70 miles away is far. If it must be pots, your plants can be OK in pots. Most gardeners have a more or less permanent pot ghetto in any case! I would keep the pots in part shade whenever that is possible. If they have to be in full sun for awhile, do check them every morning - as you head off for work, for example, or when you get home, if you usually get home before dark. Plant in a mix of potting soil and bagged topsoil. This would be my personal preference for water conservation, even though potted plants generally don't want heavy topsoil. I think any pots that give your plants some room to grow without being the size of Kansas should be fine. Trays or water-catcher things under the pots may help save you some watering work. In zone 5, if you can't get everything into a permanent planting spot by October, use the holding bed idea but just drop the plants (in their pots), into the soil. Plants in pots are vulnerable to freezing. Some people are able to overwinter stuff in pots in an unheated garage but from back when I lived in z5 I know for a fact that, when it was -12 outside, it was -12 in my garage. That's too cold for most potted plants, even if they're hardy in the ground.

I have an instant pot ghetto now. It was like Christmas morning opening the boxes, the fragrance was outstanding. Marchesa Boccella, Golden Celebration, Rose de Rescht, and Quietness Mme. Plantier, La France, Mme. Caroline Testout, and Radiance I'm already in love with Radiance and La France: Eric

I can only comment on three of them. Portrait made a good garden display rose. It was the first rose to win the AARS award that went to an amateur hybridizer. It is a good pink blend variety. Prairie Star, along with Quietness, is a Griffith Buck rose. It is an ivory with just an occasional tinge of pink. It is a nice one also. Trumpeter is a vibrant red with an orange cast to it. It is more red than some of the other orange-red floribundas. Mine is in a bad spot, but the variety is quite showy when in flower. I hope this helps a bit.

I let mine sprawl! I wanted a weepy, sprawly plant where I have her. She kind of tumbles onto one corner of the bistro patio, which I love :D She gets some BS here in the spring, but I don't even spray her because that's over with quickly. She's in a very dry (crispy-dry!) part of my garden, so all I have to worry about is lots of water for her. I have lavender and rosemary planted by her, if that tells you anything.