mgleason, thanks for the heads-up/offer re. Papa Meilland. I'm planning on ordering for early spring. I've hearing such positive feedback about Northland Rosarium that I may order with them come January. But keep me posted about your PM plans. What do you expect to charge for PM? Re. Taboo/Barkarole and Black Beauty; Ceterum is right that I am favoring fragrant roses right now. So I'm not serious about Taboo at this point. I do expect to get a Black Beauty and/or Hocus Pocus in the future, but probably not in the next several months. It's at least a quite compact plant, so i figure I can squeeze it in somewhere. But I do already have a reverted Memphis Magic (was supposed to be striped Memphis Music). It is such a deep red its actually burgundy rather than red. Terrific color! That's tiding me over at the moment, as far as scentless dark reds goes. And I have the small deep red HT Deep Secret--awsome fragrance! Depending on weather, it varies from blood red to black-shaded red. Not the best flower form in the heat, but when I cut it in bud and bring it inside, it opens out beautifully and holds very well. Mgleason, I meant to ask you about UCDavis' program. How does one go about requesting cuttings from them? Is it a wholesale operation only? Can we get info regarding what vendors have gotten which VID plants from them? It would be great to be able to track their program. Sounds like you may have been doing just that for a while. Mike

The temperature is not a problem (unless you are still having freezes), but the wind is. I would water it carefully, and then place it outside in a protected location. I usually place new bands on my covered patio area. In a couple of days or so, I would pot it up to a 1 gallon. You do not want it to dry out, but it should not be overly wet either just before you move it up to a larger size pot. Once the winds subside, you can move the plant to a protected area on your property where it will not get lost, as it will require special attention, especially as the temperature increases. When it becomes hot, watch it carefully and water it regularly. A couple of years ago, I purchased one of those green wagons made of metal caging like material and placed my rose bands on it. I would move all of my rose bands out in the evening, and bring them to the covered patio or shade at about 11 a.m. I have also dug a hole in an area that receives morning sun only, and buried the pot (2 gallon), except for the lip, and placed a 1/2" layer of compost on top, and a drip line in it. Good luck:) Lynn

The general, northeastern consensus is own-root HTs aren't worth it. They don't grow fast enough to make up for the annual winterkill. It is more noticable the older the rose. I've tried to grow Margaret Merrill own root, and it just did not want to grow. It is something the rest of the country usually fails to understand, and tries to ignore. The closest I can get to an explanation is that what many modern roses need to thrive is heat. Preferably weeks of around 100. So I hope you get more local answers. Diane in NJ has a lot more experience with roses like Hot Cocoa than I do, and I'd recommend taking her advice over mine.

lizzieswellness I have been growing roses for 30 years (I'm 60) and I have been rooting roses for a decade. I grow 150+ varieties of OWN ROOT roses. What you wrote fit GRAFTED roses that are grafted on ONE PARTICULAR ROOTSTOCK, but DOES NOT APPLY to own-root roses which are vastly different from each other. Like Bayes Blueberry is a long rope root, or shallow cluster-root of Baby Fauraux, or thick & woody & chunky root (like a tree) of French Romantica roses. I dug up plenty of dead own-root roses that don't survive my zone 5a winter at -20 F below zero. And their roots are DIFFERENT from each other, just google "StrawChicago and HMF" and you'll see I posted plenty of pics. of roots of roses: Even grafted roses are different from each other (Fortuniana, Multiflora, Dr.Huey). Below is multiflora rootstock (pic. from internet): Below is Dr.Huey rootstock, dug up from my garden of rock hard clay: Below is a pic. of own root rose that a friend sent to me. NO WAY that such a tiny own root can handle rock hard clay. One size DOES NOT fit all when it comes to own-root roses.