HarmonyP,I hope you haven't thrown out that poor Paradise rose with the signs of RMV. After all, it isn't contagious except through the propagation process, so it won't spread to your other roses. It is very common among big box store roses and still appears sometimes in reputable nurseries. The serious vendors seem to be taking it seriously and trying to glean it from their rootstock sources and budwood source plants, but its hard to eliminate completely because it often doesn't "show" itself at times. But anyway, RMV tends to, over time, weaken the plant and reduce productivity and resistance to diseases and winter frost, but different roses seem to show varying degrees of resistance. So once you know you have it, you might as well keep the plant as long as it seems to be growing and producing ok. I've had some infected specimens that still produced beautifully for several years. As for vendors, I think it makes perfectly fine sense to do what you've done. I did the same. Early on, I could not afford a lot of expensive plants but wanted to expand my varieties.I've had some great Lowe's roses and even from (gasp) Walmart. But once I got to a point where I no longer had room for many more roses, I naturally felt comfortable being much more selective, and the specialty vendors were there ready and waiting. I just got rid of roses that didn't please me. That was many cheap roses, but also some expensive ones. I don't consider the expense entirely wasted, because I satisfied some curiosity about the variety. I've had a few that were first purchased cheap and then replaced from a serious nursery, such as Chrysler Imperial and Elina. But I've also kept some of those cheapies for many years. One of my best workhorse roses has been Paradise, purchased from Home Depot, which I agree is generally one of the worst sources to buy from. Go figure. The big box stores definitely mislabel much more often, but you know what, I've had that happen from some of my favorite nurseries, too. It happens. One of my favorite roses ever was an obviously mislabeled red rose from Kmart (back in the early 1990s). Even friends with the Mobile Rose Society never were able to identify it, but it was a gorgeous,voluptuous velvety red rose of impressive size --and thorniness. Sometimes those unplanned mistake events turn out to be pleasant surprises. Last year I made one cheap purchase, just for no reason. I bought Chicago Peace for 3 bucks, because I saw it and had already spent what I had budgeted on "serious" roses. It even had waxed canes. It produced beautiful blooms even though the plant didn't seem very robust. I thought I'd replace it with a better Ch. Peace this year, but lo and behold, by November it was starting to bulk up and become a proper bush. So I've given it a repreave for another year. Who knows, I may never have to replace it.

I live in the East Bay and there are three OSH stores that I shop at; two near where I live and one where I work. The closest location to me is in Moraga and was opened the most recently. I would consider it a poor location, but I guess they did their market research to locate there. independently. OSH stores are a lot smaller than Loews or Loews supposedly bought them and say they will be run Home Depot. There customer service Is better.

I agree Hman both should be used at proper times. I was just listening to a garden podcast with Pam Bone a horticulture specialist. She mentioned studies of fruit trees taking up nitrogen in the late summer/fall to store in buds. The nitrogen remains there till springs. Also the Tree Tone product suggests fall fertilization of fruit trees too. So it makes it confusing as I've often heard to stop fertilizing by early summer. Something that hasn't been mentioned much is trace minerals, and so some form of organic can supply that, even mulch. In my area we are missing a few trace minerals. And I have seen deficiencies in trees. Also even farm animals showing deficiencies when no supplements are included in their diet. You need to know your area. You can mulch all you want but if your area is lacking in certain trace minerals unless you introduce them from an outside source like a complete organic fertilizer, or say azomite, you're not fixing the problem by using local organic material. Here we have very little Manganese and Selenium (almost none in local soils). Selenium requirements in plants differ by species, with some plants requiring relatively large amounts, and others apparently requiring none. So I add azomite, and other mineral products from time to time just as insurance. I'm trying to get away from urea and other soluble products, but so far I have not been able to, and not sure I want to. I like them a lot with seedlings as when the first true leaves appear, a quick fertilization with urea type products works well. Most soluble fertilizer are urea or ammonia. Either one does the job with seedlings. Also other applications when plants seem to need a pick up. Micro-managing growth of vegetables or other crops.soluble us useful. As far as efficiencies I would have to disagree with many in this thread and others. Everybody with a brain tries to make urea application efficient yet the run off into the rivers and the streams continues. So IMHO it's not working. You are wasting product even if applied in ideal conditions. This post was edited by Drew51 on Tue, Jan 27, 15 at 9:42

Wait I think hardware store is false advertising, I'm checking this evening and it is excluded. I rather wait for future single discount coupon. I needs to have munstead wood, this is only DA I want