Gotta second Barb, DD is my all time favorite rose (closely followed by Intrigue) and I too have seen a million people knock it for its lack of mildew/disease resistance. Yep. All too true. Frankly don't give a hoot. No one's come up with a rose with the knock out looks and unbelievable scent that _is_ disease resistent. Til they do, I'm willing to fight the problems just to get those blooms in my bedroom to wake up to!!! Anyway -- yes, I've grown 'em in containers. For 8 years I did it. I buried a few too, but as far as I'm concerned my yard wasn't complete without one or even two of 'em in it so here's my hints: 1. Make sure your container has really good drainage and plenty of room. DD is a big rose and should be given some room. Do not try to grow it in less than a 10 gal container, 15 better. Bigger is better. 1/2 whiskey barrels work quite nicely. Be sure that the container has several good-sized drainage holes (one little 1/2 inch thing in the middle is not going to do it. Don't put a layer of rocks/gypsum/etc. in the bottom. Just put a netting or something to keep the dirt from coming out the holes (I use the netting that the fancy tomatoes in the store come in). and use your blended potting mix to fill the container. (If you are worried about weight, mix some styrofoam peanuts _throughout_ the container, not just at the bottom. Do NOT let the pot sit in a saucer full of liquid -- if you have a saucer to protect your deck/etc., make sure that you have pot feet for your pot to keep the rose's roots from being swamped. (I use the bottle lids from bottled water) When planting, leave at least 1 1/2 inches in the top of your plant for fertilizing and watering. 2. Use a 3 to 1 mixture of high-nutrient (high-quality) potting soil to a high-quality cactus mix potting soil (to insure good drainage). Mix in a few tbsp full of a granulated hydrating polymer like Soil Moist or STA-Moist. 3. This rose will get powdery mildew if there's the slightest chance, so don't mess around. If you see little white spots of downy looking stuff show up on the leaves ___leap___ into action and a) pull off the affected leaves and b) spray. Same deal with Rust. Frankly on mine, I start spraying prophylactically with Safer garden fungicide as soon as the fog rolls in in June in my region. Sad, but DD is very susceptible to fungus stuff. 4. Water gently!!! Do not splash the leaves, especially do not splash the leaves with water bouncing up from the dirt in the plant. This encourages fungus stuff. 5. Keep your container in an area where it gets good air circulation. You cannot espalier this rose against a wall (unlike some roses like Royal Sunset that can live perfectly happily right up against other things) -- there just isn't enough air circulation to combat the susceptibility to fungus stuff. 6. Light/Heat: DD is actually pretty forgiving in terms of hours of sunlight/heat. While I wouldn't suggest planting it in shade, I have two that have done pretty darn well with only morning sun, even in a coastal area. They get direct sun from 7 am to about noon and have been just peachy. Granted the one that gets 10 am to 4 pm is bigger and produces more, the two morning ladies are perfectly respectable. 7. Fertilizing.... Hmmm. Well, I'm just a big fan of chicken poop. I sprinkle a cupful into the pot every month or so. During the big spring growth spurt, I add a sprinkle of Epsom salts a week after the second month's poop dose and they seem to go like gangbusters. Some time in mid summer after I've done a lot of cutting, I supplement the chicken poop routine with a fish emulsion dose (about 2 weeks after the chicken poop sprinkle) and then the following week do another Epsom salts dose.

What they said. Either is potentially the answer to your question. A third is perhaps the plant is reaching for light? If it's shaded sufficiently, the plant can be triggered to throw longer canes to push itself up into the sun. If that isn't the case, then the first two suggestions are possibilities. Or, perhaps you have a particularly happy plant of DD? If it's being fed and watered well, it could be performing as it originally was supposed to, instead of the junk we've usually been fed of it. It CAN be a vigorous, incredibly beautiful plant, though I've seldom seen it perform that way. Kim

I'm Delighted With My Double Delight... She's showing me her true colors this year, pun intended...lol Yes, she still gets blackspot but as long as I keep spraying, she doesn't give me too much grief. I just love her look and the scent of the blooms are to die for. The plant doesn't grow leggy like some other ones and the height is right where I want it so I don't need a ladder to get a whiff of her sweetm spicy smelling blooms. I can see why this rose is a winner of many awards:)

Kate,we have a Rio Samba in a prime spot in the yard with full sun until about 1700. It is only 2 - 3 feet tall and only has a dozen or so blooms per flush. Deb and Dave Boyd claim their Rio Samba gets 5 feet tall and has 50+ blooms per flush. What is going on? One was planted in 1995 and the little one was planted last year. I don't expect the new one to ever catch the old. Perhaps it will have 50+ blooms per flush in 5 or 6 years. By then.... I imagine Deb's beloved original Rio will have even more per flush. One reason I put when a rose is planted in my comments at HMF is so no person reading it will compare a new rose to one that is established. Our DDs were not this good 5 years ago. They should be better in 5 years. There is nothing you can do to get a 3rd year rose that has been transplanted to perform like our 8 and 11 year old DDs. Given time to get established... I see no reason why it couldn't perform as well as ours. I hope you take this the right way. I mentioned the age of our roses before in the thread. I know I'm being blunt. I was serious when I said, "I do find that patience makes up for what I lack in skills". Here is a link to the comments page for Lucy at HMF. Read my comments about her. We waited 5 years for her to give us over a dozen blooms per flush. Some seem to forget the one cane wonder years she gave us when they see her covered in blooms now that she is 14 years old. Ramlinrosez, we use Miraclegro. If anything, we underfeed. I don't try to force roses. We just try to keep them healthy and are happy with what they give us. That bed pic?? The front row is Gene Boerner, Iceberg, Irresistible, First Edition and Betty Boop. They are all bloom factories. Heirloom is the only HT we have that gets covered with blooms like they do. OK.... a few of the others come pretty close :) Another factor not mentioned: we don't mail order roses. Each rose is inspected by both of us and only the healthiest come to our yard. I have even rejected roses that looked great but didn't 'feel' right. Figure that one out. Sorry about the babbling, LOL. It got to 100° here today and the a/c is kaput on my excavator. We are not used to triple digits. Bet Kate regrets mentioning me in this thread :)