Hi Sherry, Oh, I'm glad that your Fortuniana is less thorny that I was imagining! And I hope it does bloom for you this year, Sherry. I suppose that I'm not a typical rose person, if you'd want to call me a rose person at all. I've read a bunch of things about all that many rose people do as their personal sort of requirements for growing roses, and to put it mildly, I'm not into those things. I'm used to growing things with basically little care. I was looking at some of our azaleas and kalmias yesterday and was amazed at the extent of the fungus on them after this really unusually wet winter we've had here. But we wouldn't dream of spraying them, or picking off blackspotty leaves. They've survived here for nearly forty years with none of that kind of care, and I've no doubt they'll survive and flourish in spite of this tough year. The same goes for the roses; if they can't survive with just a little care in our organic yard, we'll have to chalk it up to an expensive learning experience and let them do whatever they are going to do. We still have all the rhododendrons, azaleas, kalmias, bulbs, peonies, and camellias that are gorgeous here. (Well, actually, this is the first year with peonies, but I have a peony book and am busy reading up on those for future additional orders.) I wouldn't have gotten into roses at all--I long had the impression that they were too hard to grow organically--except for a lucky accident: I just happened to notice on the Wayside Gardens site a description of Zephirine Drouhin that upended my vague notions that we couldn't grow roses without sprays. Nevermind that what they said was misleading regarding that particular variety--I found with some investigation that what it described could be found within the rose world if I looked hard enough, and off I went in search of those disease-resistant varieties that might work here with a little tolerance for some imperfect foliage. I have bought a few roses with many thorns, but for the most part I'm not ordering anything really thorny again. For the one somewhat thorny one that I intentionally bought, Prosperity, I have a specific place in mind that it can go without being likely to bother anyone. Since the encounter with the Cinco De Mayo the other day, I've decided that nothing thorny is going to be planted where I might need to wade through it to get to other plants! If there are any other thorny ones I just "must" have, the spots are going to be selected very, very carefully! But I don't know of any other thorny ones that I "must" have, and am thinking that I might end up planting the Belinda's Dream on order in a different spot than originally intended. The Prosperity is also highly likely to survive pretty much on its own without a bunch of pruning and other labor-intensive things. It will have some mulch and some cottonseed and alfalfa meal thrown its way, and that's about all it's going to get once it's in the ground. (It's doing beautifully, beautifully in a pot on our patio right now.) We will water it some during the worst of our droughts, but one of the reasons I wanted to have some roses is that they are far more drought resistant than other things in the landscape here. We have a ton of shallow-rooted plants that don't do well in drought conditions. I know that this low-thorns desire is terribly restrictive, but it's still lots better than having no roses! And some of those that just happen to look especially good to me have few thorns (Lyda Rose, for example). As far as climbers go, nothing is going to get trained that requires climbing up a ladder. We've enough room here in those (naturalized) spots that the roses can suit themselves if they don't want to climb. One thing I've read about roses with hooked thorns is that they are capable of climbing a tree without training help, so we'll see what the Fortuniana decides to do overhead here past the point she'll have some jute to help her, I guess. I guess I'm thinking of the whole roses thing as an exploration into what's possible. Meanwhile, we've had some lovely, lovely rose blooms and expect to have some more this coming season. And we're not out of room for more plants, so I'll just keep imagining... :) I'm enjoying so much reading about your roses, Sherry. Thanks for all your posts! Best wishes, Mary

dktrahan, I am located in far Northwest Harris County in zone 8b/9a. I have Don Juan and love, love, love this rose!!! Mine was planted last year so it is going into it's second year. It is planted against a split rail fence, facing South and gets full day sun. Here is a picture from early April when it first started blooming (it is fuller now): The blooms are huge and a gorgeous shade of red - smells nice too! As far as blackspot resistance....that's hard to say for me because I DO spray BUT I started spraying because other roses were getting infected. I give it a little squirt while I am going along but it was not one of the original roses that was showing signs of the disease. I didn't spray last year and really don't remember any outbreak of BS. But mine does get lots of air circulation and sun so that may make a difference. I also have a Climbing Iceberg, which was planted earlier this year and is still fairly small. It is planted amongst several Climbing Pinkies, which are more bush shaped than climbers because horses keep eating them down. Actually, they are making out to be quite nice bushes and are blooming their heads off right now! I have a two year old New Dawn, which is also planted along a split rail fence. It is gorgeous......when the thrips don't ruin the blooms. New for me this year are several I am trying but are showing promise: Compassion, Polka, Westerland and Buff Beauty. I do have a Reve D'or but it is in a pot - poor thing has no home! Lynn

Gina, I have the same problem with ponies'poop because during the night they have access to an outside park of gravel and they poop there and then the otherwise great pure poop I rake is full of gravel. I tried to sort the poop apples but now I can see exactly where I put them in my garden. For example one artichoke is now surrounded with pure gravel ! All the poop has disappeared during the warm season and the poor plant is mulched with useless stones ! Obviously Tox's blower would make a nice mess in my case, a bit like in your american saying the poop hits the fan, so I now double rake : First I rake the upper surface superficially, and gather the useful poop, then I rake the remains, gravel and poop, and throw them in the prairie. I guess this is not very helpful for you now that you're stuck with gravel, acorns and leaves, but perhaps next time you could rake the upper layer of leaves and keep them, and then throw out the lower layer, leaves mixed with gravel and acorns.

You're welcome-I thought that their website offered a better picture to help match your rose. By the way, I love the coloring and the fullness of this rose-where did you purchase yours? I have never seen it offered in my area, and it is definitely one I would love to own someday.