Don Juan is a climbing rose that grows typically at least 10-12' tall & 8' wide. You're concerned that the Knockouts will eventually grow too big for the space, so just checking in with Don Juan's eventual size. Since you plan to train the long canes horizontally, the height will be reduced by adding to the width. Jackson & Perkins recommends planting 8' apart for solid coverage. ( http://tinyurl.com/mr5r7a8 ) Click on "plant description" at that link for further details. So I'm with kippy & brittie here that you wouldn't need more than 2 for your 15' fence. Though you're thinking of trellis to space the roses away from the fence, consider the suggestions of boncrow & kippy for espaliering using the fence. Eyebolts of appropriate length can be screwed to the fence to hold horizontal runs of wire, or blocks of wood or whatever can be attached to the fence at right angles to project from it to hold shorter eyebolts for the same purpose. (And light to medium weight trellis can be attached in the same manner from the fence.) This is the simplest, least expensive & most unobtrusive method. Canes are lightly tied to the wires with soft material, as you probably saw in the videos, in a figure 8. Check out kona's photos - 3rd & 4th down on the left in the link below - to see how this has been done. There are only two runs of wire. While you're there, check out all the photos of this lovely rose & the ways it's been grown. Here is a link that might be useful: Don Juan photos This post was edited by vasue on Sun, Aug 31, 14 at 19:38

Thank you, Jim and Cottagegarden for reviving this thread. I really appreciate the company of kind, and positive visitors to this forum. Like Cottagegarden, I bought 2 soil-test kits from local stores: Lowe and HomeDepot. They are totally useless and gave false result. Then I paid $20 for EarthCo. (professional soil-testing company) and my soil test came back high pH at 7.7, and deficient in everything, plus barely adequate in calcium ... I was so sure that my soil has plenty of calcium !! I'm next to a limestone quarry. For years I disagree with my neighbor on calcium. He insisted that his tomato in pots are lacking in calcium (blossom end-rot) ... He's right, after seeing how mixing gypsum (calcium sulfate) into the soil made 1st-year band-size La Reine went beserk with buds: due to winter-kill, it's only 8 inch. tall, but with 10 buds !! But the plant is stunt & brown leaves, and the blooms are small. I forgot to give it sulfate of potash (it should be twice more potassium than calcium). Yes to mixing gypsum into planting hole, but no more than 10% (I spent hours researching on the right % to mix in). I broke that rule many times, and end up with stunt plants & leaves showing potassium deficiency. Too much calcium drives down potassium. If you have a large garden, soil can vary: some part can be alkaline if watered frequently with high pH tap water. Most tap water are alkaline, I already tested a few with fish-tank litmus paper, even mineral bottled water has pH over 8. Some part of a garden can be acidic (if get rain water only, pH at 5.6). My soil test recommend mixing sulfur into clay. BAD ADVICE !! That was expensive and killed tons of earthworms. I like gypsum better, less caustic & cheaper ($4 for 25 lb. at Menards). Gypsum is great in breaking up compacted clay, provides calcium, plus de-salt soil. I moved 4 roses this spring: The ones that didn't get gypsum in the planting hole were slower to recuperate. The one that got gypsum in the planting hole, was VERY FAST in pumping out buds. See Duchess de Rohan below, 2 weeks after moving, with lots of buds. I moved that one since it was in too much shade, zero blooms. After moving to more sun, it exploded in buds. A note on moving roses. Roses which are grafted on Dr. Huey is less forgiving in moving. Dr. Huey is a long stick, and it's easy to break the tiny roots at the end. I moved knock-outs grafted on Dr. Huey twice before. Both time they lost all their leaves, and took at least 3 months to get back to normal. With own-root, it's so much easier to move: The roots are cluster: wide & shallow, rather than a long & deep stick like Dr. Huey. I moved at least 10 own-roots for the past 4 years: They recuperate quickly, lose zero leaves, IF THE ORIGINAL SOIL IS LOOSE & FLUFFY, then moving is zero stress. If the original soil is compact, digging them up caused many roots to be broken.

Yes I think that would be a good idea, I have copy and pasted this from another site : It is best to take your cuttings from the hardened new growth that arises between October and April. The plant producing your cutting material should have finished a growth surge, with a clean and healthy appearance and no moulds on the stems. Cut it into 7-10cm lengths, and trim the leaves off the lower half of the cutting, ensuring no bark is torn off the stem. Remove young growing shoots or flowers. Dip the cut end into a rooting hormone powder to stimulate faster, more reliable root growth. Grevilleas prefer a low nutrient propagation mix, like 1:2 parts peat moss and coarse sand. Place the entire pot in a plastic bag and seal. The new cutting will produce roots in about 4 to 8 weeks, and can be potted up once the roots are 3-5cm long. Are you keeping the cuttings cool like wrapping them in damp paper if not potting up straight away as they will dry out quickly, I have potted up hundreds of cuttings and none have died within four days as they usually have enought moisture in them to keep them alive for a while and this is Queensland. And Pete's (Gardening Australia) other rooting compound is vegemite but I have never tried that interesting all the same yes do let us know how you go.......MM.

could it be that black sooty mould? if so that is commonly caused by scale insect and/or mealy bugs, and they are commonly bought to the plant by ants. mealy bugs easy spot they are little whitish furry bugs around near the growing tip, scale look like hard little pimply lumps also around near the growing tip. if it is the above you need to control the ants first then make a white oil solution (homemade is easy) and spray the infected area with that after the heat of the sun. it has been very dry of late that is when ants become more prevelant, also with your callistemon problem because of the dry (low humidity) could it be spider mite? if so they are easy to control just introduce some mist watering around the foliage area to increase humidity keeping a bucket of water under each plant will also help the humidity. in both cases if the problem is too bad a prune up to remove all infected tip end wouldn't be out of the question, just be sure to destroy the prunings don't compost them or hold them on site. len Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page