I'm off to Bangalore India

Hi, I am having a small problem with one of my eyes and my local doctor has advised me to go to India. I'll be in India from 18th July to 25th July. I will try to meet rose breeder Mr. Viru Viraraghavan
in India.

one only hopes everything goes well for you and your health Alee and that also that you will be able to see the beauty that Mr Viru will show you..

Take it easy Alee...

Hope all goes well with your proceedure Alee. Enjoy your meeting with Mr. Viru Viraraghavan.

Best of luck with your eye procedure. Visiting Viru will be one of the highlights. Can you get roses back from India to the Maldives?

Go well Alee.

I hope you have a good trip, Alee.

Good luck with the eyes and the roses

Alee, hope all goes well with your trip. I also hope you get to meet Viru and maybe be allowed to bring some roses or seeds back with you, very best from David and Carole.

Thank you everyone. Bangalore has the biggest rose nursery in India and I am planing to vist there.

Bruce, yes it possible to bring back roses from India provided that it accompany a phytosanitory certificate. I don't no if it woud be possible to get a certificate in such a short notice.

Alee, this Phytosanitory certificate still seems to be a mystery here with our AQUIS. Still want this cleared up so exact treatment is known.

Have a great trip and try to get a catalogue of the roses available from the places you visit.

Go well my friend and look forward to your report.

Bruce, Last week I rang our Quarantine department and spoke to 2 staff. They also didn't have a clue to what the treatment should be. They only mentioned that roots should be washed and should not contain any soil. I could not speak to the deartment head as he was absent that day. Will check on this later.

I already have their catalogue. I got it early this year. I was diappointed that I have spend $$$ importing roses from UK, Canada and Australia. This bangalore nursery has got a very good collection of climbers, miniatures, HT and floribunders. They don't have Teas and OGRs. Their prices were very cheap. The most expensive roses were 100 Indian Ruppies.

They have roses like Ebb Tide, Hot Cocoa, Black Baccara, Bonica, Distant Drums, Sweet Chariot, Golden Century, Veterans Honour, Gold Medal, Ingrid Bergman, Iceberg ... to name a few.

Alee I think next winter when I have all the roses you want budded will send them treated in the same manner as roses to Tassie which is the most severe test done at the treatment works.

These will be 6 months old and should shoot away quickly. I find young 6 to 12 month old plants superior to 2 year olds and consider 3 year olds need putting in the garbage. A lot more can be fitted into a parcel which is an advantage when sending long distances. Due to the large number of plants in nursery catalogues 3 year olds are very common and once growth checked they never seem to develope into vigorous plants. The tube stock plants sold at the Cumberland nursery end up out growing the larger 3 year old potted plants every time.

Most of the plants you list are HT's and as you know they struggle in heat and humidity. The Tea's, China's and Noisettes would be my choice. There are a few HT's that do well but you could count them on both hands.
Will try to pick the best for you next year. Viru should have some roses to suit your climate.

I'd stay well away from Ebb Tide! It took me ages to find one and then when I did it grew so poorly it's nearly died on me.

Hi everyone.

Dr's are investigating for Myasthenia. Sofar they have done 2 tests and I'm negative. Will get the 3rd test results on Friday or Monday. Dr's at this stage suspect that Im having an eye muscle weakness on my right eye and not Myasthenia.

I'm leaving at 9:45 PM on a bus to Kodaikanal which a hilltop station where Girija and Viru lives. I'll arrive there at 7:45 AM tomorrow.

Kind regards
Alee

Good news... I guess I too have eye muscle weakness in my left eye... sometimes it seems like it just can't stay open. Please say hello to Viru and Girija for me too