I think it's great all the extra attention the previous posters give their new roses, but if you want to simplify, your roses won't object and should still grow fine. You will find that there are many different and successful ways to grow roses. The Simple Approach: Dig that big hole everyone mentioned. Unless you have wonderful soil, it might be advisable to mix some compost or manure or peat moss in the loose soil. If you have some bone meal handy, you might toss a bit in the hole, but don't worry unduly about it. Plant the rose, and water DEEPLY--lots of water. I plant the graft a couple inches below the soil line--to protect it from winter freezing. Don't drown the rose for the next week or two, but water it regularly and keep an eye on it, in case something goes wrong. (Probably nothing will.) After the rose has some good strong growth and buds, get an organic rosefood--like RoseTone--and spread it around the base of the plant. And water it in. If you are inclined to use alfalfa cubes/meal/tea, spread it around the base also and water in. Nice stuff, but not absolutely essential. Enjoy your roses. After they are done with their spring blooming cycle, repeat the RoseTone (and alfalfa cubes, if you are so inclined). Make sure the roses get about 1 inch of water each week if it doesn't rain. You might want to add several inches of mulch around your roses to help retain the moisture in the ground (and keep down the weeds). Once you get used to that basic pattern and become more informed about other possibilities, you can begin experimenting with other ways of growing your roses, depending on how much you want to fuss over them. By the way, many of us would urge you NOT to use the systemic food you bought--that usually means it has things like insecticides mixed in it. Many of us avoid the use of insecticides because they can kill bees and other good insects. The most important rule about growing roses is ENJOY--and come here to this forum with any questions you may have. We just love to talk roses!!!! Kate

I can't help but see this not as a GW problem, but a problem with whoever designs your hardware's software. I use Firefox with the free Adblock Plus and Adblock Plus Pop-Up add-ons. I have no pop-ups whatsoever on GW: not even if I hover the mouse over the green words. (And no pop-ups anywhere else, either.) Of course, I'm not using an iPad or a smart phone, but a desktop and a laptop. Windows 7 on both (even the brand-new laptop). Not up-to-the-minute; not trendy; doesn't fit in my pocket; not Apple. But no pop-ups!

That's getting a bit low for any real nitrogen uptake. It would do no harm to apply a "wineterizer" type fertilizer. Uncoated, fast release, a high percentage of WSN-water soluable nitrogen, but likely not much benefit. You have been given good advice on lime. You want calcitic lime not dolomitic. If you get pulverized or crushed, you want the highest mesh number you can get and as close to 100 calcium carbonate equivalent as you can find. If pulverized, you will want to use a drop spreader rather than a broadcast spreader. Some unsolicited advice: You do want to get the pH up into the 6s, but 5.9 isn't a major problem by any means. Your potassium on the otherhand is quite low. I'd give potassium priority this fall. It plays a major roll in root health and growth and putting it down now will give it time to move down into the soil and for the salts to wash out before next spring. Potassium and lime should not be applied at the same time. There should be 3-4 weeks between adding them if you decide to do both. You want to find 0-0-50- potassium sulfate SOP. Avoid muriate of potash 0-0-60.

In zone 5, your best overwintering is in the ground. If you don't absolutely have to overwinter in pots, don't. In zone 9, the ground doesn't get cold enough for hosta to get an adequate winter chill/sleep if overwintered in the ground, and so overwintering in pots above the ground gives them a bit more winter cold than they otherwise would. (If I'm not mistaken, it's about 2 zone differences in temperature for plants left in pots vs in ground, meaning that potted hosta in zone 9 should feel like they're in no more than zone 7 for the winter.) I think it's safe to say that Spring outdoors starts sooner in zone 9 than it does in zone 5, and therefore zone 9 hostas might not get long enough of a winter rest if they are watered as soon as the zone 9 Spring rains start. Similarly, in zone 9 you may want to protect your hostas from too much water outdoors during the winter too, either by covering them with a tarp or keeping them in a shed, otherwise these hosta would stay awake or keep waking up throughout the winter (if simply left in the pots in their usual outdoor spots, that is). On the contrary, pots left outdoors during the winter in zone 5 can be left in their normal spots because they will be frozen for the winter. Trouble arises when the temps drop throughout the winter and thaw the top of the pot but not the whole pot, which is when the crown ends up "soaking" in water since the water cannot flow all the way through and out of the pot, and this is why people suggest laying the pots on their side. Anyhow, just wanted to remind everyone that some of the advice given here is very much zone-dependent, so it might be helpful to keep in mind the poster's location at all times. Hosta can handle awfully low temps during winter, but not warm, especially if they have access to water during that time too.