robiniaquest, this is for wayne (and all, too) I could swear the other two were NS. I googled both and learned a bit more. Most nursery sites say it was introduced by the U of Minn (I always knew that somehow) in 1950 (didn't know that long ago). A few sites say they were introduced later. I don't know how I got it in my head that's what I wanted all those years ago or why I ended up with the first two, must have read about them somewhere, called the local nursery, awful I can't remember now, do remember exactly what I paid for them then and planting them. I could swear they were NS, but these new ones look a little different starting out. Two are plenty for me. They often ripen during the horrid hot days, and I often just don't bother to pick them. I just like to watch them grow and have a few, never learned to make jam or jelly. All I ever do is make pies with them. A lady used to stop every year and ask if she could have enough for a couple of pies; I always let her. An old friend from church for years used to pick and pit them for me (he grew up on a farm), then we'd split them, but I think he kept the lion's share. I'm going to try to keep more for myself if these do anything. They have to be easy to can, and I still have a pitter, but it is work. Usually we just froze them but I don't have a big freezer and see no point in getting one now (one more thing to keep clean and worry about). This variety is quite sour, and I found diluting the juice with water and using plenty of sugar helps, then thicken with cornstarch before I bake the pies, just guess the right amount. I hate it when I guess wrong or the cornstarch doesn't work right and they're soupy. Pies are a lot of effort but the kids and I love them. The fruit is not as plump as the old standards (which I prefer flavorwise), too hard to pick from those big trees; people don't have them any more around here. I also checked Montmorency, edenfoods promotes it as very healthy, you know how it is when you are used to something, you don't want to switch. They had those out at HD, too. I just liked these and never had to care for them at all. I did call the extension office today, and he asked did we mow around them, yes, I remember not being careful when I did the mowing, that could have caused the gall, said not to worry, pull the mulch out 2-4 inches, fertilize with something slow release, thought my rose fertilizer would work. I vaguely remember they might have suckered a little, maybe not. My apple tree nearby is awful. Don't get a Jonadel like I did. They are good but not as good as Jonathan imo. I wish I had more room for fruit trees. I have an old apricot tree that has just budded out and next week the temps are supposed to dip to 33. I seldom get any, but when I do they are wonderful. Moorpark. People had some hardier ones with much smaller fruit, but nobody likes to bother with the messes any more. They would rather steal mine if I get any. My mother used to adore white peaches when people would let her have some (nobody has those any more I know of), and canned them. I wish I could have those, grapes, peaches, one pear tree, more varities of apple. I have a farm and can't live on it by myself. I tested the waters on that, planted things, couldn't get back to water them, and all died but one, no fruit trees that time. It's 50 miles away. My dad had the same trouble, one apple tree he planted still bore fruit, but all his cherry trees died from neglect. My dad would have loved to live on his farm; I feel bad that he was never able to, used to talk about setting up a trailer and spend weekends there, I think my mom wanted no part of it. It's frustrating to have a passion for something and not enough room and no one to share it with and making posts that are too long.

Again, ELISA, when properly done, is 100% effective, and has never once, in the 30-ish years we've used it, failed to give an accurate analysis. This is considering the following: 1. We always enclose "blind" samples of known infected and known uninfected tissue -- blind to the lab -- and unless the results come back with them correctly identifying all of those, we would not believe their results on our unknowns. That assures that virus titer is in a usable range on the day the test was done. In actual fact, in all those years, they (WSU Prosser's ELISA lab) have NEVER gotten one wrong, even once. Pretty good record. 2. Once that's done and a rose is "certified" clean (notice that ELISA is just one of the tripod of tests we run -- they're also tested with 'Mme. Butterfly' and 'Shirofugen' cherry -- all 3 must come out unambiguously clean) -- no rose once certified in that way has EVER later been found to have rose mosaic. Not one. Not ever. Not even in cold climates where all the intelligent people live. On rare occasions, the lab has said a test was somewhat ambiguous, and in those cases, we ignored all of the results from that run, and re-ran them later. 3. While we use the three tests for redundancy, we've never seen a case in which one test came out positive while the others came out negative -- in 100% of the roses I've ever tested, all three methods have agreed on their result. So obviously, the point of this long, drawn-out discussion with all kinds of complaints, is moot -- there is no problem here. We have no problem at all identifying where the disease is. No evidence to the contrary has been presented here. I would like to say that you can't argue with absolute 100% success, but obviously, there is one person who is determined to argue continuously with absolute 100% success! So yes, I'm just working our way toward the 150 posts mark, and hoping to keep us focused on the real issues, rather than being constantly drawn into perfectly silly little side arguments that are in and of themselves without merit.

Citrus may be different. I can only grow citrus indoors here. I have no experience with them. It should not hurt trees. It's worse when you add the fertilizer to the dirt when planting. Some on top afterward is safer. Fertilize next year, or maybe others can give you better advice for citrus. They need to establish themselves. That should take about a year. So it is a critical time. Some root damage may have occured, just keep them moist, not wet, and they should be fine. Lot's can go wrong. Photos of any damage helps us look at it and get a better idea what is going on. You may lose some, and learn from it. One thing you may want to do is protect the trunk from sun damage. What we do is paint the trunk with interior latex paint diluted about 50%. Do not use exterior. In the winter with young trees here we can have a problem with field rodents eating the tender young bark at the base of the tree. We use guards or raps to protect the area. Rabbits too sometimes eat this bark. Remove the guards in spring to allow air flow, sometimes insects will live in there too, so they should be removed.

I appreciated the post and explanation. It seems it would be very difficult to run a business like that, and we must remember that only these smaller ones, generally, grow and sell the more unusual roses we so crave. They seem to be family operations, and trying to juggle all of it would be really hard. RVR I didn't count the number offered, but it seems huge. Imagine trying to guess how many to propagate of which each season and the enormous amount of work in the field and possibly greenhouse, let alone the sales end of it! No complaints about RVR, and it would take a serious annoyance before I'd make a fuss publicly. But I don't think it is wrong to discuss it as long as it is just stating the facts and not intended to turn other customers whose experiences may be different away. They had what I wanted. No one else did except one I found out later in my other post going here about RVR. I have 2 Hettie and 2 Awakening I got from bands, Barden roses. They don't do well in my zone without a lot of extra fussing in the winter. BUT they seem resistant to blackspot and almost everything except Jap beetles, shiny leaves, no spraying, maybe kelp. I so wanted Marianne and Jeri but will pass now.