Audrey - be sure to let MIP build up well before you prune the laterals back to about 3 - leaves/eyes. That will produce new blooming laterals. It can become a huge rose - but I like to train it more - twisting the long canes around the about 24 inch in diameter metal support. It makes it produce many more blooming laterals - traning it this way. Growing naturally it will produce a big mound and it can send out 10 feet canes - first year these will only bloom at the tips - but next they will produce many blooming laterals/sideshoots. This is why I think that growing this rose with some kind of support - like training the long shoots horizontally on a trellis/fence/arbor produces the best results. Most freestanding MIPs I have seen look messy - huge thorny canes whipping all over - or the flowers are so high up that we can't smell them. The picture is 2 year old (plant 5 year old) and it only had a little mildew/very little rust at the time(I just sprayed and removed the infected leaves - and the summer pruning together with spraying kept it pretty clean. This year it has more rust and after picking the infected leaves/spraying it has lost about 20-25 percent of the leaves but looks pretty good now. Later in the season it also gets a little blackspot - but mildew and rust are worst here. So it is not an easy rose - but for those who are willing to put up with this work/care/spraying - they can choose if they think it is worth it. I love ultra fragrant roses - and will not live without it. I hope Nadia is up for a challenge. If all roses were this much work - I would not have time to grow many.

I haven't seen anything out there except an occassional large black bug that was all over the sunflowers last year. I'll try the beer bottle trick tonight and see what I get. Thanks for your response.

Don't know why pics didn't post.. here they are again.

There are a lot of variables so I can't say with confidence a time period. Heating and cooling systems as well as temperature affects the uptake as well as evaporation of water that takes place. If it were mine (I don't keep these, they need too much moisture/humidity for my cultural conditions and style but, if it were mine....), I would put it in a plastic pot to help extend the time between waterings. If you like giving it attention, you can keep it in the clay but you'll need to soak the clay pot and media more frequently than you would need to water in a plastic pot. The reason why this is: The clay is air permeable so the whole surface of the clay pot wicks moisture away from the potting media and exposes it to the outside air which increases evaporation due to the increased surface area exposed to the air. In a plastic pot, water is unable to escape other than through the top, bottom holes and root uptake. The plastic makes the inside of the pot more humid by not allowing excess water evaporation and the plant has access to the same amount of water but for a longer period of time. Did you notice the difference in the color and texture of the pot after you soaked it? Part of soaking is to also saturate the clay so the clay doesn't immediately start pulling moisture out of the media; it can evaporate its own water, buying some time before the root ball starts to dry out. As for repotting at this time of year, I can't comment. I don't know how sensitive these plants are to that sort of thing since I've never had one. The information I'm giving to you is potted plant-culture-wide and not specific to just this plant. I actually used to use terra cotta for my succulents (not moisture-loving like your Maranta) and with the gritty mix, they just dried out too quickly. Like I said, lots of variables.