"Unique Too" wrote in message
...
Allegra,
It's always so good to read your posts. So enjoyable and full of
information.
Poor Eugene didn't make it here, perhaps not enough coddling from me. I
did
love the few blooms and scent, but couldn't stand the naked canes. Maybe
next
time I'll keep him in a pot and add something around the edges.

Hello my dear,

thank you so much for the compliment. I did not see this post
until today, which may well mean that attbi. is asleep at the
wheel or that the all too frequent changes with AT&T are going
to drive me crazy once and for all.

Eugene is doing just fine thank you in the gay-rash, with a growing
light shared by a potted gardenia, three cuttings of our gorgeous
Brugmansia that grew over 13 feet and so it couldn't be brought
back in for the winter, plus my beloved Alice B. Dupont mandevilla
that was cut down to the ground after climbing ever so happy
outside and repotted into a small pot because I don't trust the
weather. Gee, I wonder why? At any rate, he is doing fine and
ready to make more little blooms. On the other hand I had the
nicest surprise that puts to rest all the maniac things I have tried
during this lifetime to make good of a cutting. I was pruning
Evelyn last fall because she was so naked and miserable (we
didn't spray for a couple of weeks and everything went black,
as in black spot and anthracnose that with cercospora are the
bane of my existence here, but I digress.

Anyway, there was this healthy cutting when I was disposing
of the rest, the size of a number 2 pencil and I stuck it passing
by Zephirine's pot and forgot all about it. A couple of weeks later
you could see the poor thing shivering in the cold, so I went
inside and took a glass jar, dumped it on top of the cutting and
again didn't go out until after Christmas. It has the nicest set
of roots I have ever seen, and leaves the size of head pins but
who cares? The darn thing is going for it, and I just laughed
myself into a tizzy thinking of all the expensive rooting hormones
I have on the shelves, the pure sand and sterilized soil, the
bleach bath, and the peroxide water, not to talk about the baking
soda and water sprays. Which goes to show you that roses do
as roses please and that is the proof in my book. She will have
a place of honor in the East bed this summer.

The roses seem to think it's spring here. We've had a much wetter and
colder
than normal winter (El Nino). It must be the extra water, it certainly
hasn't
been the heat! I noticed my climbing Souvenir de la Malmaison appears to
be
getting ready for a "spring" flush, way too early. The other roses are
mostly
leafed out and most haven't had any pruning or spraying yet. I'm looking
forward to the blooms, but really I'm not ready. I would prefer they rest
a
little longer and allow me to take of them first. Oh well, roses, like
cats,
have a mind of their own.

You can say that again, but please don't in case they are listening.
Last Sunday BH and I went out for a walk around the house and
way up there, atop of the four way arbor what do you think we
see, but SodelaM climber trying to bloom? The silly thing is naked
as a jay bird and that lonesome little bud up atop is nothing short
of ridiculous, but we didn't have any way to get up there without
a ladder so there stays, defiant of wind and weather I guess.
Maybe it is frozen, and neither it nor us know it?

My terrain is almost gone, there wasn't that much to start with here.
And
there are still so many roses out there I haven't tried. No enabling
please!
No space, no money, no time!
I do have a few cuttings coming in the mail soon but I haven't visited the
local nursery since October. I do think rose fever is going to start
soon.

Got a note from Regan's today that El Niño has played havoc with
their fields and they are closing shop tomorrow for this month´s
orders with apologies and all that and offering to keep the ordered
plants in cold storage. At the same time we got a note from Pickering´s
yesterday saying exactly the opposite, we must wait until the fall
for the order of 10 roses from them. Coming and going, going and
coming, at the mercy of the weather and the nurseries. Why don't
we just grow chickens, at least if you are not vegetarian you get to
eat them at the end! Just joking of course, I cannot imagine my life
without roses.

It is still cold and very wet here. My rose fever is under control
right now, and the books are waiting for some encouragement about
expanding the range of colors. Still, no yellow or orange here. But
everything else goes... and how! Take care of yourself and your
garden and we shall talk again soon,

Allegra