I bought True Passion aka double 10 at my local Home Depot. Its so far been a good rose. It has good disease resistance and is a prolific bloomer. The blooms are small and not particularly what I would call a "true" rose bloom if you are looking for a hybrid tea form. Its much more an OGR style and so far they are small but many (although that could very well be my heat). I planted it in the middle of July which is usually a No No here, but its done well which says a whole lot. I saw the pink one as well, but the blooms looked rather boring to me. However anything that interests people in growing roses and gives them success with roses is good in my books. We need more than just Knock Outs. Double 10 (as I prefer to call it) has an interesting color and bloom shape, for now, its a keeper in my book, and its on its own roots.

Sheila is right. I used Osmocote Plus 6 month feed on my inground roses for the first time last growing season, 2024, and nothing else, except my yearly winter application of poultry manure (pigeon), placed in late fall/early winter. The poultry manure gives a lavish spring bloom, but doesn't last the season. That's where the Osmocote comes in. I never had such vigorous, steady growth and abundant blooming, ever before, all season long. Watering was kept up regardless of high temps and rainfall shortages. The roses never suffered a water insufficiency. If my memory serves me, I applied the Osmocote right after spring pruning, about late April. I highly recommend Osmocote Plus 6 month feed, for the easiest, most effective fertilizer for roses that can be imagined. Osmocote is pricey, but worth every cent. If I didn't have the poultry manure (pigeon loft) available and used Osmocote as my only fertilizer applied at pruning time, the only difference I believe there would be is a smaller bloom and leaf size for the spring flush. This no saying smaller than normal, just that the manure makes for an enormous leaf and flower in spring, and normal size thereafter, the rest of the season. Hope what I have shared helps. Moses.

Jackie and BirdsLoveRoses, cyclamen are classed as "florist's"--tender varieties bred from C. persicum--and "hardy" kinds. The ones you buy in pots for winter display are the non-hardy kind. Specialist bulb suppliers often offer hardy cyclamen corms. The hardiest and commonest is C. hederifolium, alias C. napolitanum. This is a great cyclamen, though scentless, handsome, vigorous, and seeds generously. After it, in hardiness, come varieties like C. cilicium, similar to C. hederifolium, C. coum (blooms later winter to spring), C. repandum, which I don't have, but is naturalized in parts of Great Britain, and our native Italian C. purpurascens, fragrant, reputed to be fussier than these others, and which I don't have. I may try it one day. By the way, I've had some limited success in carrying florist's cyclamen through to the next winter. I believe I killed one last year by over-watering in during its summer rest--probably best to let them dry out--but have had another for several years. This winter it didn't bloom for the first time, and I suspect I need to repot it entirely, rather than just topping up the compost. I've heard about fragrant florist's cyclamen, but apprently scent is rather hit-and-miss, and generally hasn't been bred for. Thanks for the mention of 'Victoria'. Breeders of florist's cyclamen may be discovering an interest in fragrance. About violets, there are American species, too, though I don't know much about them, or whether your violet might be a western species. One small, dark, scentless as I recall, American violet is V. labradorica, which I remember seeing naturalized in western Washington. I just checked the Wikipedia entry, and it says V. riviniana, a European species, is often sold as V. labradorica. Oh, the confusion. I recall V. labradorica as lower-growing than most violets, with dark blooms and foliage flushed violet, and a great spreader. My violets occasionally get disease, too, including the curled thick leaves, but they outgrow it. And they bloom like mad. The only scented violet I know of is the sweet violet, V. odorata, common here and wonderfully variable, though we have other wild species locally. I had a named sweet violet in my garden in Olympia, probably 'Blue Czar' or 'Royal Robe'. It lasted for years, bloomed regularly, and smelled really great (the whole plants smells like violets, not just the flowers), but I don't recall it seeding, as my sweet violets here do. It might be worth trying sweet violets, which ought to be available from specialist nurseries. BirdsLoveRoses, 'Sulphurea' is a classic variety: you should be able to find it. Ooooh, interesting: while browsing about looking into buying oppportunities for 'Sulphurea', I noticed that it evidently is not a single clone, but a seed-grown type. So my "Daughters of 'Sulphurea'" fall right into gardening tradition. This entry is getting really long, so I'll stop, though I would like to take up peonies later. Two last notes, though: while browsing around double-checking my facts while writing this, I found a blog called LaidbackGardener, which had an excellent article on keeping florist's cyclamen for years. Also, the violet disease question. This wouldn't apply to native American violets which are adapted to local weather patterns, but violets native to Italy, like Viola odorata, are used to wet cool winters and hot dry summers. They might object to regular summer water. I never water any of mine except for a while after transplanting. Actually, so might western native violets, which would likewise be adapted to summer drought.

Vapor, I hope that True Love is as Ben indicated, and not a typical miniflora all of which the few I have tried were black spot magnets. I plan to give it a try, one or two, in the front of my rose bed to break up the repetativeness of the Drift roses. It may be that the two Grande Amores currently interspersed among the Drifts now, just put in this past spring, will not thrive and get booted, since their first year here was a bust...just about growing backwards. However, they may surprise me next year and kick in, but if so, they may prove to be too tall if they get over 30" tall. Rose gardening is a balancing act if there ever was one! Moses