The Explorer and Buck roses are some of my best roses every spring, and I know why. While we may not have the extreme cold, we do have extreme variations throughout winter. The hybrid teas fall for the brief warmups and bit by bit, with each zap of cold, their stems die back. When spring really does get here for good, the HT's have blackened stems where the zone 3 roses do not. The zone 3 roses are ready to go in April, where the HT's have wasted all their energy and now are struggling to leaf out on their 2" damaged stems. They start out weak and look bad all season. My John Davis is blooming like crazy now. It is not only cold hardy, but heat-hardy also. It really should be on the list for EarthKind evaluation.
In the past, I bought all sorts of plants that challenged the hardiness zone. Now, I play it safe, because I got tired of the marginally hardy plants looking scraggly all year.
