Perhaps it likes hotter weather. I think you got it, buford. My DD seems to thrive in hotter weather--can be kind of muddled looking earlier in spring. Seems to need that sun or heat to straighten out its color scheme. Don't know for sure about Seattle, but is it a cooler and wetter region? If you want to grow DD, perhaps you need to pick the hottest spot in the garden, one with 8-10 hours of sun a day. That may be what it is missing. Here's mine--not the best pic, but it shows off the dramatic coloring. Kate

Frances, For all my roses I spray Ortho Rose Pride once every 10 days. Everyone usually tells me spray once a week but that's just too often for my busy schedule so I figure 3 times a month is fine. I buy the 16 oz concentrate liquid form from Home Depot for $13.97 and it lasts forever! I mix 1 TBSP of the liquid concentrate with 1 gallon of water and 1 TSP of Spreader Sticker to make sure the stuff sticks to the leaves. I always spray super early in the morning like around 6 am or early in the cool evening around 6 pm because you don't want the hot sun to burn the solution onto the leaves. Using a hand-held spray bottle I spray a nice heavy mist onto the top of all the leaves and a light spray beneath the leaves as well. On average it takes me about 30 to 40 minutes to spray all 69 rose bushes in my back and front garden. For you and your 6 roses you should be done in 5 minutes. Easy peasy :) Now if you want to be an extremist and go the extra route for show quality roses then you can also grab a systemic formula like Bayer Advanced All-In-One. It comes in liquid form and slow-release granular form. If you're interested I wrote a thorough review of the liquid product on Lowe's website that you can read here. This stuff is absolutely amazing for older (18+ month) roses but not to b eused on younger roses. DO NOT whatsoever use that stuff on newly planted roses or container roses. This stuff will severely burn or kill them. I made the mistake of using this stuff on all my roses and ended up murdering 3 of my newer roses which I feel horrible for :( Also I recommend cutting the dosage in half for your first application, then 75% on your 2nd, and 100% thereafter. If you want to go the organic route I've read that insecticide soap is pretty good but I have no experience with it yet. So far my biggest headache with growing roses in Florida are thrips. OMG I hate them !!! If you find that your roses have rusty brown edges those are thrips munching away on the petals, NOM NOM NOM - I tried using Bayer's $5 insect control for the thrips but it's a joke because I go through one bottle so fast. The systemic release formula seemed to be the only thing that worked for me. I would love to hear from others though if anyone else has advice on thrips! Last but not least during the hot summer months I water all my roses twice a day. Once in the morning when I wake up and let the dogs out around 8 am and again in the evening when I get home from work around 6. From late fall until February I then back down to 2 times a week. I can go on and on about my feeding and fertilizing as well but you specifically asked about black spot and rose disease so I figured I'd answer that question directly first. My apologies for the long-winded response. Hopefully some of that info was helpful :) OH! I almost forgot, Most of my advice I got from Mr. Nelson, the owner of Nelsons Florida Roses and my friend Jim who tends to the roses at Leu Gardens. If you can't find Rose Pride at your local nursery or a box store, Nelsons Florida Roses recommends these products for fungicide: - Ortho Rose Pride ( Triforine ) - Ortho Orethenex - Valent Triforine - Copper and Maneb Combination Sprays - Fertilome Lawn and Garden Fungicide - Fertilome HALT Fungicide For monthly Thrips control they recommend: - Spinosad or Conserve - Orthene - Cygon - Bayer Advanced Rose and Flower Insect Killer For Spider Mite Control ( Upon appearance ) - Organocide

Thank you all for your answers. Never heard about phototropic roses! Unfortunately I cant move the pot in a sunnier place (it's on a balcony, I live in a flat), I will enjoy my DD this way, perhaps summer sun and temps make it redder. Anyway, the nice and strong fragrance compensates me for subtle colours.

Hey all just checking in. I happened to see info about African violets above. Back when my father was much younger he was quite the horticulturist and loved African violets especially. He still has a magic touch with them. Funny (but true) family story. My aunt (mother's sister and known/admitted black thumb) expressed her absolute glee over how beautiful my father's African violets were. She was explaining that she could never ever keep anything alive but had an especially difficult time with violets. At the next family get-together, my father brought my aunt a plastic potted African violet. He said, "this is one you can never kill; I guarantee it." He thought based on that, that she knew it was artificial. About a year later we were at her house and she had it in the middle of the kitchen table and said, "Look Rick, I have been caring for it for a year and it hasn't even dropped it's petals." When he looked at her quizically, she said "I water it every day and make sure to give it sun but not too much. You were right, I didn't kill it." My entire family erupted into laughter when he explained that it wasn't real. Though crestfallen at the time, it has become quite the family hoo haw.