Well the 1st rose in a container along the fence died, so I
gave up on having any roses along that fence.

I don't mind the deer in Fall, but the Spring Deer drive me
to public tantrums! I have only one time to see my Old
Heritage Roses bloom and I damn well don't want them
eaten by deer!!

Finally gave up trying to get the holes dug along the rockiest part of my property.
Despite how ugly it looks , I will be locating 20 gallon containers along the perimeter.
The roses do fine in them and set good roots, but the @!!#$ is how quickly they dry out.
I also hate the fact that these are black...it just increases the heat on the plant. I have
piled coarse mulch around the base to mitigate these effects. I have a HUGE Lafter that
is grown in this manner and as long as it gets regular water, it is fine. I am dreading this
summer because we haven't had any rain this spring (in my part of Austin).

Well, I don't let the deer or the Crown Gall get to me anymore. If the roses die, they die. I will just get more!
However, its very sad to see the Rose nurseries close, especially the Heritage rose suppliers.

Still fighting the CG...pulling plants that have it and replacing, but without treatment it's still in the soil and can infect the rest. I spoke with the Galltrol folks last week to see if they would sell to non-business people; still haven't heard back. It's getting easy to see which plants have it because after the spring fertilization, the affected ones don't respond with any flowers. I always did like the different foilage types among roses...I'm
pretty much down to that with alot of my older plants...big sad sigh.

P.S. Well, the drought does cause the galls to die from lack of moisture, at least the part above ground.
The roses that have it seem to fall into two categories: don't seem to mind it and continue flowering as usual
or no longer make flowers and just hang on to life with leaves only and no further growth.