OOOOPS, Karl!!! thanks so much for wonderful, wonderful suggestions and especially the winterizing issue! I completely!!! did not! see it because as I was posting my response, you had already written it...so we must have been cross-posting at the same time!!! I am making a clipping too out of it... Greenhaven, my roses are from Roses Unlimited...They are a wonderful! vendor; have you ever ordered from them? Don't let the appearance of their website put you off (there was a long ago post on how fancy, photo-filled websites were far more appealing...) but to me, a beautiful website means nothing...the health of the plant is and outstanding reputation of a nursery is (as with RU)...Customer service is also very! good... o.k. one more question, Greenhaven and Karl, what exactly does it mean bagged leaves as opposed to piled leaves...I'm a bit silly in that I can't figure out the difference. Silly me thinks bagged, does that mean grabbing a couple of leaf-filled lawn bags and placing them like a giantic wall barricade around each rose bush, lol! which I'm sure is not what is meant... I also forgot to tell you both that when I bury my pots they will be inside my rabbit-proof wired lot...If I throw in all the loose leaves into this "fenced in" enclosure, the leaves won't blow around and everything will be covered up... My only worry is canker... If there is too much rain on the leaves is there a danger of canker? I will also be using the mulch, shavings and then leaves with this lasagna effect...

Yes, depending on the rose, and how big it thinks it should get before it blooms. Do you know the name or type of your rose? I had a Belle Portugaise which grew 15 feet tall (over 4 years) before it produced its first bud! Jackie

I have not heard of that rose. Very pretty - pink roses are my favorite. This past spring I was finally able to find "Eve" (climber) and have it growing up one side of an arbor. I bought it from Heirloom Roses and it was "own root". Now I do not do well with bare root, but after talking to the grower, I decided to try own root. So far it's doing great. It's grown a good bit the last couple of months. Very healthy looking. Of course, no fertilizing and no fungicides, etc. the first year. Can't wait till next spring when it should bloom!! Natal, per your rose and black spot, I'd keep a close watch on it. In my area, if you get black spot, it's almost a given that it has to be treated. I use a systemic product from Bayer. Inspect your canes thoroughly and make sure you don't see any bad places on them. Hopefully it is just minor and won't continue to be a problem. I've lost several roses myself to blackspot through the years. tina

I keep all of my plants Hydroponically, no fancy setups or anything, just pretty vases with plenty of room for roots and a wide opening and weekly or twice weekly water changes fertilized with a tiny bit of black or green tea (normally Lipton or Bigelow bags, never tried instant but I've heard it works well too); so when my boyfriend bought me Minis for Valentines Day they did great for a few days and then started dying and nothing I did helped them, as a last ditch effort I took them out of potting soil then put them into vases of water and they bounced back very well. They were in shock before I transplanted them, and it took probably three days for them to get back to their normal selves, but in a month they went from sickly with very few leaves and no blooms to quadrupling their amount of leaves and growing as much as three inches taller. Some were not doing quite as well as others, so I separated the smaller ones and they are getting better, just much more slowly. So yes, this is a very easy way to keep them, I don't know anything about your system but I'm sure it will work for them too. :) Hope this helps, and I included a picture of the largest two in their vase. The white roots have been coming in the past two weeks, and the brown color of the water is due to the tea I use as fertilizer. edit: forgot to mention that tea makes the water acidic, so this is only good for plants that like acidic conditions. Also, roses need a dormant period, so either they will need to be transplanted into soil (which is a bad idea where I'm living, soil never fails to grow mold unless my plants are kept dying of thirst : Here is a link that might be useful: This post was edited by SasorisPuppet on Fri, Apr 11, 14 at 9:09