Hi Rabbit: I read in previous post that you are a writer, made $$$ on a novel, I would like to know what's the name of your novel so I can check out. I like to read in my zone 5a winter. I appreciate the kosher-chicken-mushroom recipe you gave to me here ... except my husband gives me dirty looks when I put salt, and my kid gives me dirty look when I put mushroom ... so I haven't made it. Per your question of banana peels buried under bush ... that's great too. I chop up banana peels NPK 0-3-42 with a scissor and soak in molasses & a bit of vinegar for my tap water at pH 8 to extract banana's soluble phosphorus. Per your question of when to stimulate blooms? Right after it's done flowering, then I give it nutrients for the next flush. Right after moving a rose, I also give it soluble-nutrients to encourage root-growth. Alameda (Judith) in Texas wrote on how she forced stingy Graham Thomas to bloom: "When I was at Chamblee's last September, I asked what in the world I could do to the thing to make it bloom. They suggested Carl Pool BR 61. I doused it with that.......lo and behold, a few fall blooms! I did it again in spring and the bush actually bloomed well! I also used the combination of Spray N Gro/Bill's Perfect Fertilizer on it. After the bloom cycle, I cut it back - when I pruned in spring, I didn't allow those long tendrils." Rabbit: Carl Pool BR 61 has NPK of 9-58-8, plus trace elements. The high phosphorus is from monopotassium phosphate, which I tested using 0-58-34 bought from Kelp4Less, tons of blooms on Sonia Rykiel and recently transplanted Golden Cel. A cheaper source at $6 is MiracleGro Soluble Bloom Booster, NPK 10-52-10, with all trace elements. I tested that on Stephen Big Purple bought as tiny band this April. The result? 3 buds 1st flush, 7 buds 2nd flush, pinch that off, a week later, more buds were formed. Those zillion-petals also demand calcium, best in soluble gypsum, plus extra potassium. Soluble gypsum I bought cheap from Kelp4Less ($8 for 5 lbs.), free shipping. Sulfate of Potash has lower salt index 43, but I prefer banana peels with zero salt. Plantation blackstrap molasses supplies 20% calcium, 17% potassium, 20% iron & other trace elements. In soluble-fertilizer experiments, the best root growth was achieved through high potassium and high calcium, plus decent phosphorus. Best root growth also means more flowering.

Devon Than picture is why I am in this mess. LOL. But Austins rarely do as what is described in the catalog, at least in California . I am afraid that CPM will not look as good on my yard and arbor as it looks on this picture. I secretly hoping that people recommend using one of the others. That why I am hessitant to BUY an other Austin and supports for the two. Thanks for your honost oppinion. FJ P.S. This is how the arbor looks. Here is a link that might be useful: Arbor

Wow, just goes to show you what a little (OK a lot) of snow cover can make in a rose and how it grows. Rebecca is a zone colder than I am, but my CPM fits quite comfortably wound around an obelisk the size of the one on the right above, and its canes are ridiculously floppy to the point of lying on the ground as their only option if I don't wind them around something. That's because my CPM gets little to no consistent snow cover and is pruned to the ground each spring, so it's always regrowing new cane and that's always flexible for me. It also means my CPM almost never blooms though it regrows pretty rapidly in the summer, since mine only blooms on old wood growth. OTOH, my Cinderella FT grows in the form Rebecca showed for her CPM and the canes are so stiff I can't picture winding them around anything. My Cinderella can only dream of blooming as well as Rebecca's CPM picture though, since I find mine is among the less hardy Kordes roses I have - it survives fine but loses a majority of its canes over the winter. And yes, it's snowing today too after being 63 yesterday and there's more snow due this weekend. NOT FAIR. Sometimes we're flirting with being done with frost by mid-April but that is soooo not happening this year. I just barely sneaked out to get the peas and lettuce and such planted yesterday, and that's weeks later than I'd usually do so. Grump. I want spring. I had to break the ice in the water where my bare root roses were soaking and that does not make for a happy rose gardener (the roses BTW were fine under the layer of ice). Cynthia

I have both CPM and TG, both in the ground for three years now. How much sun does the east side of your house get? I have TG on the east side of mine, and that's maybe 4 hours of morning sun tops due to two massive trees. She hasn't grown a lot but she has been fairly hardy and disease resistant. I've gotten very little rebloom from her but she's notoriously slow about that, so I can't say if it's shade/water or if she's still gearing up. I'm wondering now if she's getting enough water there, based on what others in this thread say. She might get moved next year. CPM I had in a spot much like StrawChicago - clay soil, 4 hours of afternoon sun. Mine was under the canopy of a massive oak tree, and that soil is some of the worst in my yard to be fair. More clay than soil I think! She never bloomed in that spot, and never really grew. Maybe the soil was too heavy and she wasn't getting as much water as I thought. I have a polyantha, 'Sweet Pea', in that bed who's done alright, but started as a two gallon plant where CPM was a one gallon. I moved CPM this spring to a spot with much fluffier soil (still clay but soooo much easier to dig in) and more sun and she's doubled in size already and has two blooms!