There are three possible causes: 1. salt damage caused by water being too salty which could be at this time of the year depending on its source, or fertilizers 2. poor drainage 3. fertilizer containing too much phosphorus. A possible solution is to deep water, flushing the salts from the root zone, allowing the soil to dry a little before the next watering. Deep watering less often is preferable to frequent light waterings. Hold off the fertilizing until autumn, only use one that is suitable for native plants with minimum phosphorus. If the drainage is an issue plan to dig the plant up and replant in a raised mound. Pick a cooler run of weather to do this.

Rodrigo, Warren Millington, an Australian rose breeder friend, reported on the Rose Hybridizers Association this summer that he witnessed on a trip to China they are using Banksiae for tree (standard) trunk stocks. If they will work for standards, they should work for bushes without a problem. You could almost use anything which roots well, grows well where you are on its own roots and accepts the desired scions.

Thank you. I agree with you, I'd LOVE to see them released into the ground and permitted to attain their full potential. I, unfortunately, don't have that kind of room. I believe they are going to be rather large climbers, with the smaller L56863 one being smaller than the larger one. The larger one has foliage and canes much larger than the smaller one. Their flowers are more often held individually along the canes rather than small bunches like Banksiaes. 86-3 does similarly. I think they would flower at every horizontal bud. That's what they appear to be trying to do now.

Jeri, your rose is lovely. I see them around our area and would love to get one someday...if I can find an appropriate spot! They get so huge around here that they scare me. They are more than house eaters. They look like they want to take over everything. We live not far from Tombstone Arizona, where the " biggest rose in the world " lives. My husband and I paid the 5 bucks to go see it, and it really is an impressive Lady Banks. I took a picture of my two youngest children sitting by the massive "trunk" and it looks like a tree trunk. This spring I want to go see it in bloom. About the mandatory water rationing you expect to be implemented soon...does that affect only those on city water? If you have your own well, can you water a bit more freely? We lived in California nearly 20 years, through some terrible drought years. I almost cried driving through the central valley, seeing acre after acre of nut and fruit trees dead because of the water being shut off. When I saw the golf courses still growing rich, green grass, I felt very angry...there was a lot of talk about fines if you keep your gardens watered. We lived very close to two large, beautiful golf courses and a soccer park. Through the worst of the droughts, they never went brown. I told my husband that I will keep watering my gardens as long as they stay green. If they let the golf courses die, I will take the water restrictions seriously. They never did go brown and I never stopped watering my gardens (we had our own well) and in time, the rains came so heavily that the reservoirs were so full they had to open the emergency outlets to keep the dams from breaking. So it seems that the cycle of droughts continues. But take heart, the rains eventually come! Our last monsoon season here was incredible and the countryside turned green as Ireland. God only knows what this year will be like.