1. Do you still dormant spray your potted roses that never get disease? I use only horticultural oil not lime sulphur, so is it necessary? Dormant spray is to (hopefully) prevent or control disease. If these don't get sprayed and are generally healthy enough without the spray, why spray them? If it makes you feel better to spray them, go for it, otherwise, you should be able to skip it. 2. If there is a light layer of pine mulch bark left over from last year in potted roses and the soil is low, what do you think if I simply cover the old mulch with a layer of soil + compost then cover that with another layer of fresh bark? I'd dump the old mulch in a flower bed to continue composting and becoming part of the soil. I like to add soil underneath the potted plants to raise the crown where it was originally, then add to the sides and any necessary on top, then replace the mulch. My goal is to have the plant positioned in the pot as it was originally. 3. When planting roses near trees or other shrubs how do you keep the tree or shrub roots from taking over the new soil meant for the roses and stunt the roses? That depends upon what kind of tree you're referring to. For massive root systems such as White Birch (gawd-awful weeds to plant around!), there is little you CAN do as those roots can find their way through block walls. For those with less massive root sytems, I haven't found it to be that much of an issue as long as the rose in question is a rampant grower. 4. How much does composted horse manure smell and for how long? Does it attract flies? Composted horse manure has little smell other than "earthy" to me. Fresh horse manure smells like a sweaty horse for about three days, then most of the scent dissipates. I have NEVER had horse manure of any kind attract flies, and I've used a couple of tons of the stuff over the past thirty years. 5. Besides looking for rain tolerant roses is there any way to tell if a rose's blooms will survive lawn sprinklers, still open, not ball and turn mushy? Anyone have particular cultivars they recommend if roses will get sprayed lawn sprinklers? Your greatest probability of success with this is to select roses with "heavy petal substance". Those with very stiff, waxy petals. The "substance" is a waxy cuticle, skin, over the petals which is what makes the specific varieties which possess it excellent for exhibition and florist work. It's also one characteristic which prevents scent in blooms. The heavier, stiffer and waxier (more "substance") the petal, the longer it lasts in a vase, the less scent it has, the more abuse/handling/refrigeration it can withstand with less damage, and the lower the potential for water to spoil it. Not that water WON'T spoil it, just not as easily. 6. Last summer when I deadheaded the roses I just pinched and twisted the blooms off instead of cutting the cane down to an outward facing 5 leaflet side bud. The roses grew new foliage on canes too thin to be productive. Is this something only done with Tea roses or other antiques roses? There seems to me to be something else at work here than just snapping off the spent flowers. I have traditionally snapped off the spent flowers in my garden at the point of abscission for many years with no real ill effects. Anything which is too thin to support the expected flowers gets taken care of at the usual pruning time. What kinds of roses have you experienced this issue with? Were they situated where they received sufficient sun? 7. I've discovered that some of the pots (24" wide x 18" high) I'm using only have a capacity of 17 gallons. Is this enough for a rose that grows 4-5 feet tall? Perhaps...but only with excellent drainage and religious watering, and insulation from extreme sun/heat exposure directly to the pot walls. If those pots are protected from extreme sun directly on them, and/or if you're in a milder, more coastal environment rather than an inland valley heat type, your chances are better. If not, no, extreme heat/sun will probably yield problems due to cooked roots and quickly dried out root balls. With roses, usually, if you have five feet of top growth, you have about that much root under it. For that much root to be squeezed into that size soil mass, there is probably not a lot of water holding capacity left. I'd also expect the pot sides to be lined with a fairly thick mass of root tissue, right where extremes in temperatures can more quickly and easily affect them adversely. Something the size you suggest is probably going to perform a lot better in the ground, presuming decent drainage and other acceptable cultural practices. Kim

One technique I sometimes use to kinda tie the color scheme together is take several of the same rose (or it could be several of the same color) and space them out periodically around the bed or down the garden strip. That way, the eye follows along kind of rhythmically. I do that with my 3 red Eutins (floribundas) supplemented by some other reds (Braveheart shrub, Chrysler Imperial HT, etc.)--creates periodic splotches of vivid color. Inbetween (and in front and in back of) the reds I insert whites or bright yellows or a few lighter pinks--depends on how hot or cool I want the overall effect to be--but the red roses form kind of the permanent backbone of that design. On the other hand, a single bed of one color--all reds or all pinks for instance--has its own appeal. It can be all the same rose for big visual appeal--or different roses of the same shade--for instance, all my reds in one bed. The color is consistent, but the plants vary in type (shrubs, HTs, floribundas, climbers) and in heights and shapes and leaf textures and even types of blooms. I remember one forum member setting up a bed of soft colors starting with the more lavender shades at one end and gradually working through soft pinks to soft yellows to soft whites. Kind of a soft rainbow effect. I have what I call my soft lemonade corner (semi-circle)--bunch of pale pinks, pale yellows blushed pink on the edges, lightly blushed whites all mixed together. It's yummy. The back garden looked a bit bland unless you were up close--so I stuck a burgundy Munstead Wood near the yellow/gold/apricot Molineux already there--that created some drama readily apparent across the yard. What I'm saying is all sorts of combinations and patterns can be created with color and size and shape. Either set up the "bones" with some repeat colors and fill in, or work in smaller spaces for special effects you like. What you like--that is the key. If you like oranges, go for a hot tropical colored bed, for instance. Stand back and just view the overall color effect. Does an area need some punch--stick in a bright intense color. Or is it getting too bright and chaotic--stick in some more neutral whites or beiges or pale yellows or reduce the chaos by introducing more of one of the colors already there. I also intermix lots of perennials and bulbs and corms into my rose beds. When I needed to tone down the bright reds in that one bed, I planted white hardy geraniums periodically at the feet of some of the roses--helped tie together the color scheme also. I insert a clump of iris periodically (usually more towards the rear) just because those spears of green look wonderful next to a rose (and irises are beautiful in and of themselves). Some lower-growing salvia occasionally in front of the roses look really nice. (and so forth!) Hope that gives you some ideas. I'm sure there are many other ways of designing rose beds also. Kate

Can't possibly thank everyone enough for the responses. In regards to location, we live near Tallahassee, putting us in zone 8b. Unlike south FL, we do have a bit of a fall season and see a few frosty mornings each year, but spring still kicks in blessedly early for us. As a bit of an update my dilemma is that while I don't like the "legginess" of knockout roses, nor do I love the more frilly/full look of many of the English roses that do well here, especially since our yard has numerous camellia trees with similarly full flowers. Knowing full well that the hybrids will cause us (honestly my husband) more work I'm still drawn to them knowing they'll take much more work and will make for turnover in plantings as time goes by. So with the above shared, we have made two picks thus far and have the garden now about half full. One was definitely more of an impulse buy (but with at least a bit of cell phone info review before buying!) while the other was a bit more deliberate. The impulse buy was three "Miracle on the Hudson" rose bushes from our local Costco. They simply looked stunning in the store, with with every customer walking by them stopping to admire them and verbally praise them. The rose itself has what I feel is a bit more richer red than with knockouts while still having a relatively simple flower, while the bushes are not as "leggy" as knockouts and have attractive dark foliage. Quick online reviews showed it listed as highly disease resistant. We'll see. With the "Miracle on the Hudson" a fairly bold / vibrant choice for the garden, we wanted the next rose to help transition to lighter shades / other color options, and with the interior of our home a yellowish shade of paint (Corinthian White), we acted on Irisgal_z9's advice to pick a flower that would look good on the dining room table and choose "Double Delight" as the rose to pair with the Miracle on the Hudson rose. We planted these roses in the half of the space closest to the picture window so will be looking for lighter color roses that are no taller to fill the other half now. We're thinking that with the Double Delight helping transition, we can now go with very soft shades of yellow, pink, or white in the front half of the rose garden area. Absolutely WELCOME any continued recommendations for what might pair well with the space we have left.

Vaporvac, it's so nice to hear that an expert like Peter Schneider agrees that spacing roses close together in a cold climate is just fine. I'd agree with his spacing except I'd put most HTs at the 12" and floris at the 18-20". My floris tend to bush out a lot better than my HTs - even when my HTs get tall they are often narrow bloomers. Sharon, sympathies on the passing of your friend and aunt. That's interesting that the ground was still not frozen in January and February. Perhaps they had a protected spot for digging. I've had bulbs arrive backordered in December and I can't possibly get a trowel in the ground by then. November the roses are usually still blooming though they're starting to wind down. For your rose protection, it sounds like you might benefit from some kind of wind break if you don't get reliable snow cover. I find that a lot of my rose canes die back to the level of the snow and/or windbreak, so I suspect that it helps the iffier ones. I just roll filled leaf bags around the borders of my beds and stand them around the truly fussy ones, and they're otherwise on their own. As for how I decide which roses to plant together, I start out thinking I'm more systematic than I end up being in reality. My first decision is a color one, related to what bed a rose will end up in. Between the time I order and the time the rose arrives, I spend time researching on hmf and here about the rose's characteristics across the board in zones like mine. I put down an expected height and use that in my plantings. Sometimes that is wildly misleading, like with Sunrise Sunset that's listed at 2' and it's one of my most vigorous and aggressive climbers. When I get down to planting a given area of a bed, I set all the roses I'm planning to add to that bed, look at the characteristics of the roses already there, set the roses around in their pots, hmmm a while, move around those pots, and give it my best effort to anticipate height, color and vigor. I've learned the types of roses that aren't very vigorous and when to ignore the California expectations of 5-6' for HTs. Sometimes roses at the front of beds are much bigger than I expect, so I peg their canes or drape them along a handy surface (like a low fence at the front of a bed), or tuck their canes under other nearby roses, or plop in a shepherd's hook for them to scramble up if needed. Frankly, I wish I would have more frequent problems of roses being too big. Mostly when I plant HTs and floris, they're much more often smaller than I expect. That's another reason I can get away with planting roses as close as I do. Given all that research, I find that roses can't read and they do unexpected things nearly half of the time (some of which includes dying). I can only control so much, so I give it my best shot and live with the results. If I can't live with it, I move it, but I think in my rose growing career I've moved a grand total of no more than 10 roses, a few of which were unsuccessful, so it's much easier to be lazy and work around a less than optimal height. Bottom line is that I don't fuss over my roses which includes not worrying too much about their height or color, as well as not fussing with sprays and such. A little mystery isn't a bad thing and sometimes it's a happy "mistake". Cynthia