Andi - I agree w/Lagerfeld. Not as fussy for a mauve as, say, Sterling Silver, but definitely (and this is sad to say) hardier than Stainless Steel. I'll be surprised if ANY of my Stainless Steels make it through this winter. I have 3 Lagerfelds & only 1 is really happy.. the other two I should just shovelprune. Most of my Sterling Silvers did ok, but of the 4 Stainless Steels only 1 looked happy going into winter. I really need to buy them from like Palatine rather than getting the Dr. Huey grafts.. Dr. Huey always seems to come through on those. Wonder why.
I hope that my Honey Sweets (got 2 from RU in 2011) make it through the winter. They're buried up to their eyeballs in mulch. I've had freezing temps since Halloween & Dec had some MAJOR cold days (highs in the single digits). This month hasn't been too bad.. mostly "normals" (40s / 20s) but last Thursday it was almost 70 degs! WTH!! Poor Canadian geese (which I hate, btw) are so confused.. you see massive flocks going north, then going south.. they can't seem to figure out which way to go!
And no, you're not the only one who takes back dead sticks w/receipts. ;) There's one older lady at the HD in my town that sighs expansively whenever she sees me.. she knows that I'm bringing her dead things. She's gotten uberfussy, I have to bring back the original POTS too, not just the receipts 'cuz she has to know what these dead things are. Well, dead roses look like dead roses!! 2011 wasn't too bad, only took back less than 20 roses from winterkill (poor planting or just a weak rose). So I've got store credit waiting patiently for me to blow on non-dead things for me to kill!!
And I have to wait another month to find out what Paulino's Gardens (huge garden center) has on their list of roses this year.. they won't release a list of roses until February. Planning on going crazy there this May. :D
