Thank you all for your suggestions. Bolero is a white that I have been considering. L'Aimant is absolutely beautiful. I do so love Harkness roses, but one of my favorites is Lawrence of Arabia. Beautiful apricot blooms, but it has horrible bs issues. Moodyblue, how does your L'Aimant fare? HMF states that it is suseptible to bs. Gorgeous blooms though. Love it. Let me know. CJ

It is raining cats & dogs & probably a few other pets here as well... I am soooooooooo grateful.... it was severely dry, I was trying to water with my tap water but after only 3 days everything is bone dry again...the clay earth was literally cracking up...now, the roots will have enough water for the coming winter...it is such a beautiful sound... And all the gypsum and potassium S. is going deep into the soil now. Now I will again add Potassium S, but no gypsum anymore for quite a while...I think I overdid that a bit... or what do you suggest Straw? should the gypsum and Potassium S. always be used together every time? Thanks so much for the great info... Tomorrow I will dust every rose with corn meal, seeing that they will probably still be damp by tomorrow evening ... and I am really happy to hear I don't need to add more chicken manure. I did that twice this season already... Khalid, did the rain take care of your Flying Super Ants? I noticed something when spring started here... the moment the temperature reached above 28C for the first time, all roses scorched. But as the summer grew hotter, it was as if they all started adapting, and only a few scorched...most became immune to the heat and only scorched above 35C... ps... The only time any of my roses have some disease, it is either due to bad circulation, or because I haven't given it water in the heat soon enough (then they get mildew in the rain), or when the dew starts at the end of summer, also during times when I haven't been giving it enough water... and, mostly to roses in full sun.

Here I am again staring at your lovely roses, and the best rose photography I've ever seen.... Whisky Mac sigh.... the Dark Prince...Sharifa Asma, so many... Khalid you wrote: During previous years, I used to prune all my roses at one time but now I have decided that I will only prune those roses which show the signs for hibernation. Otherwise, I let them grow and finally prune them on 15 January Due to the rust I had I already pruned a few but not a full-prune. Did you do a full-prune with your roses, after they stopped blooming? I was thinking to do that a bit later on, closer to spring, but definitely to cut away a lot of canes, to prevent the rust problem....and with spring 2 months away. I can see the value of not allowing diseases to over winter.

Not necessarily. Hydrangeas do not need regular pruning like roses unless you have safety issues, unless you want to prune stems that cross or unless you want to open the "inside" of the bush so it gets more sun, etc. In years, I have not had to do anything but remove stems that dried out and did not leaf out by the end of May. Your shrub looks just fine right now (leaf buds).