I used fish emulsion to "weakly" fertilize the roses. All of the roses except Charisma seemed to be pleased with the treatment. I was careful not to get the liquid on the foliage of the plants. Our summers here in the 8a zone (PNW) are short and "moody". Last week, the weather was partly cloudy, rainy (and even a thunderstorm thrown into the mix) with the average temp at 72 degree. This week summer decided to visit us again - it has been warm with temperatures hovering around 84-87 degrees since Sunday. It is pleasant 81 degrees today. I wonder if the above mentioned factors affected my Charisma rose. I have been watering it to reverse any adverse reaction to the fish emulsion. Jeri: I am unsure if I should pull the entire rose plant out. I do not suspect a gofer issue. Sigh...I sincerely hope the rose survives. I am sentimental about my Charisma rose because it is my daughter's name (although the spelling and meaning of the name is different in our cultural roots/language). This post was edited by reemcook on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 17:31

I agree! Your roses has a better chance of surviving winter in the ground. We don't know anything about what kind of rose this is, but presumably it's reasonably hardy if it lived longer than the house. Pennsylvania has those awful, unpredictable winters, with mid-winter thaws followed by deep freezes into March. (My MIL lives in York). Most importantly, don't prune it in the fall and don't prune it next spring apart from removing dead wood. If voles are a problem in your area, research how to winterize your rose without turning your efforts into a vole sanctuary.

I bought a beautiful hanging basket of geraniums for my front porch last summer. Moved it to a shady spot under some oak trees as I planned to be away from home for a few days and would not be able to water it during our dry central Texas heat. When I returned from my trip (to my great dismay) found that the deer had nibbled my lovely geraniums...flowers and all... down to three inch stalks. I trimmed the stalks and moved the plant out to my enclosed patio to try to nurse it back to health. To my great surprise, it's now in full bloom again. However, the leaves are no longer a luscious green and full. They are so tiny they're almost invisible. What happened? How can I encourage the leaves to return to their original healthy state and still keep the flowers blooming?

If you are lucky enough that this is Mutablis, come to think of it......foliage and that one bloom does resemble it - you might have a prize on your hands. Some years back, I was with a friend looking at a house for sale. A fabulous Mutablis was growing up the side of the garage - they had it trimmed as a big one caned climber - they had trimmed all the branches off the bottom. The top was a glorious huge ball [for want of a better word] of beautiful foliage blooming its head off. I was enchanted........I bought a one gallon Mutablis with 3 little cuttings in it from Chamblees a couple of years ago. 2 survived and they are now, potted, about 4 feet tall and ready to be planted. I kept trimming them, making one "leader" cane leaving the foliage on top. I am going to plant them next to a fence, keep the bottom cane trimmed, and let them drape over the fence. You might just baby this rose along, see if in fact it is Mutablis - if so, put a trellis next to it and it could be a centerpiece of that area. If Mutablis, the blooms will be different colors - check out helpmefind.com, go to the rose section and type in Mutablis in 'search'. I just got a package of 4 roses in today from Antique Rose Emporium [ARE] - their roses are always top quality!