Here's an interesting tidbit about bands. A few years ago, I ordered a bunch of bands and they arrived in early February. I live in east Texas and although we get cold weather here, spring starts tuning up this month. I had to keep them in the little tiny pots they were in as I had no time to pot them at that time - but pulled the plastic sleeves up around the plant. Lo and behold.....that provided a microclimate for the little bands and I noticed they started to take off in spite of me not having time to plant them. By the time I was able to get them in gallon pots, they were really taking off. Now.....I have these shelves that I place the pots on and put plastic over them at night. It provides warmth and I think the roses do better. I have lots of new growth on my bands coming on now. I do get them into gallon pots in loose soil ammended with perlite when I get them but try to keep them covered from the cold. I do have a greenhouse, but I feel its too warm for them there......I have found they do better outside, but protected at night. Judith

Even though Queen E is rated as zone 6b, the one I planted last Summer (close to the house on the East side) did survive the Winter with just some cane damage above the snow line. She is a little slower at putting out new leaves & canes than some of my others, but still alive. I am also quite new at rose growing, and tend to spend as little as possible on things that I am not sure will survive here. My interest is mostly in climbing roses, or trying to train ones that are normally shorter than 6 feet into stretching out a bit. Ran out of room in the choicest gardening areas of my property, so decided a few years ago to go vertical. Have a passion for clematis, and am trying to come close to some of the beautiful pictures I've seen of roses & clems growing together. Marie

Thanks michaelg. Hmm. We did not get that low a low though we did have some frost warnings for tender plants on several overnights, I thought. Some of the bare roots were certainly healthier than others, though a couple that I thought had what appeared to be more cane damage than others seem to be doing better now. The tips do have/had a browning, like the last most tip of leaf growth died. I can't say the growth looked wilted though. I thought I was watering sufficiently and our rainfall was pretty good. Maybe it was insect damage. I think I will try and take some pictures and post here later on. I will leave them as is and not trim back any of the leaves. Hopefully they are working on deep roots.

I am soooo confused. Exactly what is a sport? A sport is a spontaneous genetic mutation that has some quality distinctively different from the original. For example, someone in Chicago spotted a flower on their 'Peace' rose that was dramatically different in color than the original--that person rooted that bit of the plant, named the variant 'Chicago Peace' and it is in commerce today. Another mutation besides flower color would be growth habit--an example of a climbing sport would be 'Climbing Peace', which has the same flowers as the original 'Peace', but which has longer, "climbing" canes.