I just try to eat the right foods the best I can to stay healthy...

Yes I like the effects of topdressing Thomas Affleck with horse manure but I also like topdressing our very disease resistant roses with my homemade compost... The compost not only keeps the roses looking healthy and blooming but also makes the companion plants grow huge and bloom non stop...

Another all-day rain .. this is our wettest year. Lots of buds on my roses, but some don't open properly due to wetness. I'm doing to test Brewer's Yeast on the 2 young roses which I'll pot up. Brewer's yeast is very high in potassium at 20,000 mcg and decent phosphorus at 10,900 mcg per 3 teaspoon, plus all the B-vitamins, see below link ... I saw Brewer's yeast tablets sold as organic-fertilizer at Menards.

http://www.botanical-online.com/english/brewersyeast.htm

For my hayfever, brewer's yeast works better than Hawaii Spirulina. I take Brewer's yeast to keep mosquitos away from me while I work in the garden. I'll test spirulina against kelp in the future.

Brewer's yeast also works for pets' health, one reply in Yahoo: ""Pet owners have known about the ability of brewer's yeast ability to repel ticks and fleas for many years. Wafers that contain brewer's yeast can be given to animals for this purpose. Powdered brewer's yeast may be sprinkled on the animal's food also. The large amounts of thiamine in brewer's yeast may act to repel mosquitoes from humans as well."

Here's info. from drugs.com on Brewer's yeast "Upper respiratory tract infections : S. cerevisiae 500 mg daily has been used in clinical trials over 12 weeks to treat respiratory infections and allergic rhinitis. Laxative : 6 to 50 g of fresh baker's yeast over 3 days was used in a study for the of cancer-related constipation. Acute diarrhea : 500 mg daily of brewer's yeast is recommended in the German Commission E Monographs . Brewer's yeast contains tyramine. Avoid concurrent use with MAOIs"

U. of Maryland Medical Center on Brewer's Yeast "At least one study has found that brewer's yeast may improve acne. Another linked it to a reduced risk of a second skin cancer. One large, preliminary study found that taking a specific kind brewer's yeast product (EpiCor) may help prevent colds and flu."

Source: Brewer's yeast | University of Maryland Medical Center http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/brewers-yeast#ixzz3fd45nniB

Thanks for the info Straw!Our second flush on our Double Ko's is as good or better than our first flush! So I'm very happy about that Straw! All D. Ko's get compost only but the weather has not been overly hot so that helps too!

Our local news said we set new records in our area for rain this June and July so far... I heard some locations in Indiana State have received rain for 130 days straight... yeeeee!

I'm only 1 hour and 20 min. from Gary, Indiana. So glad that I put gritty lime on all my roses 2 days ago as preventive measure, when I notice than their canes are droopier, or darker leaves, or a few BS leaves. We are in week-long drizzling rain, which is worse than thunderstorm. Menards advertised their colorful river-pebbles only $2 per bag. So I sent my husband there, but he said these pebbles are all brown, no colors to them. I hope to test colorful pebbles as "buffer" against rain.

Will check HomeDepot or Lowe's for those pebbles. Last year I should had grabbed Cream Veranda (Kordes rose) sold under $10 at HomeDepot, except the scent was so-so, so I didn't get that, but the leaves were so shiny & healthy, very much like my FlowerCarpet Coral (also bred by Kordes). FlowerCarpet Coral is even more disease-resistant than Knock-outs.

As to keep Japanese Beetles off roses: dry years are the worse for JB, and wet-year this year will be less JB. It's true that JB doesn't like many-tightly-packed petals like Austin roses. Here's a review on Austin rose The Dark Lady in HMF, with 140 petals. The higher the petal counts, the less JB can get inside.

Posted by Clare C. "Glad to see you are giving this worthy gal a go. In her second year, my Dark Lady has again put out flush after flush of opulent old-fashioned blooms. Bizarrely, she was not a prime target for Japanese beetles this season, even though roses to the left and right of her were being devoured. A relief! Re: Dark Lady's disease resistance, I have pruned off some of the lowest canes that were basically laying almost flat against the ground, in order to avoid any blackspot coming up through the lower leaves and branches. This has improved her overall health, and there are very few yellow/blackspot leaves so far. I have sprayed most of my roses preventatively this season a few times, however. "

My moms roses/blooms do not have that many petals and some years the JB's are all over them... Blooms only 1.5" wide had like 4-5 Jb's on it at one time... Bloom color red...

My red Firefighter, pic. at the beginning of this thread, has only 40 to 45 petals, as listed in HMF. That was infested with JB, like 2 bugs per bloom. But my red William Shakespeare 2000, with 120 petals, never have any JB bugs for the past 4 years. My red Knock-outs are prime-targets for JB. When I first planted 10 Austin roses, they ignored Austin-zillion-petals, and devoured my Knock-outs instead. Funny how I killed 40+ bugs per Knock-out, versus no JB on very fragrant Austin roses.

The more calcium given to the rose, the more petals. My Firefighter had lots of petals when I first bought it: mulched with horse manure (limed), and alfalfa meal ... but in 3rd year, I stopped horse manure, and it got less petals. So for the planting hole of zillion petals-roses like Austin, I always get a pH reading: if it's alkaline and sticky clay, I use gypsum (has 17% sulfur). If the planting hole has loamy & loose clay, neutral pH, I use lime (pH 9.9). Will post a pic. of Pink Peace after I fixed the planting hole with lime. That hole was previously occupied by a large bush, the soil tested acidic (from the bush' roots secreting acid) ... and the soil there is loamy & loose, different from my sticky & heavy alkaline clay.

Bacteria in the soil fix nitrogen from the atmosphere in a form usable by plants. Air is composed of 78.09% nitrogen. Alkaline soil has more bacteria, and less fungi. I plant herbs in my alkaline soil, and there's lots of leaves & no flowers, since phosphorus and potassium is low in my alkaline soil. I fertilized my trees with blood meal for the 1st year only (when they were 1 foot high) and nothing afterwards ... yet they become taller than my 2-story house after 15 years. Trees lose their leaves every winter, just like my roses.

It occurs to me that calcium helps uptake of nitrogen, since calcium helps to "sweeten" soil, resulting in more earthworms and beneficial bacteria. Farmers often apply lime together with fertilizer in spring. Bill (Squeeze z8 BC) from organic gardening said it best:

squeeze(z8 BC) "the fertilizing culture that the chemical companies have gotten us into lead most folks to think that plants need continuous additions of NPK to thrive, but it's actually the healthy soil microbial population that makes for long term fertility, converting and releasing organic nutrients for the mineral nutrient needs of the plants, and we need only insure that the necessary organics are always available, with some 'boosters' applied at the right times - early in the season the plants use more nitrogen to produce foliage, and phosphorus to grow good root structures, strong stems, and encourage bud growth - as the plant approaches 'adult size' and buds start happening, higher potassium insures flower/fruit formation - after fruit set happens, a balance of nutrients, including the minor and trace elements, with slightly lower nitrogen keeps it all happening - if the microbes have plentiful organic material to work on, fertilizing needs are really slight unless the plant is getting an excess of nitrogen." Bill squeeze(z8 BC)

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1543785/using-fish-emulsion-kelp-liquid-fertilizerquestions?n=17

Due to this wet-year with constant rain, I SHOULD HAD mixed gritty lime with organic fertilizers like chicken manure, cocoa mulch, or red lava rock to slow-down the erosion-effect of rain. But for hot & dry summer, mixing gypsum (17% sulfur plus calcium) with fertilizers help to lower the pH of alkaline-tap, plus help fertilizers to be more soluble.

This government link on nutrients that plants need is excellent, here's some excerpts from below link:

http://www.ncagr.gov/cyber/kidswrld/plant/nutrient.htm

"Lime can be added to the soil to make it less sour (acid) and also supplies calcium and magnesium for plants to use. Lime also raises the pH to the desired range of 6.0 to 6.5.

In this pH range, nutrients are more readily available to plants, and microbial populations in the soil increase. Microbes convert nitrogen and sulfur to forms that plants can use. Lime also enhances the physical properties of the soil that promote water and air movement ... Nitrogen is a part of chlorophyll, the green pigment of the plant that is responsible for photosynthesis.

On potassium: Potassium is absorbed by plants in larger amounts than any other mineral element except nitrogen and, in some cases, calcium. Helps in the building of protein, photosynthesis, fruit quality and reduction of diseases."

On phosphorus: Encourages blooming and root growth. Involved in the formation of all oils, sugars, starches, etc.

On calcium: Calcium, an essential part of plant cell wall structure, provides for normal transport and retention of other elements as well as strength in the plant. It is also thought to counteract the effect of alkali salts and organic acids within a plant.

On magnesium: Magnesium is part of the chlorophyll in all green plants and essential for photosynthesis.

On sulfur: Helps with vigorous plant growth and resistance to cold. Sulfur may be supplied to the soil from rainwater. The use of gypsum also increases soil sulfur levels. Sulfur is usually found in sufficient amounts from the slow decomposition of soil organic matter,

http://www.ncagr.gov/cyber/kidswrld/plant/nutrient.htm

From the above link: "Phosphorus is involved in the formation of all oils, sugars, starches, etc." No wonder the rose park Eglantyne smells so good, they use high-phosphorus fertilizer, which enhances the fragrant-oil in the petals. Eglantyne has a faint scent in my low-phosphorus soil. One time I put bone meal (high in phosphorus) in the planting hole of Sharifa Asma, I meant to make it deeper pink, but the color didn't change ... however, the scent was magnificent.

Kordes roses are very healthy ... I see Kordes Flower-Carpet series perform best in both dry and wet weather. Here's an excerpt from below link how how hardy & no-spray Kordes roses are for cold-zones:

http://www.denverrosesociety.org/education/Kordes_Roses.pdf

The ADR is both one of the highest awards a rose variety can attain, and one of the most severe trials for roses worldwide. It is a three year evaluation of new varieties in 11 locations throughout Germany. The plants are given no protection in this challenging Northern European climate. No plant protection sprays are used. Of the 102 varieties which have received this designation since 2000, 42 were bred by Kordes.

Fairy Tale™ Roses are Kordes’ answer to David Austin. Among them are:

Cinderella Fairy Tale™ 2003 Healthy foliage; light-pink, abundant, very full flowers; excellent for hedges/

Grimm Brothers Fairy Tale™ 2002 ADR; healthy foliage; brilliant, very double, orange/apricot flowers with a yellow reverse; blooms in clusters; slight fragrance;

Lions Fairy Tale™ 2002 ADR; vigorous, glossy, extremely healthy foliage; upright and elegant plant; cream white flowers age to apricot/pink; slight fragrance;

Pomponella Fairy tale™ 2006 ADR; vigorous, healthy foliage; proliferate bloomer; dark pink, round buds open to cupped blooms borne in clusters; species rose scent;

Vigorosa Roses are a group of vigorous, continuous-blooming, healthy, landscape and ground cover roses in a range of vibrant colors. Fragrances are slight. The catalog lists Apricot, Fortuna (pink), Toscana (raspberry red), Salmon, Ruby, Innocencia (white), and Sweet (crimson pink). Frilly Toscana looks especially interesting.

Climbing Max is a collection of the most beautiful and disease resistant climbers recently created by Kordes. They are:

Kordes Aloha/Aloha Hawaii™ 2003 Very double blooms of apricot, orange, pink and red come in trusses of up to ten blooms with a delicate, fruity fragrance.

Amadeus™ 2003 Classic, brilliant, blood red blooms come continually in trusses of 5 to 7 with a slight fragrance. Gold Medals from The Hague, Lyon and Geneva.

Kordes Golden Gate™ 2006 ADR; Double, golden yellow blooms come in trusses of 5 to 10 with intense fresh citrus scent. Prix de Parfum winner, Paris.

Jasmina™ 2005 ADR; has an abundance of violet-pink flowers with a rich, sweet fragrance.

Laguna™ 2004 ADR; has deep pink, very double old-fashioned blooms with intense fruity fragrance.

Kordes Moonlight™ 2004 Semi-double, copper-yellow blooms in clusters of 4 to 6 have rich fragrance.

Rosanna™ 2002 Brilliant, double, salmon-pink climber with deeply cupped blooms that come in large trusses. Slight fragrance. Gold Medals from The Hague, Lyon and Geneva.

Veranda™ Roses, also known as the Flower Circus series, are a group of compact floribundas for gardeners with limited space. The plants of this series range between 2 and 3 feet when mature, making them perfect for small spaces and patio containers. All have slight fragrance. Flower sizes appear to be those of large mini-floras.

Balconia™ Roses are low-growing, trailing plants, ideal for hanging baskets and planters placed on walls. All of them have a uniform spreading habit, appealing blooms in interesting colors, abundant one-inch flowers borne in clusters with good repeat, and abundant semi-glossy to glossy foliage. Besides Raspberry, the plants come in white (Innocencia), salmon/pink (Electric), Hot Pink, Apricot and red (Toscana).

Fruitilia™ Roses do double duty. In addition to lovely garden blooms in the summer, these varieties will produce sprays of rose hips for fall and winter cutting. The hips vary in size and color from plant to plant. All of the Fruitilias are productive and easy to maintain with a long vase life, and are available in a choice of colors including coffee, orange and red.

Freelander™ Roses are cutting garden roses, bred for a long vase life. Fragrances are moderate to strong. Some of these are:

Caramel Antique Freelander™ is a large-flowered, elegant, buff-yellow variety with a vase life of 12 days.

Cinderella Freelander™ is a moderately fragrant. Abundant, glossy foliage, good fragrance, and a vase life of 8 to 10 days.

Corrie Freelander™ is a relatively carefree plant with spectacular hot pink blooms carried on long stems. Vase life is 12 days.

Fantasia Mondiale Freelander™ produces large, double, apricot/pink blooms on long stems with semi-glossy abundant foliage. Vase life is 10 days.

Ice Girl Freelander™ is a vigorous, white rose that is extremely weather-resistant. Has intense fragrance, hybrid tea form and a vase life of 6 to 8 days.

Magma Freelander™ is one of the leading cut roses in European markets. It is an eye-catching yellow/red bi-color with hybrid tea form and a vase life of two weeks.

The Kordes Hybrid Teas listed below are both beautiful and healthy.

Berolina 1986 This rose is hardy and robust enough to survive almost total neglect on our back fence. It has long-lasting, high-centered, lemon-yellow blooms with a slight red blush.

Beverly 2007 This is a recent Kordes release, and is on the Macon wish list. The color is a luscious mix of several shades of pink, and the centers are high. Its intense, fruity fragrance won the Perfume Award at Baden-Baden in 2008.

Grand Amore 2004 ADR. This Gold Medal winner has been in my garden for two years, and is already a favorite. It is a very vigorous, hardy plant that produces large, high-centered, bright red, non-fading flowers contrasted with dark green foliage on long stems that just beg to be cut.

La Perla 2008 This rose is for you if you aren’t interested in showing all of your hybrid teas, but want a vigorous, hardy, gorgeously old-fashioned rose.

Parole/Buxom Beauty 2001 Depending on where you order this rose, it will be called one name or another. It really is a buxom beauty, and a true show rose. The large, deep-pink blooms with a burgundy edge are consistently high-centered. The plant is very disease resistant and has shiny green leaves, long stems, exceptional hardiness and vigor. To complete this prize package, its rich, intense scent won Perfume Awards in Madrid and Nantes. From Steve Singer at Wisconsin Roses, budded on multiflora.

Valencia 1989 This rose is a high-centered, very large-flowered, apricot show rose. It is also a true garden classic, being very showy in the front of a border, as it is not a tall plant. Mine is on its own roots and has been totally hardy and floriferous for 10 years. Winner of the Henry Edland Medal for fragrance.

If you are growing roses along Colorado’s front range, chances are there is already a Kordes rose or two in your garden. Mine include floribundas Nicole, Iceberg (Schneewittchen), Sunsprite (Friesia) and Gold Marie; climbers Summerwine, Rosarium Uetersen, Ilse Krohn and Dortmund; Red Ribbons (Mainaufeuer) shrublet; grandiflora Vera Johns; and hybrid teas Bride’s Dream, Folklore, Helen Naude, Liebeszauber and Sandra. All are hardy and disease resistant.

Credit for this article goes to Palatine Roses, which supplied the literature. Carol Macon, Consulting Rosarian"

http://www.denverrosesociety.org/education/Kordes_Roses.pdf

Msgirl: My most blooms now is Mary Magdalene, since I topped that with Pennington Alaska fish pellets NPK 4-6-6, with fish bone meal, kelp, sulfate of potash (mined from the earth). I just bought Dr. Earth for flowers, with NPK 4-10-7 ... I'm aiming for high phosphorus and high potassium, since nitrogen is abundant in my clay soil (fixed by beneficial bacteria).

Last year I used Tomato Tone NPK 3-4-6, which has the same ingredients as RoseTone (NPK 4-3-2), except higher potassium. What I don't like about Tomato Tone for my tomatoes: too many green leaves, too messy growth, and the fruits kick in much later. This year I mixed bagged cow manure with my clay soil, and get earlier fruits & less leaves & more compact plants. Cow manure has SOLUBLE phosphorus which kicks in faster than bone meal in TomatoTone.

This past winter I drank lemon-balm tea, absolutely delicious, sweeter taste than spearmint or peppermint-tea. U. of Michigan Medical center reported that it works better than any sleeping-pill. Walmart had lemon-balm for $2 per plant. So I bought that and it grew well in a dry & alkaline spot. Will test by eating the leaves fresh. Here's an exerpt from below link:

http://www.herballegacy.com/Lemon_Balm.html

"Fresh Lemon Balm imparts a subtle lemon flavor and fresh lemon fragrance, making it especially nice for fruit dishes, custards, and tea. Early fresh leaves can be chopped and added to salads; just cut down somewhat on the vinegar or lemon juice. Lemon Balm can easily take the place of Lemon Thyme in any recipe you’ve got. I’ve even seen a recipe for Lemon Balm Cheesecake. Talk about versatility. It has also been said that you can lay fish or chicken over a bed of Lemon Balm leaves before baking and you won’t need any other seasonings. Dried Lemon Balm is used mainly for tea-if you are going to use the leaves for culinary purposes, it is best to freeze them. They should keep for about two months."

Here's what WebMD listed as effective with Lemon Balm:

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-437-LEMON%20BALM.aspx?activeIngredientId=437&activeIngredientName=LEMON%20BALMAnxiety. Some research shows that taking a specific lemon balm product (Cyracos) reduces symptoms in people with anxiety disorders. Cold sores. Applying a lip balm containing 1% lemon balm extract seems to shorten healing time, prevent infection spread, and reduce symptoms of recurring cold sores.Colic in breast-fed infants. A clinical trial shows that breast-fed infants with colic who are given a specific multi-ingredient product containing fennel, lemon balm, and German chamomile (ColiMil) twice daily for a week cry for a shorter period of time than other breast-fed infants with colic.Dementia. Some research shows that taking lemon balm by mouth daily for 4 months seems to reduce agitation and improve symptoms of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. Upset stomach (dyspepsia), when a specific combination of lemon balm and peppermint leaf, German chamomile, caraway, licorice, clown's mustard plant, celandine, angelica, and milk thistle (Iberogast, Medical Futures, Inc) is used. This combination seems to improve acid reflux (GERD), stomach pain, cramping, nausea, and vomiting.Insomnia. Taking a lemon balm by itself or along with other ingredients might improve the length and quality of sleep in healthy people and in those with insomnia or sleeping disorders. Stress. Some research suggests that taking one 600 mg dose of lemon balm increases calmness and awareness in adults during a stress test.

Very Interesting! I did not know all that about Lemon Balm! I guess I'll be drinking more tea from it! Thanks!

Hi Rgardening: This past winter I tested many herbal teas: There's SleepyTime by Celestial tea with spearmint and chamomile ... that really made me sleepy. I stopped that a long time ago, due to reports of pesticides in Celestial tea.

I tested spearmint tea alone, that made me sleepy. However, that spearmint tea was imported from Egypt, and the side-effect of feet getting numb: made me wonder if there was pesticides or heavy metals in the soil. It's much better to grow one's own spearmint.

Then I tested Lemon Balm tea (grown in U.S.A), which is most yummy. Lemon Balm helped with deep sleep: when I wake up, I'm not tired nor groggy like with Melatonin. I'm testing FRESH lemon balm tonight grown in my garden, will report the result.

FRESH lemon balm from my garden was really yummy. I ate a few leaves at 11 pm before bed time. That stuff was powerful, immediately felt numb & sleepy. Fresh leaves are best with a vinegar dressing to tame the tiny hairs on the leaves. The taste is delicious, like spinach mixed with lemon, but the texture was gritty. Then I chopped FRESH lemon balm, and soaked in boiling hot water for 5 min. Drank that, and got sleepy immediately ... great sleep. FRESH leaves taste better than cooked leaves. That's the most powerful sleep-aid I had ever tried in my life, which beat melatonin, Benadryl, Valerian, Chamomile. Any people with sleeping problems should try Lemon Balm. The FRESH leaves are 10 times more potent than the dried tea.