notrafficinga, yes, I've seen and loved Silver Moon for many, many years. My mother's father brought my grandmother a bouquet of its flowers around 1923 from his friend's plant. She loved it so he rooted it for her. They grew it on a tall wire fence in Homewood, Alabama during The Depression, where it shielded his rabbits and chickens from the street and created an arbor where my mother and her two older sisters played in its shade on hot, summer days. He was killed in a freak shooting in 1935 when mom was five. Every Father's Day my grandmother and her three daughters took a bouquet of "Daddy's Rose" to his grave. The last I knew of that plant, it still grew there. That was back in the mid 1980s. Because of a stupid family misunderstanding with my crazy grandmother, contact with my aunts and cousins was terminated about that time. Mom was seemingly terminally ill and wanted her "Daddy's Rose", which I found through the LA Times New Roses of the Year article in the Home Magazine. The front cover was a glorious photo of Intrigue, and inside, it listed Roses of Yesterday and Today as a source for old roses. I called, and the only time I was received with wonderful customer service there, a young lady informed me they didn't grow it, but Combined Rose List showed Greenmantle Nursery in Garberville, California did. I obtained the information from her, contacted Marissa Fishman and sent in my order for two Silver Moon from her imported stock. Mom didn't die, but lived on for another ten years. Two plants of Silver Moon arrived and ATE her yard! It has eaten every yard and all of the common ground in my sister's HOA I provided plants to fill. Small plants of it, rooted from plants I rooted for the HOA sit here in pots waiting to eat the hill out back once I can garner the courage to attempt dragging them down the steep hill to plant them. It is a GLORIOUS rose! When happy where it is and with sufficient maturity, it can repeat as it did for quite a few years in my old Newhall garden. Those butter buds opening to semi double, large, nearly Magnolia Grandiflora looking, silvery white flowers on that dark, shiny foliage...simply delicious! I love it and grow it as a touchstone with my grandfather whom I never met as he died nineteen years before I was born. I'm told we are a lot alike with very similar interests and talents. I also enjoy it because it brought comfort and pleasure to my mother, her crazy mother and her two crazy sisters. Yes, you can keep it semi contained. It does require "eating the elephant in small bites", something not accomplished in one sitting! As small canes begin forming, you have to don your protective gear and begin "encouraging" them to grow where you want them to by tucking them back into the kraken or cutting them off to a bud facing the direction you want it to grow. It WILL grow toward the light no matter what you do, so get ready for a routine, regular maintenance chore, but she is WORTH it. You probably won't need any blood meal as you'll provide more then enough to keep her happy. As for moving her, I doubt that would be successful. The plant WILL live, and every substantial root left in the ground will, too. Shade won't deter her as she will thrust herself up and out into the sun, making good use of anything in her path to get there. It's with GOOD reason this is a rose found in abandoned homesites all over the warmer areas of the country. Silver Moon is a survivor! Kim

When I first get a small clem (Fireworks was a Roseville in 4"pot from a box store , 06), I repot in a gallon pot with compost (or leaf mold, whichever pile is easier to get at), dried cow manure, with a bit of bone meal, blood meal (if I have it), time release general purpose flower fertilizer, a little soil from a plant I have repotted or planted from my favorite nursery (coarser, more gritty). I put in the plant as sidewise as I can get it, deeper than 4" if there is room, (for protection in cold Winters), and cover to the rim with the best soil I have. (Sometimes this gets done by increments if the plant is very short.) Then I plant pot & all & mulch with bagged stuff in the Fall (l got a good deal last year on black died wood chips). When I see new growth starting in the Spring (most tops of newer plants have been Winter-killed here), I take off the mulch to save for the coming year, and when the new stems are about 4" tall I put about a handfull of Rosetone on the surface, not touching the stems with it. Wanted to add a scoop of dried manure too, but didn't have the time. Fireworks is flowering now at about 4ft, and I plan to cut it back a little when the flowers stop, trim it back some, and remove the pot, planting directly into the ground, using the same mixture as for potting. It's another crappy day here again, so I can take the time to get long-winded. But the rain is needed, Would prefer to be outside and repotting 3 atragenes and twistieing vines that are getting higher than the last tie or self-grab. Almost forgot --after the replanting (or potting up if roots still not big enough) I use a liquid rose or tomato fertilizer mixture, about every 2-4 weeks until the end of August. Marie

hoovb, Thank you for reviewing. They're quite small. If you open the image to full size and look at the base of each leaf where it attaches to the 'trunk', there are dozens of small 'pimples', or freckles (to use Camellia's term). I've had the plant a year, and these started popping up (and spreading) about three weeks ago. A bit concerning. :(

It could be a couple of things but my first suspicion would be that you somehow damaged one of the stems coming from the root crown while planting. With a clematis that age, these stems are incredibly fragile and can be damaged almost by just looking at them funny :-) I would do nothing now other than provide normal care re: watering. If the wilting progresses to the entire plant and not just a single stem as it appears now, then it is quite possible that you have a case of clematis wilt and the vine should be cut back hard. Neither issue is necessarily fatal if given proper attention but may mean you will have go without any flowering for a season or two.