Kristine,

You may be fighting a losing battlebattle with Papa M. IItIIt was introduced in 1963 and is a child of Chrysler Imperial., and the child of the, "hybrid tea please spray me," era. That tells me it has very little disease resistance that will irk you continually.

I would replace it with a modern red hybrid tea, like Grande Amore. No fuss, no muss. Roses are now being bred for disease resistance by the bucketful...pretty easy to care for disease wise.

You may find my approach cold hearted, but I have come to the conclusion that roses are pretty labor intensiveintensive. In order to keep growing them the joy it should be, make it as easy on the energy needed to keep up with them, concentrate on the easy ones to care for.

Moses