There are two kinds of grass. One spreads out like a carpet (sod forming) while the other kind forms individual plants (bunch grass) which slowly enlarge themselves. Fescue and rye grasses are bunch grasses. Kentucky bluegrass, zoysia, bermuda, St Augustine, and centipede are sod forming grasses. There are other grasses but these are the normal turf grasses. If your grass has not filled in since killing out the weeds, then you do not have any sod forming grasses. It is likely you have mostly fescue. Fescue makes a great lawn, and some of the varieties flourish in shady areas. The only drawback is you have to reseed every fall if you lose some grass in the spring or summer. This would be a good time to learn how to do that. In NH, now is the time to start. Here are the general steps. 1. Kill the weeds and rake them out. 2. Mow the grass low 3. Scatter seed 4. Water 3x per day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) for only 10 minutes. Continue that watering for 3 weeks and until you have about 80% of the new seed sprouted. 5. Mow when the grass is 5 inches high. Mow it back to 4 inches until the new grass is established. Then pick your favorite height from 3 inches to 4 inches. There's a little more to it, but not much.

I think I get what you're saying. A rose can live with RRD for a while. I know some rose exhibitors who have roses with really big crowns and who have kept roses going for as long as five years with RRD in the bush, but they were still getting a few good canes each year. For them and probably for you, the mite population was low so spread within a rose only happened when phloem moved within the bud union to other roots and then up to the canes that they supported. I've seen a puny plant of Nearly Wild survive with RRD for five years. Until the fifth year, it managed to keep a cane that looked normal. But the rest of the plant declined into RRD ungliness. When you say that a Tamora cane curved in a circle, that happened because one side of the cane was growing faster than the other. (Alfalfa tea would have affected all the roots pretty much equally.) The hyperthorny part that you see is soft because it has grown so fast; it will harden up with time. But THAT cane will be sick. I also have a friend locally whose husband took a chain saw to the base of a climber because only the south half showed RRD: the north side survived, but they took the south side off, at first and the uglies only came up from the isolated southern root side. You are in Wiscosin and aren't getting the many months of growth that some of us get. It may take longer for RRD to start affecting your roses in spring. You growing season may also give the vector mites a shorter season to mature so your conditions may mimic southern Iowa where the mite populations only spread in huge numbers in fall. (I think in my part of the world there's a short spread in spring, as well.) Right now, I think you've got plants that aren't totally full of RRD. I think that's why you're seeing some good canes and a few bad ones. I've never let the disease go past the first cane in my garden, well, not intentionally, sometimes it has spread really fast into a second cane while I'm still trying to be in denial. Hope this helps.

Not living in a cold, humid climate like Chicago, I cannot advise you specifically, but I can tell you the winter/summer thing is way over-rated. Many plants will behave opportunistically and grow happily year round if they have a good growing condition (not too hot or cold) and you don't overdo the watering thing. If asked whether most of my plants are winter or summer growers, I would answer both to 90% of them. There are exceptions that I 'accidentally' 'weed out' as I kill them off by treating them like everything else and gradually my collection becomes all winter-summer-makes-no-difference. For example, Sansevierias, often grown indoors, seem to grow indoors happily year round oblivious of time of year. But even outdoors here in So Cal I have not noticed them growing more one time of year versus another, though flowering definitely seems to occur less in winter that summer... but does that mean they are growing better in winter than summer? Not necessarily. Many of my plants flower best when they have lost their leaves and are obviously in a 'slow down' period as far as actually growing bigger goes. Like aloes... my aloes grow way faster and are more active in summers (few exceptions) but most flower in winter. I notice aloes are considered winter growers... that is a useless description for me as they are obviously summer growers and winter growers, though grow slower in winter... they just happen to look great then. Aeoniums definitely are winter plants, though and look unhappy in summer... they still grow in summer, though. And some plants die if you water them in summer (I don't have many of those left, though), and some die in winter if you water them (I have none of those left as all my plants are outdoors and it rains like mad here all winter). But most plants deal with water year round for me and if I don't drown them with it, seem to appreciate it year round. Your Jade for example is a good plant for dumping water on year round.. it likes it no matter what the season and no matter what the temperature. To me, that is a 365 day grower.

Wow! Those are two vigorous clems. You're going to have a riot of color!