I know all about the first come, first served policy! To my cost! Some trees were taken out before I moved in, so shade is not really a factor. The lot lies on an East/West axis, with a fence and cedar hedge along the long north edge. The house sits at the east end of the lot, so the back yard is actually something of a u-shaped suntrap, with the empty part of the u facing south. The most difficult part of the yard for roses is along the west, which is where the trees used to be. I have the albas there. Some roses are wrapped in burlap, two are tipped and covered with dirt and compost, and all but the albas, rugosas, and a hybrid setigira are mounded with dirt and straw. This last winter has been quite mild, with only one night of lows near 0, and the ground not staying frozen--I am glad I mounded, even if I do get some canker.

(continuing hijack :) henryinct-- Tebuconazole (Bayer) kills the developing fungus inside the leaf. Elsewhere in the study, she describes how, inside leaves treated with DMI fungicides such as Bayer, the chemical destroys existing fungal structures. She includes microscopic photographs showing this destruction. There is no need to theorize, you can see it happening. Respectfully, it is incorrect to say it takes 7 or more days for "the spores to germinate into fungal cells." She observed spores germinating in 7-8 hours when wet at the appropriate temperature. Within 7-10 days at favorable temperature, there are externally visible symptoms. If you look at the tebuconazole column on the right (leaf pictures, pdf p.85), the middle leaf has tiny spots which probably had formed 7 days after infection and were arrested by the tebuconazole treatment at that time. (A poster here, Pete in Daytona, observed this happening a few years ago when the product first came out.) In the lower right-hand corner, the obvious spots that had formed 10 days after infection were arrested at that stage by the tebuconazole treatment at that time. Elsewhere in the study, she says that such leaves do not finally succumb to blackspot but continue to function. However, if the infection was more advanced at the time of treatment, the leaf has already been damaged too much and will die, even though the chemical kills the fungal body.

Open a Flickr or Photobucket account. Post your photos there and copy the html code from the site for each photo you wish to post here, then past that code here. The html code for each photo you wish to post here has to be copied and pasted individually. You can insert them wherever you desire in your post so they can illustrate what you wish to show. Garden Web will then access the photo site for the image. When you delete the image from your other account, it will disappear from Garden Web. The two sites are Flickr.com and Photobucket.com. There are probably others, but these two I've used. I currently use Flickr as that is what the previous Rose Hybridizers Association forum required. I hope it helps. Kim

No, I haven't made any decisions. I don't know how anyone makes a decision about these things - there are just soooooo many varieties to choose from, it's sort of overwhelming. I have, however, been having a good look around my suburb at what my neighbours are up to in terms of rose growing, trying to see what does well and what does not so well. So within a few streets of my house Crepuscule, Renae, Pinkie and Ballerina are all doing exceptionally well. There are a couple of Pierre de Ronsard's doing ok, the blooms are looking lovely but they're not growing very much and they have very little foliage, so I guess they're not exactly vigorous. All of the hybrid tea varieties, however, and not doing too well - they have a few scattered blooms but the bushes are looking very leggy. I don't think they get enough sun up here to become bushy and healthy.