Fortuniana does not bloom for me if I prune it. I looked it up on the web and some sites say that wood has to be 3 to 4 years old to flower. This is a lot older than I thought but would explain why it would never flowered for a year or 2 following a pruning. I would think that if you have it draping over the fence and only prune it lightly throughout the year to keep it under control, then you will get blooms but it could take a year or two. I have grown it as a mounding bush, if I tried to control it, it would stop flowering, if I let it alone it would take over the garden. I removed it. I did take cuttings and have some in very neglected pots in the back of my mats and it bloomed this year. I am curious why you would want to grow fortuniana when in Florida we have other varieties that bloom year-round and pruning doesn't stop the blooming. Good luck with it

Straw wrote: "Khalid: Your roses look very good in high heat, nice colors and healthy foliage. My Just Joey looks really bad, blooms bleached out to beige, so I don't even post pics. I might move it to partial shade for better color. We are in hot & dry phase, up to 90 F, or 32 C." Straw: 90*F is not high heat for roses in my view. I mean in this temperature, my roses were performing very well. Could there be other (primary) reason for your Just Joey or any other rose not performing that well. I am not sure if 90*F alone is enough to cause deterioration in performance of a particular cultivar. I mean some mineral deficiency / excess or some issue with the soil that gets amplified due to rise in temp? Or could it be that my roses have slowly been acclimatized to perform better in heat? Just trying to understand what could be the reason for my Just Joey being quite yellow in 105*F and your's turning beige in 90*F. best regards PS: Sam, did you see the photos of Rose Biomes posted above? Jess: Alec's Red hasn't impressed me much. It is almost completely non fragrant since the temps rose above 100*F and is blooming sparsely. When I compare it's performance with many other roses, I would rate it quite low with regards to performance in summers though it performs much better when it is cooler. Sorry no experience of growing Christopher Columbus. I haven't actually seen it here.

Hope people are still looking at this article. I have had a tough time growing Moringa Oliferia from seed this year. I have clay soil that is very alkaline and the cool weather in the clay soil and poor drainage have been a challenge and I see lots of flecks on the leaves which I gotta feel are insects. I have added organic matter to add to aeration and mininize the watering but my plants seem to be stuck at about 8" before they hit the wall and start to die. Any suggestions with the pock marks on the leaves and getting them to grow tall and fast? Do fertilize? If so, what do you do and frequency. Thanks for your recommendations. James

Hi, Just to give an update on my planting plan -- after extensive research, considering factors like cold tolerance, taste, oil content, A/B type for pollination, and fruiting months, I have formed a tentative plan to plant: 1 Stewart 1 Mexicola Grande 1 Brodgen 1 Lula 1 Fuerte By the data I collected this combo of trees can give me almost year round fruits. I will plant them in a cluster, about 20' from each other. I plan to also build a simple greenhouse during winter months for the young trees. Fuerte supposedly can tolerate only low as 28F, but I want to take a chance on that one due to the good taste. I think I have all bases covered. Thanks for the tips and any additional advice is of course appreciated.