What I have found is - that in my moderate climate - most roses will grow very well in reasonable sized containers (15-30 liter) - provided that the container is filled with feeding roots, rather than just coiled up tap roots. Root pruning at an early stage is the key - so that the roots develop lots of branches and feeding roots just below the union instead of just one or two long tap roots. Planted in the ground, roses will immediately send out long tap roots to anchor itself and search for moisture and nutrients. In a container it will try to do the same 'even though it does not need to'. Fairly drastic root pruning will adjust it to its new situation. In containers roses will need a medium which is never dry - but even more importantly- will NEVER be waterlogged. An extremely free draining gritty medium which requires lots of watering (daily?) and lots of fertilizer works very well and roses will bloom their heads off.

I advise giving it the royal treatment this year and see if it doesn't noticeably improve next year--it third year. Third year (or older) plants often outgrow some of their earlier "problems." As Buford suggested, give it a good afalfa feed (pellet, meal, or "tea")now and in about another month. I'd add that you should combine that with an organic feed like RoseTone (monthly until mid-August), and water it a lot. After a season of that, it should be a much improved plant by next year. Oh yes--you do have it in at least 6 hours of sun, don't you? It likes sun. And keep it healthy by spraying Bayer Advanced Garden Disease Control for Roses and Flowers, as suggested above. Good luck. Kate

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 :)