That's very impressive, Jack. Looks really nice.

Hay

Good job!!...I would have thought that Roses would be too competative with hydrangeas (both wanting to steal the show) but it looks just great!...yg

Hay and Yellowgirl, Glad you liked it. I protected that ES just to see what would happen since I also protected 2 Nikkos the same way. My original guess was that the ES would produce more flowers since in theory I could get flowers on both the old and new wood and possibly it would be near to ever-blooming in the summer up here. Seeing some of the small new flower buds now leads me to think I very well may have flowers on this one through August or later. The first flowers bloomed about 4 weeks ago. So this could be an all-summer-bloomer...maybe.

With ES I think one could do selective pruning of the growth to get good results. Sort of a staggered, but continous flowering throughout the summer. The old growth producing the early flowers and the new growth producing the later flowers.

Yeah Yellowgirl I do love Tea Roses, I find them to be the near perfect flower. However, there is an old Vermont saying: " In Vermont Tea Roses make a wonderful annual."

Cheerio, Jack

Below is a link to a photo of the ES a week after I first removed the flatbox and leaves about May 23:

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z49/jk4000z/000_0019.jpg

Jack, copy HTML Tag from the Photobucket and you'll have picture posted directly into body of the post

Thank you ego45, I was thinking there must be an easier way. But I copied the HTML Tag and it did not work...did I miss something? Cheerio, JK

JK, that is a very nice ES you have! Beautiful!

Now, how old is it? Also, what is that rose next to it? Is that a partial shade area, or full sun? I am curious because roses typically love full sun and so do you have the ES in an full-sun area? Or is this a rose that tolerates partial shade? The only one that I know of is the Knockout Rose, so please share this info! Thanks.

BTW, play around with the different options that Photobucket gives you, and then preview it here and you will eventually find the one that works for posting photos.

I'll try this again,

Ok. Now I got it, Thanks, ego45

Ostrich, I bought this one May '06 and planted it a week later. It was at HD in a 2 gallon pot. They get full sun from 9-5 but I took the pic around 6PM when it is in shade. I can't remember the name of the rose, they come and go, but I think its a Brownel Sub-Zero. I find roses and hydrangea to be good companions...they both sure do like water and ES seems to like the sun too, at least up here.

Yeah, Photobucket and Hydrangeas are both new for me, got alot to learn, Do svadanya, JK

Jack, to make size of the picture more in-line with this website page format, before downloading pictures click on OPTIONS for tha max picture size and choose from message board (640x480) or smaller.
For the pictures of the larger sizes that you already downloaded there use formula HEIGHT="XXX" WIDTH="XXX" (X is a number) and incert it between img and src in a copied HTML Tag

Thanks again ego45.

Forgive me, but the whole point of ES is that you shouldn't need to protect them at all in winter. At all. You should be able to cut them to the ground in December and have a beautiful bush next year.

That's the way it's been working for me. I bought them because they're no fuss hydrangeas.

That is a nice ES! my hydrangeas hadn't even put out green growth yet in the end of May, so the protection certainly seeemed to work.

Yes bogie, I have 9 other ES which received no protection and they are doing very well for young plants. At this moment they have anywhere from 8-15 flowers of different sizes and they look really good. However the protected one has over 3 dozen flowers and certainly eclipses the "normal ES" plants in flowering at this moment in time. I'll see how it plays out over the summer.

Isimms, I strive for no fuss too; although at times I am prone to error.

Cheerio, JK

One week uncovered same ES in late May