Cynthia: you are my savior many times !! THANK YOU. In June you saved me from killing Firefighter the 4th time. Thanks to you, I took that off from my buy-list, and Roses Unlimited gave me Pretty Lady Rose instead (bunnies killed that along with acidic grass clippings in 2020). I thought about buying Firefighter as grafted since I killed the own-root 3 times, then thanks to your post, I won't attempt it as grafted. Here's how I killed Firefighter as own-root 3 times: 1) 2014 tree-root invaded the 3rd-year own-root Firefighter. I should had moved it, but left it there, so it died when cane-borers took over due to lack of calcium (trees steal lots of calcium and water). 2) Bought 2nd gallon-size Firefighter. Since it's low-thorn waterhog, I experimented planting it next to a rainspout. It died from freezing rain in winter. 3) Bought 3rd band-size Firefighter. I don't trust my zone 5a winter, so I potted it inside my unheated garage. In Feb. the temp. inside my garage was freezing single-digit. My refrigerator broke down, and I was busy storing food inside the garage and I forgot to cover Firefighter with a thermal blanket.

Have two. Both are first year plants. One from Regan and one from a local Lowe. Could be because of the combination of the rootstock (Dr. Huey?) and my soil, but neither appears to be a vigorous grower or particularly blackspot resistant. Will see what they do in the coming years (if the two survive our NJ winter). The flowers are fragrant, have very nice form and color (resembling MIP), and hold their form a long-time. If it winters well here and does reasonably well fighting off blackspot, should be a keeper.

Austin - this is a tough question - so many beautiful roses! I particularly love apricots and mauves/lavenders. A few favorite apricots are Apricot Candy, Sweet Fragrance, Fragrant Apricot, Medallion, Soul Sister. Mauves are Plum Perfect, Posidon, Distant Drums, Heirloom. Deep pinks are Miss All American Beauty, Voluptuous, Pretty Lady Rose. Soft pinks are Quietness, Beverly, Belinda's Dream. A white I really liked this year is Shirley's Bouquet - a bright clear white that keeps the blooms a long time on the bush, even ordered a second one I liked it so much. Golden Fairy Tale is a favorite yellow because it is a very tough bush and when it blooms, they are all over the bush making a beautiful display, and I adore Nacogdoches - named for the town near me. Bright yellow, it doesnt fade. I adore Chicago Peace - so unique and beautiful. If you have a place you need something bright.......Chuckles is great - mine is next to Sally Holmes and the bright white and neon pink light up the yard. Like you, I was "supposed" to be doing taxes today - instead, I potted my 11 Edmunds roses that had been soaking a couple of days. Weather was windy, bitter cold. Put spagnum moss around the graft and tied a plastic grocery bag around the canes - hoping this will ward off the wind and make a little mini-greenhouse so canes wont dry out. I am picking up my little grandson in Lindale on Friday for the weekend - I am going to try to leave early and go by the new Chamblees [and am surer I wont leave empty handed] and will take photos and report on my visit. Hope you got more done on your taxes than I did.........and hope some of these suggestions are helpful. Judith

I consider a rose A-OK that gets some black spot on the oldest (lowest), foliage on its bush. That is as long as the black spot only appears from September on, no sooner, and does not loose those black spotted leaves, still staying green in spite of the black spots. It passes mustard. Any black spot starting earlier, particularly starting before The Fourth Of July , in June, and its a no-go. Bushes so affected, will usually be pretty much defoliated by August. Late season, lowest on the bush, black spotted leaves, as described above, really cause no or very little weakening of the bush. Those spotted leaves did their job all season long in building up the bush's resources to enlarge it, if a young bush, and survive winter in great shape to start off the next spring in prime shape. Also, those spotted leaves are going to be shed very soon, anyway. Unfortunately, its a trial and error process to know for sure how a new bush will perform regarding its black spot susceptibility. Although I start by doing my homework, learning all that I can about a candidate, and going by the best information available, it still needs to be trialed in ground, in my garden. Boy, how I wish I could just plant any rose bush I desired, and did not have to deal with whether or not it was black spot prone. I really want to get away from spraying because as we all know, toxic chemicals are, in the end, a losing proposition. I have tried practically all the natural/organic fungus control methods, and none of them worked effectively. I still prefer the classic, large bloomed, exhibition, hybrid tea type flower form, over the trend among contemporary rose gardeners of growing English (Austin), or Old Garden Rose flower form roses, with their quartered and often flat blooms. In spite of my preference for classic HT form, I grow and am enamoured with a number of these new trend flower form types. Fortunately, many of the modern OGR bloom style roses are highly black spot resistant or even black spot proof, especially those introduced by Kordes' ADR winners. Moses