Hippifan, Beautiful flower! And a very nice photo, too. I'm sure you will get lots of great advice on how to treat red blotch but to get you started, I linked a search for "blotch" below. There is a lot that has been already written that may be helpful. (Some folks are not even aware that there is a Search function on the forum and may find it helpful.) Have fun! Carol Here is a link that might be useful: Forum Search - 'blotch'

I really appreciate you all looking and commenting on the garden. Kathi, it is easy to have a lot of iris bloom at the same time...have 2 or 3 hundred of them like the idiot in Alabama, and there are always a number of them blooming. I get embarrassed at the excess and quit posting them after a while. Cyn424, Actually, Julia Child blooms pretty well for me and she in in total shade due to New Dawn overgrowing her.Worth a try. Most of my roses get morning sun but afternoon shade...a good thing here in the heat. Mantis, what iris would you like to see close up? Midnight Blue does well for Rita in Long Island, and it is doing very well here, so with your skills it should be a winner for you. The color is pretty unique. the only one I have close to it is Cardinal Richelieu...and it's a once bloomer. Sandi, I am sorry the frost got your iris...like I told cyn424, buy a lot of iris, then you have blooms...awful answer, I know it. sorry. I'm glad you enjoyed the blooms and hope you get re-bloom on yours. Rena, the iris make clumps fast, then you have to divide. aargh! It was a spring to treasure though, it really was. Girlgroupgirl. Thank you, I got it as a band from Heirloom, and it was a teeny thing. It has a nice fragrance too. A year older, good rains, cool spring, and Mills Magic Mix have meant unprecedented bloom for me. I could hardly contain myself. Your garden is lovely, so I know you have had a wonderful spring too. kay

Here's a fairly large Double Knock Out in the front yard--in the divider between my property and the neighbor's. Haven't had time to anything with it yet this year, so its looking a bit wild and woolley--and maybe lop-sided. I'll try to get some pruning done before the season is over. : ) Light blue irises came with the property when I bought my house thirty something years ago--don't know their name, but they bloom forever (for an iris). Another iris--name unknown. Sure is lovely. Here's a terrific fully packed white peony called Festiva Maxima--love that blood-red like marking in the middle of the blooms. I read somewhere once that this old classic is a good choice for more southerly gardeners, but I don't remember why. I have 4 of them. BIG blooms. Its getting so exciting now that things are nearly ready to bloom--can't believe the buds all over the yard--have never seen so many. Oddly, however, my hybrid teas are not taking over the show like they usually do. I thought with the mild winter we had, they would do terrifically well, but it seems the shrubs and floribundas are the ones doing best. But maybe that will all change in the next few weeks. This is about 3 weeks early for my roses--any of them--to be blooming. Kate

I was just out back at my compost pile talking to my neighbor and I woke up a wiporwil sleeping under a rose near the compost. Kimmer is the soil expert over in organic gardening and soil forum. I love to see pictures of the soil and compost pile in organic rose. I am gonna build a 4x4x4 compost pile this year shredded leaves. Proper good compost made right can minimize disease. The compost has to be aerated good. I don't have a compost thermometer yet. I aerate mine by turning often. Also an aerated compost tea can be made in a 5 gallon bucket. It can be strained into a sprayer and sprayed on the leaves for disease protection. I lay them canes down around Christmas and cover with leaves. 4 years Ever year the roses get compost.Around Christmas, I lay the canes down and cover them In shredded leaves. I am on the line between zone 4 and 5. I have to block the cold drying wind from it. I use Adirondack chairs layed on the side to block the winter wind.