For the first time in the 12 years I've had "Barfield White Climber" last year it set a fair number of hips...maybe 60-70. Seedlings popped up QUICKLY with zero chill time in the fridge. I now have a 3 inch tall seedling topped by a bud!! Will be fun to see if maybe it is a self, or if a bee brought pollen from the nearby 'Seagull', 'Mme. Antoine Mari', "Maggie" or 'Abraham Darby'. Will be interesting to if it too is a rampant prickle-free climber.

I love his work...

http://sproulroses.blogspot.com/

Just confirmed that I have a flower bud atop a 3 inch tall open-pollinated seedling of "Barfield White Rambler"! First time I have ever germinated any due to the oddly "large" number of hips that formed last year. Pic in a day or two!

After months of himming and hawwing I today planted my own root 'Oklahoma' and 'Eugene de Beauharnais' in large pots set into the area I am redoing in front of my office instead of in a small bed in the main front garden. 'Oklahoma' is my favorite red rose of all time and I hope to use the pollen, along with that from 'Don Juan', on both 'Seagull' and "Barfield White Rambler" this April.

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.4528&tab=1

My "Fairmount Red" rose has not bloomed in three years, due I feel to those last two MILD winters where I did not have to cover even basil or tomatoes. I discovered it in Denver in 1990, and made a clone for my yard there from a runner before the mowing crews nuked it. In Colorado it is a VERY cold hardy once bloomer, so I am surprised that my Tampa plant has survived at all for seven years I think. Last fall I moved it's large pot close to my north facing office wall to shade it from the fierce south sun of winter, plus to benefit whatever north winds I might get here in south Tampa. It also now gets run off from the roof. Today I gave it its first ever hard cut back...took it from well over 6 feet in that large tree pot down to 3 feet, gave it a few gallons of my "nutrient soup", 2 handfuls of Epsom salts, followed by a few gallons of rain water. Once I plant maybe a dozen glad bulbs in there I'm adding about 6 inches of mulch. Fingers crossed it blooms, in part because I miss those lovely flowers, and because I'd love to use the pollen on both 'Seagull' and "Barfield White Climber". I stuck maybe 15 cuttings in a big cookie jug with a few inches of damp coarse builder's sand on the bottom. Here, as in Denver, it is quite red ONLY when very hungry...well fed it is more of a saturated magenta. I think it can still be ordered from High Country Roses in Denver

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.30250&tab=1

I've done something very similar for 20 years now though I DO add purchased microbes too, like those in Primal Defense tablets for people.....all 14 were derived from healthy soil. Did wonders for my Denver and Tampa clients' roses as a one time foliar spray to inoculate the bushes and soil beneath them.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/probioticsfor-the-soilbrew-your-own-local-indigenous-microbes-zbcz1402.aspx

Wow...a few gallons of "nutrient soup" and a rare deep watering and my 'Mme. Antoine Mari' Tea Rose went nuts! VERY drought resistant, it has thrived for easily 7 years in a buried, 4 gallon Water Wise Container Garden in a dry bed by my neighbor's concrete driveway and the hot street. The scent, while not incredible as in many Old Roses, nonetheless puts that of many/most modern roses to shame. It never sets hips, but in April I am DEFINITELY using its pollen on 'Seagull' and "Barfield White Climber". I bought my specimen from Mark Chamblee Roses back then. This lovely rose came out in the year 1900.

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.3967

Woo hoo! The editor of The American Rose Society Magazine e-mailed twice today to tell me that the new issue came out yesterday and that she is already getting stellar responses about my article about sustainable organic rose growing! SO cool as for years that was considered so "weird"....."but you HAVE to spray your roses weekly!!!"

I am so glad that I did not give a hard cut back to my Mme. Antoine Mari rose, just fed it and gave it a rare watering....easily 6' X 6' and going into a very nice bloom phase. Everything about how this old Tea Rose LOOKS is so reminiscent of the iconic "Pink Cracker Rose".....but the scent makes very clear that they are NOT the same.

An old article from my long defunct gardening column in The St. Pete Times....

http://www.sptimes.com/News/121501/Floridian/Roses_for_noses.shtml

Thanks to this chilly winter my roses from Denver have nearly all defoliated for some decent needed dormancy. My "Fairmount Red" has not bloomed in three years...fingers crossed it does this spring as it is a sentimental favorite of mine since 1991 when I discovered it in Fairmount Cemetery nearly dead. Amazing it grows here at all as in Denver it is a super-cold hardy once bloomer.

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.30250&tab=1

My goal is to create a whole new race of roses resulting from crossing this species with various Tea Roses, maybe some Chinas.

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.5366.5

Seedlings of Rosa multiflora coming up in Tampa with ZERO cold stratification!

I've been growing roses from seeds since 1991 so I am stunned but delighted....barely a week ago I sowed seeds of wild Rosa multiflora mailed me from Missouri. I left the pot out in that rainy weather and PLANNED to then slip it in a produce bag for the usual three months of cold stratification in the fridge....moments ago I noticed that they are already germinating!!! IF any of the seedlings of this cold climate species grow and BLOOM here in south Tampa, my intent is to create a new race of Multiflora/Tea hybrids. I am PSYCHED!

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.5366.5&tab=1

As I'd hoped, the nasturtiums are pushing up through the thick layer of chop-and-drop rose canes from when I hard pruned my monster 'Teasing Georgia' climbing rose. Soon the approx. 80 glad bulbs in that bed should emerge. The rose canes were VERY thorny and I had ZERO desire to drag them to the back yard. Plus the soil is getting sandy in that bed and I need to routinely add lignin and humus formers....I scattered all over it one 25 lb. bag of cheap unscented Publix cat litter, just $2.99, to add clay to the sand/mulch layer. By mid March this garden should be stunning! About two weeks ago I gave the rose about 4 gallons of a potent "nutrient soup" made from dried chicken poop, fish emulsion, trace elements, dolomite and animal feed grade urea that I let brew about 3 weeks...there is already a LOT of new growth emerging from the very hard pruned remaining canes.

I just got my water/garbage/sewage bill...due to some rain plus my perennial habit of using kitchen gray water on my gardens, my daily solar heated 1 gallon rain water showers in the back and retrieving that gallon, only peeing outdoors, deep mulching, relying heavily on home made Water Wise Container Gardens and rain barrels, the water use portion was just $6.27! Cool when I consider how many food crops and roses I grow here.