All roses are relatively new, from 3 years to 1 year. And here we go. Below is Bolero.

Kate

Problems: The Fourth of July and The Lady of Shallot exhibit iron deficiency. The Fourth of July is the most problematic one, as you can see from the figure. I applied MiracleGrow Rose Food to both roses. Both roses improved quite a bit, but still show symptom. Yet despite this, both roses produced lots of buds and seem to flower well. All other rose leaves are green and seem healthy.

Also, I observed one or two yellow leaves on Sunshine Daydream and the Fourth of July. All yellow leaves only appear at the bottom of the rose bushes.

Nice looking pics of your blooms shoto...
Great idea a personal journal thread for your roses... :)

Hopefully you have a great year with them!

I only started gardening three year ago, when I purchased my first home. So all are relatively new to me. I have learned lots from you guys. If you see anything I did wrong, please comment :)

All roses are own root. All from Roses Unlimited, except the double knockout. My garden is strictly non-spray.

Like I said, I have had these roses for a while. I recalled that some of the roses were problematic last year. So this year I try to document their progress in a more "permanent" fashion. If they don't perform well, they will be replaced by the end of this year.

The roses that were somewhat problematic last year: Sunshine Daydream and Julia Child. The roses that performed OK: Bolero, Fourth of July, and Dick Clark. The roses without any diseases: Double Knockout and Roxy. The Lady of Shalott was new last year, and it produced lots of healthy canes, with perhaps two flowers. But it stays completely healthy last year, and I don't recall any diseases on it.

This spring, I moved Bolero from a half day sun spot to a full day sun spot. Also, I moved Dick Clark from the front yard to the back yard, to avoid deer-based involuntary pruning.

Last winter has been brutal, but all roses on this list survived without any cane damages. I was honestly amazed. The Fourth of July has relatively long canes (4-6 feet, its second year in ground), and it is almost cane-hardy to the tip without any protection.

I also have a list of sickly roses that I will replace. They are Scentimental, Easy Does It, Sceptered Isle, and Betty Boop. I really liked all of their blooms. But since I don't spray, they will likely be gone by the end of this year. Sceptered Isle, unfortunately, was sickly last year and was killed by the winter. I won't replace it.

The Brother Grimm's Fairytale rose was really healthy. But it grew way bigger than its supposed size on help me find, and fancied itself a climber. It threw 6 foot long canes that remained hardy to the tip, despite the brutal winter. So I have to move it. Unfortunately, its root was damaged by the move, and it is recovering nicely. But I clearly remembered that the Brother Grimm's Fairytale rose was completely healthy last year, so it is exempt from this test :)

One thing I have to say, though, is that the Lady threw out lots of canes that are closely packed together, and it is hard to decide which cane to prune and which cane to keep. Sunshine daydream and Julia Child tend to have tidier bush form. The Lady, however, would look lovely in a cottage style border.

It remains small, about 2 feet tall. If it stays healthy this year, I may move it to a better location next year.

Kate

Problems: I think Sunshine Daydream may be getting Blackspot. The picture shows a few yellowed leaves with spots. So far, they only appear on the lower portion of the rose bush, and are really close to the ground. I have also seen some yellow leaves on Fourth of July, Julia Child, and Roxy. But that may simply be natural aging of the leaves, some they only appear on the lowest portion of the rose bush, and well hidden by the leaves above.

But so far, Bolero, Dick Clark, and Knockout stay completely clean. But they don't have much leaves on the bottom to speak of, because of pruning and transplanting.

I don't see any yellow leaves on the Lady of Shalott.

In the past few days, temperature has been from 50's to 80's, with humidity in the range of 50% to almost 90%.

But 'Lady of Shalott' absolutely knocks me out. Incredible beauty that I finally saw in person this year.