Jeri, that's what I suspected. The soil is not problematic in the rest of the plot. I can get the soil tested easily enough; it's just that the plant has been healthy in the past like the others. I used EB Stone composted chicken manure and very little, maybe 1-2 cups, mixed in with the soil. Watered it very well last Sunday and again today. The entire 400 sq. ft. plot is full of healthy roses with typical green leaves. Ya think I could use my little bottle of Safer fungicide to spray for anthracnose? The label does not mention anything about this particular disease. I don't like to spray as this is a community veggie garden and it's just not appropriate (I have seen others do it and cuss at them under my breath). I've not fed the plant yet either. I'll be using an organic food in the very near future on all roses and want to get Pat Austin looking as beautiful as I know it can. Thanks. Mary

The very first question is: are the roses on rootstock that thrive in your soil? If your soil is shallow, or if the roots only thrive in a shallow cone of 'good' soil, then you're not going to get height, regardless of your zone. When the original poster buys a rose, he's buying a rose that has already been pampered beyond belief, in a green house or poly house, planted in soils that are totally unlike the real world, and fed the rosey equivalent of fois gras, lobster, and eclairs to make it grow. Nothing any of us can do inthe real world will equal that kind of pampering for twelve months of the year. Well, maybe some folks in California's cooler summer/warmer winters areas can approach it, but weather survival wasn't designed into the genetics of modern roses. Not all rootstocks are alike, some force roses to grow 12 months of the year, others may help dormancy happen. Some soils are better for Dr. Huey; other soils will make roses on R. multiflora wonderful plants; still other areas demand R. x fortuniana to overcome soil problems. About public gardens....go there earliest spring. Be sure you're comparing roses there with your own roses by starting to see if their roses made it through winter. We've been to some northern public gardens in early spring and I've been shocked at the number of roses that are replaced in a given year. It's not fair of you to evaluate your home roses by comparing them to roses that last year were in California, and only recently exposed to the last gasps of an Ohio winter. FWIW, I had a hedge of 24 Graham Thomases in east Tennessee. Their main problem was a tendency to put out spring growth early in spring, and that growth would get killed, dependably, by later spring freezes. That frozen growth would then be the locus of a nasty canker that would gird and kill the cane by mid June. The most cankers I have ever counted on a single cane was thirteen on one single cane of Graham Thomas. So, I'd guess Dave protects his GT.

Peas can be tricky here because to be productive they need to be started around St Paddy's day but we can get late freezes. Last year most of my peas died in the April cold snaps It's important especially with clay soils that soil temps are high enough that the pea seed doesn't rot before germinating. Snow usually isn't bad for cold weather veges because it can act as an insulator. I started my peas in a tunnel and they seem to be doing ok.

I don't have any problems editing my profile. For anyone wanting to join you have to put 5 numbers in a Post Code I looked in mine for you and it has got KY as the place and 12345 as the zip code or whatever My email is not showing anymore you can do that when you edit your profile, as I am too generous with my plants giving so many away for free I have had so many emails from not very nice people telling me to post plants to them and not even sending me a prepaid satchel yes they tell you they will send the postage back but don't I have been caught once I could go on but I wont go into that. Bill where did you get this info from as that's what I wrote in the email * You have lots of interesting roses there, I have a lot of mini ones that I should not really count, yes and about the small amount of Internet you have * that is what I sent inn a email from your page here, so you certainly got it if you wrote it up top.. This morning I also sent you a email to that address you wrote many replies up top, now it did not come back to me so you must have received it or its still flying around in cyberspace somewhere. So try and find that email again were I sent you all the info .. When it is open and you are reading it hit the reply button write me a message if you want then send it and when I get it I will see your email address. Hope that Chardonnay helped with this problem. Mary-Anne