You know. Now that you mention another fabulous red rose, I am thinking I
have a big decision to make re what to replace Mr. Lincoln with. The bed
is all red and white. It goes: Scentimental, Full Sail, Mr. L., Don Juan,
and Sombrueil. I don't want another reach-for-the-sky hybrid tea, though
one a bit less upright than Mr. L. will do. Could be Papa M, maybe
Chrysler Imperial, or perhaps Ingrid. I have also thought about Oklahoma,
which is one we do not see mentioned too often. However, the site is in
full sun all day, so O's black-red petal edges will probably burn. Tellme,
do you grow Don Juan?

Have you thought about Kentucky Derby? I'm experimenting with a
couple of those this year, and they seem to be doing very well in full
sun thus far, plus they're bushing out nicely. Not fragrant like the
Chrysler Imperial family (Papa M, Oklahoma, Mr. L) but gorgeous buds
(one bush I bought from a nursery in Florida has several large buds
that are starting to open) with classic to deep red large blooms on a
theoretically non-diva plant.

Also - I'm the one toying with the cheap bagged Christian Diors trying
to match a super-fragrant Dior of unknown origin. I love my fragrant
one and can't rave enough about it, but I'd advise anyone else to
wait until I find it's match before buying any Diors. The main thing
I've learned in my search is that there are HUGE differences between
one Dior and the next. And if I weren't absolutely hell-bent on
finding more like the first, I wouldn't have bought half of them. One
of the cheap bagged brands seems promising, but I won't know until
summer if I've found the winner. If not, they're just more cheap
bagged roses.


Mill's Magic Mix. Honestly, I have never seen anything like it for
producing basals. Put it down, see basals inside of two weeks.


I gotta give this stuff a shot - several of my roses lost canes over
the winter, including a few that are down to one good cane each. I
drove to Hastings (biggest nursery in the Atlanta area) but they were
out of stock and had just ordered more.

So I bought a bag of RoseTone to hold me over for about two weeks
until I can go back and get some Mills. It looked like a reasonably
close match, at least to start out with. Smells nasty too - the
divas will love it.