Dawn, I've started what I think is a rather nice, representative, collection of old garden roses/antique roses and some modern disease resistant roses. I do stay away from HTs from the previous experience with the bagged roses from the big stores. I'm interested to know which of the HTs (old, middle age, new), are as disease resistant as some of the other roses I grown. I'm trying quite a few Delbards and Brownell roses hoping to have disease resistance. I hope I didn't hijack your thread. Robert

Yes, it does remind me of 'Nigrette', which I got last year as a band. This year it was potted-up into a larger container, but it will remain a pot-pet (along with the others in my collection). I assumed that because Vintage Gardens carried both, and was known for sleuthing out duplicates, that there must be something "different" about this foundling. Perhaps it's the size? While mine is still a baby, the pics of 'Nigrette' I've seen always indicate a small plant -- and bloom. Catspa -- care to compare to yours? :-) ~Christopher Here is a link that might be useful: 'Nigrette' at HelpMeFind

A little more about re-blooming. Earlier I said a bulb can bloom as many as three times a year. That is a general statement and how many times a bulb will bloom will depend on the genetic heritage it has. plant guy reports that none of his large-flowered Dutch hybrids has ever bloomed more than once a year. That is usually the case with most modern hybrids. One reason is that they will send up 1, 2 or 3 scapes at a time depending on the size of the bulb. In sending up 3 scapes, for instance, the bulb needs a year to prepare the next scape for blooming. If a medium sized bulb sends up only one scape, in 3-4 months (but sometimes less--it's not a hard and fast rule) a second scape may be ready to go. You may have seen this happen--just as the first scape has finally dried up, a second emerges. Sometimes it's 2 at once then a 3rd later, kind of in an extended blooming period, not so much like well-separated ones. Some years they may do one thing and the next they do another. If it doesn't happen, it's not necessarily anything you did or didn't do--you really can blame it on the bulb! They may lack that particular disposition due to genetic heritage. I wasn't specific enough when I said a Hippeastrum *can* re-bloom, it seems and it sounds like I meant *any* of them can. That's not what I meant you to get from that. Not all of them can re-bloom and should not be expected to. It *can* happen, a second or third blooming--but it depends on the specific bulb. Grow them all as best you can anyway! Cultural handling can vary from year to year and any combination of factors can play into this, as far as known re-bloomers goes. If I had a striatum that *didn't* give me at least one re-blooming after 3-5 months--something is wrong. Striatum is one species that regularly blooms 3 times a year under good conditions. Only one blooming a year--you could do better.....If you get a second blooming, you're doing better, but cultural conditions could still be improved.....3 cycles of bloom--that's the way to do it! Commercial breeders are interested in bulbs that *don't* offset prolifically and will send up multiple scapes all at once, *one time* a year. That is to benefit the cut flower trade as well as the home grower--one big show or one good "crop" of flowers is what it is all about. So many people are happy with a holiday Hippi blooming once--its scary how many people just toss them after that. That's all they want. As far as breeding good multipliers goes--this is counterproductive and the last thing commercial growers are interested in. The offsets pull on the mother bulb and slow it's increase. They are not needed in large commercial ventures: they section or chip the bulbs for rapid increase and do not rely on offset production. So anyway, some modern cultivars *will* re bloom. In my small collection, this year I had a second flush from Rilona, Dancing Queen, Piquant and as I said, H. striatum. Right now I have a third flush on one of my striatums. This is my first season with the three named hybrids, so I don't know how reliably they will re-bloom for me, but I'll be expecting that it is quite possible based on what happened this year. Is it possible that the re-blooming was due to their being newly planted bulbs? Could be...I just couldn't say. Next year will be interesting....... Robert.

Michelle- We must have cross posted. Her pictures, to put it bluntly, are terrible. When I was there last year picking up my daylilies (only 20 minutes away) she showed me newer pictures of many on her computer and you would not believe the difference. If I remember correctly, most of the pictures are scanned in from copies of copies because thats what she had to use at the time the website was done. I know personally that they are truely lates and not just listed as lates as her garden is local to mine and that bloom in August there will be August here. Not sure how it would work out way down south but at least they would bloom after most of the others.