Viewing comments posted by christinereid54

This is the rose for people who are afraid they can't grow roses! It's vigorous to a fault. I planted mine about 6 years ago and it has thrived. It has virtually no thorns and, after a year or so, has been a spring and fall bloomer. What's interesting is that the spring blooms last a really long time (several months) here in Central Texas. Peggy Martin rose bushes don't have a fragrance but they make up for that by producing a profuse amount of small pink blooms. I do have to do some serious pruning in late winter--this rose will produce long canes and it can take over nearby plants, if you let it. Being thornless, or nearly so, it's not difficult to trim. It isn't bothered much by fungal diseases; if it gets a few ugly leaves from too much warm weather and drizzly rain, they drop off quickly. My rose gets a balanced organic fertilizer in mid February.

The Summer Snowflake has been most gratifying in my Central Texas garden. I never water it and just give it some balanced organic fertilizer in December. It starts pushing up green stalks in mid January and now, mid February, it's pushing out dainty blooms. After five years on the sunny hillside, it's slowly spreading out. I won't do anything to the plants after they bloom and they will then disappear until next winter. No pests seem to bother it and it provides some nice interest at a time of year when things are somewhat bleak. The blooms will probably be around until sometime in March.

I planted Erlicheer in my garden about five years ago and it's done very well. I have it on a sunny slope, which helps the drainage situation in our clay soil. When it's finished blooming (starts flowering in early to mid February here in Central Texas) I leave it alone and by summer, the plant's leaves have melted away, only to reliably return the following year. I don't do any supplemental watering and just give it some fish emulsion in December. An easy care, lovely, fragrant narcissus.