I don't let little things like zones bother me. And I'm perfectly happy to treat roses as annuals, if necessary. I pick 'em up on sale for no more than I've paid for some large annuals.

Roses as annuals but you cannot get nice fat blooms until they are a couple of years old. Zone 5a that's a challenge. woofie can you get or make small transparent fiberglass cloches? Prune your roses and fill these fiberglass glorified bowls with nice warm straw and invert them over your roses and insert the edges of bowls into the soil all around. Try as an experiment on one, I think this decomposing straw should keep the core and the roots warm over winter.

See those bundles of straw standing? That is a padding four inches thick straw tied around the core of pruned plants. As you have more cold you have to modify the idea a bit. Put plastic film over the bundles or something.
Regards,
Arif.

Are those roses in the straw towers Arif?
It doesn't get to cold for the palms?

Tried the bit with the straw last winter. Didn't work for me.

Woofie's probably buying grafted bare-root plants, which have already been growing in the fields for two or three years before being dug up and sold. They will produce "nice fat blooms" the first year.

woofie said:The new USDA hardiness zone map is trying to convince me that we're no longer 5a, but 5b or 6. I think they're lying. Probably in cahoots with the rose sellers!



Toni said: Oh, do what I do.. ignore zones. LOLLL

Lynn said: Some times wonderful surprises come form ignoring growing zones.

woofie said: I don't let little things like zones bother me.

I think that plants deliberately and consciously play with our heads.

Why else would seemingly easy plants refuse to grow for us until we give up and toss them on the compost heap?

Or sometimes we try to grow something we know we can't ... and it thrives.

They be messin' with us!

RickCorey said:I think that plants deliberately and consciously play with our heads.

Why else would seemingly easy plants refuse to grow for us until we give up and toss them on the compost heap?

Or sometimes we try to grow something we know we can't ... and it thrives.

They be messin' with us!

Truth here. 100% truth. Something that is supposed to be almost impossible to kill, Bishop's Weed, I can kill w/o even trying. I've even killed Snow in Summer, which is supposed to be moron proof. However, I have over 300 roses rated zone 6-7 that have survived for me for a few years now.. and I'm zone 5.

Mardi Gras. Planted in '08. Rated for zone 6 http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

Pretty roses, Toni!

It looks very happy Toni.

Lynn first year or two Palms get effected after that they are frost proof. Yes, Roses and other tender/tropical fruit trees are protected for the first year or two then they are on their own. You can take the idea and amend it according to local conditions. I think Rick is correct about the garbage heap, plants that I considered dead and threw away thrived on garbage. Plants love attention but they hate mollycoddling. Just like petulant children.
http://www.thefreedictionary.c...
Regards,
Arif.

With Roses their is another problem. Brier, on which these Roses are grafted hates standing in water and thrives under succulent conditions. I amend my soil well with river sand then put it in the pit at least more then a foot deep. Even though I live in an area where the summer temps average 45c, I still water them once every fifteen days. As soon as the soil is dry enough to do so it is dug up to a depth of three inches and over turned. One, to hasten the drying process and two, Brier roots love oxygen and hate anaerobic conditions. Put in a fist full of leaf mulch and break up with fingers. Please do counter check with rose experts or look up Brier.
Regards,
Arif.