No. Probably not. BUT your rose was probably pushed hard to bring it up to bloom for sale. Now it needs to re-group. It needs to put some energy into roots, rather than growth. I don't know where you got it, but years ago we always bought a few roses when a big local rose wholesaler had their April "Rose Days." We found that those plants invariably needed most of a year to get back to where they would have been, had they not been heavily-fed for massive bloom, and sprayed for display. So we don't do that anymore. Your other rose is probably just coming along at a normal rate. Despite a couple of heat-spikes, we've had a very cool spring. And that's GOOD. You WANT these plants to build good root systems, before they push big topgrowth and bloom. Jeri

The plant you now have is the rootstock variety Dr. Huey, which has survived the freezing-out of Joseph's Coat. In your climate, the graft of a grafted plant must be buried several inches below grade to prevent this. However, a climber that freezes back most years is no use anyway. You need a hardy climber like Quadra, John Davis, or John Cabot, which you can order from Pickering Nurseries for delivery next spring whenever the ground is thawed and early things are blooming in your area. If you want to keep Dr. Huey, do not cut it back in fall or spring except to remove damaged wood. Train climbers semi-horizontally on a support or let them fountain naturally. Do not support them straight up.

I saw it...you asked how I get my bulbs so big! Since these were all new bulbs, the answer was simply - buy from Royal Colors. But, now you were really asking, "What can I do to make my bulbs bigger and grow to their max potential...they seem to be shrinking!" The answer to that one is a little more complex. My bulbs are outside from early spring (after last frost) up until October. They get lots of water and fertilizer. When bulbs are blooming, it's not unusual to see them shrink a little (almost like the outside layer comes undone from the rest of the bulb), but not at the end of the growing season. We are in cooler weather now, so are you withholding water? Did you pull them up to rest, etc? Really, without knowing what you've done (or not done) it's hard to say why they are smaller. Please provide some more details and we'll do our best to help you. K

I've always been amazed by the show of lupines along the sides of the highways up in Maine. Plus the fields of lupines you see in Veremont. There's even some fields of lupines growing along the Mass Pike. You would think they would be easy to grow - since obviously they are not getting a lot of TLC on the side of a highway. You would think that lupines would be one of the easiest plants to grow. But then - I have had horrible luck getting lupines to grow. I had originally thought it would be fabulous to have a field of lupines out behind my pond - but every time I have attemepted to plant a lupine there, it has died. I even bought a huge ziploc bag of seeds from some lady in Maine and scattered all the seeds back there. None of them took. This year I have found 2 volunteer seedlings in one of my side gardens. I have them staked so they don't accidentally get trampled or weeded. I am hoping and praying that I get lupine flowers next year. And can I hope even more that they self sow next year, and the following year I'll have lots of little seedlings.