more efficient at K uptake due to genetic variations, and often these plants have increased disease resistance.[1] The mechanisms include a decreased cell permeability and decreased susceptibility to tissue penetration. Silica, which is accumulated in greater quantities when adequate potassium is present, is incorporated into cell walls, strengthening the epidermal layer which functions as a physical barrier to pathogens. Potassium has also been implicated to have a role in the proper thickening of cell walls." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_deficiency_(plants) **** From Straw: I notice that my disease-resistant roses: Basyes Blueberry, Excellenz von Schubert, Knock-outs, Kordes Flower Carpet, Annie L. McDowell, Marie Pavie, Bolero, Christopher Marlowe, Frederic Mistral, Old Port, Lilian Austin, and Nahema have THICKER LEAVES than flimsy Gruss an Teplitz' leaves. The disease-resistant own-roots are more efficient in getting potassium from the soil, than Dr. Huey's parent, Gruss an Teplitz. I notice that when I bring down the pH of my alkaline tap water through a bit of vinegar, ... the leaves of Sweet Promise rose became thinner, and more wilting in hot sun. So I checked on that, and a few University Extension mentioned that as the pH drops, levels of calcium and potassium are less available. There's the misconception that the pH has to be slightly acidic for roses to bloom best ... that's NOT true. The best tons-of-blooms in HMF are from sandy alkaline gardens, such as of Kitty Belendez in CA, she uses a soluble fertilizer mix, including kelp meal. Seaweed has alkaline clay soil, and she gets tons of blooms with soluble fertilizer. Alkaline soil pH doesn't matter, since plants can do acid-phosphatase (secreting acids to utilize phosphorus in soil). Dr. Huey root-stock is good in acid-phosphatase for blooming, but lousy in getting potassium from the soil. Here's an excerpt from eHow: "Potassium levels increase with higher pH levels, so acidic soils, which have lower pH levels, tend to have less potassium content than alkaline soils. According to professor Linda Chalker-Scott, potassium levels are particularly low in sandy acidic soils. Amending Your Soil: If your soil has low pH and potassium levels, you should apply lime to increase soil pH. For potassium-deficient soils that are not acidic, fertilizers such as potassium sulfate (sulfate of potash) may be more appropriate." *** From Straw: below is Annie L. McDowell, zero diseases for the past 2 years, that rose has VERY THICK leaves. I put gypsum in the planting hole & use soluble sulfate of potash. Picture taken June 19, after 3-days of rain & humid weather: