Just wanted to give a fellow "Mississippi Girl" a "shout out"! If you are like me, you don't know what to chop out or what just might come back in the garden after all the freezes and snow flurries we have had! My tropicals have been smacked around pretty good.

Fran, my aunt is one of my friends on here and she says if you are on here in the dead of summer then you should be outside weeding!

Your garden looks lovely!

Fran, you are a hoot!

Har! Fran, you are funny!

Yellow leaves are over-watering, but I wouldn't tear the leaves off. They'll fall off on their own. Has it been rainy in Mississippi this Spring? It sure has here in Indiana. Unreal amounts of rain, which means unreal amounts of weeds!

I would just keep feeding with that great, cheap stuff from WalMart and make sure where you have them is well drained. Does water pool there? If so, dig em up and move them to higher ground. Oh, also, they love epsom salts (about 3 bucks a bag at WalMart, usually around the first aid aisle, not always easy to find...sprinkle a half cup or two around their roots a couple of times a season and water. Their favorite food!). Other than that, just keep em watered deeply about once a week and watch out for the beetles!

Jane

No problemo Fran, you'll find the new roses are easier than ever. I do have something odd going on with my tree roses, so watch out for white stuff on the leaves, holes in them. I might call my extension to see what I have and how to treat.

WalMart has fantastic, happy, un-bare root roses right now for 9 bucks. I bought three. Go stop by, they are so healthy, but they sell out quick!

Jane

Fran, I think there are a couple of things you should try. Make sure the roses you buy are bare root, not the ones that come wrapped up with the peat moss/compost. Bare root roses will have been dug up not so long ago, so they seem to do better. When you plant, dig a pretty big hole so the roots can spread out. Put a cup of epsom salts in the hole. Roses love that stuff!

Then put a mound of dirt in the middle of the hole to support the middle part of the rose. I always plant with a lot of peat moss and compost, to give them a good start.

After that, just feed and keep watered. Roses love a good soaking a few times a week instead of being watered every day. You want to get the water to their roots, not their leaves. I use a soaker hose on mine. And WalMart sells this really inexpensive rose food in a blue box. Roses just love it! It's about 3 bucks for a box which will do a lot of roses. I feed all the time with that.

Winter them over by protecting the root stock. I use mulch. Tons of mulch. Then prune back in the Spring, rule of thumb is prune back all that is dead, even if it seems like you won't have anything there. And make sure they are in a sunny spot with lots of air circulation.

After that, you should be good to go. Look at Jackson and Perkins website (google them). They have lots of good info and sell mostly bare root.

Keep me posted!

Thank You Fran. Yes, I think I shall plant some green peppers and bananna pepper plants also. I'm definately going to stick with the tomatoes and cucumbers.