Hi Ingrid: You got seaweed and fish emulsion? Good stuff! Check out this quote: "Seaweed fertilizers contain almost every micro-nutrient in a fully chelated (immediately available) form. They deliver a healthy dose of natural plant hormones." Annie needs LOTS OF MOISTURE. She refused to grow in full-sun for me, she kept pumping out blooms ... kept me busy pinching off blooms. Then I put her in 4 hours of weak morning zone 5a sun, gave her some acid nitrogen fertilizer to balance out my above pH 8 tap water. She went beserk with that nitrogen fertilizer Lilly Miller NPK 10-5-4 (has all micronutrients). She doubled in size in 1 month. The pot was leaching out nitrogen with our constant fall rain. That's the only instance where that acid fertilizer did any good. Annie did better when I put used lemons to bring down my tap water from 8.5 to that of rain water (pH 5.6). She will ball if rain, best to use gypsum (calcium sulfate). I posted what Burling uses for fertilizer in Alana's thread "My First Bloom". Check that out as to the problem with Osmocote that Burling uses. It might be good to shade her more with a tall chair. If you water her daily, more nitrogen will be leached. The Lilly Miller has chicken manure, so it's slow-release for the entire year ... I'm still cautious about using that stuff only for pots, and when wet. Your fish emulsion with supply the trace elements. That's better than alfalfa meal, which gunks on top. I still have alfalfa meal gunking around my bushes from late fall application. They haven't decomposed yet !! The best hole I made this year was with cocoa mulch at the bottom, NPK 2.5-1-3, pH of 5.4, with all the trace elements. That stuff decomposed fast in my wet clay, it retains moisture better than peat moss. You would not believe the amount of earthworms in the hole .. enough for a worm farm! I grew Annie in the pot until she reached 2 gallon-root-ball, before I put her in the wettest spot in my alkaline clay. Annie survived my zone 5a winter, now with many green branches & basal breaks. This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Fri, Apr 26, 13 at 18:11

Annie Laurie McDowell as a gracious, vivacious (and terribly funny!) lady who came to Los Angeles in the mid to late 1940s from Colorado to "become an actress". She studied and performed at The Pasadena Playhouse, was "discovered" and became the nightly personality on KTLA Channel 5, our oldest, earliest television station. It was her job to introduce the nightly guests and present the commercials. The station felt her name was too 'stilted', so they changed it to Candy McDowell. She and her producer fell in love and eventually married, with Candy 'retiring' to raise their family. She had quite a few fun, interesting stories about her years at Channel 5, with Dean filling in from his forty years at NBC. After retiring, they moved to Chatsworth, buying a condo adjacent to Chatsworth Park South and discovered The Homestead Acre there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_Hill_Palmer_House She, and her wonderful husband, Dean, joined the Historical Society and took on the restoration of the gardens at "The Acre", as their retirement project. It was there, I met them in 1983 at one of their open gardens, which were held monthly. Rather quickly, they had me joining them, volunteering at The Huntington Library in their rose gardens. My earliest 'funny colored roses' came through Candy, primarily from Peter Schneider (American Rose Rambler editor) who imported many and dedicated his rose, Eden Ellen, in remembrance of their daughter who was killed by a drunk driver. John MacGregor, Clair Martin's predecessor at The Huntington, donated a number of old and rare roses to help jump start the garden restoration. Several were already growing in the garden when Candy and Dean began their efforts. The Acre hosted an annual Rose Festival, featuring old, rare and unusual roses Annie Laurie propagated. It wasn't long until their festivals also included roses which had passed through my Newhall garden which were decent roses, but not exactly what I had thought, or hoped they would be, with cutting grown and seedling roses added to the mix. They spent "winter" here in the San Fernando Valley, escaping the summer heat at her grandfather's "cabin" in Beulah, Colorado. Each return brought something new and exciting for the garden from their summer exploits. The rose, 'Pike's Peak' was one find. The Pike's Peak seedling, 'Beulah Belle' was my 'thank you' to the member of The Belles who supplied the cuttings. The Beulah Belles was their ladies civic organization, though the self proclaimed purpose was to "get together monthly to celebrate birthdays and get sloshed". R. Arkansana "Peppermint", the stippled Arkansana, was another. Many came from Denver Botanical and most still grace my garden. There were many shared dinners, garden tours and visits and much local exploration over the years. Roses and a lot of laughter were the main themes. I'll let the entry in Comments section I posted to Help Me Find pick it up here. A number of years ago, Mel Hulse, of the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, along with others from that garden, visited my garden in Southern California to obtain cuttings of my collection for their garden. One rose Mel was particularly struck by was Annie Laurie McDowell. At that time, it was simply referred to as Renae Seedling. Mel and others in San Jose began referring to it as "Super Renae" and Mel continued singing its praises. Along the way, I lost the original seedling to flat head apple borers. Mel maintained Annie Laurie McDowell and two or three other Renae seedlings he had collected from my garden. I wanted to name a rose for a very dear friend who was responsible for introducing me to The Huntington Gardens and Library and encouraging me to become a volunteer there. Super Renae was the obvious choice. I emailed Mel and asked if he could bring me as many cuttings and bloom spires as possible as we were to meet in Visalia at Sequoia Nursery to film a documentary about Ralph Moore. Being the kind gentleman he was and the loyal friend I'd grown to love, he not only brought me cuttings, but a large, foam ice chest FULL of blooming material! All were carefully wrapped and placed in ice to maintain them for the four days it would require before they could be taken to their potential namesake. We spent the time at Sequoia and accomplished our mission. I brought the ice chest home and called my dear friend, who invited me to join her for breakfast the following morning. I brought the ice chest and spent well over an hour cleaning and recutting the stems under water while she prepared our breakfast. When all stems were finished, I'd filled a large antique water pitcher with many dozens of bloom clusters in prime condition. The pitcher was her grandfather's, and we placed it on her grandfather's secretary desk. He was a doctor and the case was full of his instruments and medical books. We enjoyed our breakfast while admiring the pitcher full of Annie Laurie McDowell sitting on her grandfather's desk. At that time, Annie Laurie was about 71, so you have an idea of the age of the desk, equipment, books and pitcher and water bowl. Annie Laurie had sought the old Hybrid Tea, Annie Laurie, for years. It was an early Twentieth Century sport of Ophelia. The rose is extinct. Had it not been for the keen eye, dedication and kindness of this fine gentleman and loyal friend, Annie Laurie McDowell would have become extinct years before finally accepting the name of my dear friend. And, Annie Laurie wouldn't have had a rose she loved bear her name in her last years of life. I sincerely miss them both.

Galgal if I ever do you'll be the first to know. Virginia, they haven't got to her yet or anyone else in that area, that I know of. It's hard clay over there, which could account for slow growth, but since she's growing inch by inch and everyone says she's a slow grower, I think that could be another reason. I've noticed That roses over there do tend to take a little longer to take off and I think it's the clay and because I'm still, adding to that area trying to make it better with mulch, rabbit manure, chicken manure, ect. The ones they have gotten have always been in soil that I've worked for years, and now is over shaded to much from the trees. Did you see the post where I told you they tried to get SDDJ? I'm glad I caught it in time, and that might be why he didn't root. I noticed after that through this year he was losing a few canes and I was wondering why, but was either so busy, or feeling bad I almost didn't catch it. I dug him up and planted him really deep. I read in Susan Verrier's gallica book that deep planting discouraged voles, and I was out of my main go to to get rid of them. I don't think my colder weather in the winter has anything to do with it, or atleast I don't recall her losing any cane during winter. I'll pay extra close attention this year.

@purilisaVA-zone7B you're welcome! Don't forget Renae, ALmD's parent. It is also wonderfully shade tolerant, continuous-flowering, remarkably well scented and a gorgeous thing. Renae was the sister of the man in Visalia who owned the drug store. She passed from cancer in the early forties. Mr. Moore named the rose to memorialize her. ALmD inherited her slow-to-start from Renae as well as her lack of prickles, tolerance for shade and delicious scent. Another of Mr. Moore's marvels without prickles is Climbing Yellow Sweetheart. It's also remarkably well scented and a gorgeous thing. Its remarkable story is presented on HMF, written by the late and continuously missed, Jim Delahanty (jimofshermanoaks) and me: "What Was Lost is Found". The rose can be found here. https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.23069 Our article, documenting the resurrection of this desirable rose is here. https://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=66.587