If you think it's your soil, and you're willing to try again, perhaps this will help. First, don't plant the band directly into your soil -- baby it from Spring in a pot. For potting soil, consider my modified "Mel's Mix" from Square Foot Gardening. The original mix was equal parts peat moss, vermiculite, and compost. I looked at this and broke it down to functional components -- 1/3 nutrient-poor organic base, 1/3 nutrient-poor inorganic base, 1/3 nutrient-rich organic base. My modification was using 2 parts peat moss, 1 part shredded mulch, 2 parts vermiculite, 1 part perlite, 2 parts Bovung dehydrated manure, 1 part used coffee grounds (I don't have any compost working here yet). Into this, I mixed 1 cup Jobe's Organic Knock-Out Rose Plant Food (or whatever organic dry mix you prefer) per 2-gal container. Once you see it starting to put out a good amount of new growth, feed it "weakly, weekly" with half-strength fish emulsion -- with seaweed, if you can find that kind of mix. Make sure the pot doesn't dry out, and keep it where it gets a good amount of sun until the heat of Summer arrives -- then move it to where it gets morning sun and afternoon "bright shade." When the main heat of Summer has passed, get ready to put it in the ground. If you have really bad clay, try to make a hole twice the size of the pot, and set the native soil aside. Make some more of the potting mix, and mix it about 50-50 with the native soil from the hole. Use this to backfill the hole after putting the rose in the ground. You'll have extra soil -- so use this to form a sort of "doughnut" around the newly planted rose to catch extra rain and irrigation. You can level it out with mulch on top -- you'll still have a sort of "pool" around the rose for catching extra water for its first year, being as the mulch will have more air space between the particles than the soil mix below. If you keep doing this sort of thing whenever you plant in the bed (be it for roses, perennials, annuals, etc.), you'll be putting pockets of better-draining soil into the ground, which will break up the clay faster than simply laying materials on top. Also, the vermiculite and perlite is inorganic, so it won't break down over time. It's still good to keep adding organics on top, and I'm noticing that in my bed, it is slowly making its way down into the native soil, but doing this will help a new baby band get going faster. :-) ~Christopher

Bill and Sue, My orders this year were a combination of love at first sight and cheapskate curiosity. The "love" order was 'Port Royale,' a dark crimson Japanese peony from Song Sparrow (it just arrived, and looks like a good plant). I saw it last winter on their website, and totally fell for it. I fell in "love" again in the spring, and ordered 'Early Glow' and 'Mahogany' and 'Amalia Olson' from Hollingsworth's. They should arrive any time. 'Early Glow' and 'Mahogany' will find homes in my "hot" garden in the back yard. The "cheapskate curiosity" order is from Wild's. I know they won't send large roots, but for their clearance price I could try half a dozen plants for the price of one from Klehm's or Hollingsworth, and even use a couple as gifts to a friend if they're really healthy. I ordered 'Mt. St. Helens' because my son is nuts about volcanoes, and he liked the idea of a plant named after his favorite eruption. I also ordered 'Mischief,' 'Polar King,' and a couple others whose names escape me right now. Now I have to find ROOM for all these beauties, since I bought 'Kelway's Glorious' and 'Duchesse de Nemours' this summer. I have to finagle the peonies in among my other plant loves - heirloom irises and daylilies. Laurel

Snort. LOL. Oh, j royall....a sense of humor is a beautiful thing during the pool building process. Fraggle...it sounds like they started a water feature and did not complete. Is there some type of basin underneath?

It sure is, Carol! I may need to get the deep irrigation stake thing, like Ingrid too. I think Strawchicago on the organic Roses forum has written about acidifying her water. I can't remember the results and need to check. I believe vinegar was one thing she tried. It would be nice if vinegar helped. At least it's cheap and can be bought by the gallon. Adding a bit in some water once in a while would be easy. At least for some roses that look to be struggling with the alkaline conditions. I'm not up to doing any constant or complicated regimens. I'm going to search for that old post. I'll post if I find anything good. Lisa