There are many hardy roses which may not have the big high centered flowers of the hybrid teas but are pretty in their own right and fragrant as a bonus. Any hybrid rugosa is good and is hardy to the tips, very fragrant also. Canadian Explorers of which there are several climbers were specially hybridized to withstand temperatures to minus 40 in some cases. The Canadian Parkland series, many of which begin with Morden, as in Morden Sunrise, Morden Ruby, and Morden Fireglow, bloom very much like floribundas and Griffith Buck roses are often referred to as hybrid tea wannabees. While the latter will die back somewhat, they come back quickly. I also grow over 20 climbers that are hardy also. Roses by Bailey nurseries from your area are also hardy. Hardy can mean crown hardy not necessarily cane hardy. In your zone, burying the bud union 4-6 inches deep will help protect the bush except on really tender hybrid teas. I'd get own root roses as they have no bud union to worry about. You'll not find own roots at Pickering and Palatine. Roses Unlimited, Vintage Roses, among others are fine own root nurseries but you should purchase now or wait until spring. If planted too late in the season, own root roses grown in warm climates and shipped to cold growing area, won't have time to get established and acclimated this year. While I don't get as cold as you, I grow 400 hardy varieties in my zone 5a and do little more than allow nature to blow leaves in around the bases of my roses. Snow cover before a severe drop in temps will also act as insulation. You should have snow cover most of the winter. E-mail me for a list of roses I grow that are hardy for me and would most likely survive your cold winters. All mine are own root.

Hi Cathy, Welcome to RMG! Is your move imminent, or is it several months off yet? Bpgreen already gave you a lot of good advice, so I won't repeat all that stuff, but I would like to second the motion to NOT add sand to heavy clay soil--at least not unless your intent is to become a major producer of clay bricks! LOL Clay and sand tend to produce a concoction that dries every bit as hard as concrete! But you've probably already been dealing with soil pretty similar in a lot of ways to what you'll find around here, so whether you wind up with sandy soil or clay, I recommend that you do plan to start adding a LOT of organic matter to any areas you'll be planting as soon as you can. That should help the most in allowing the soil to hold moisture and nutrients. And, if you do wind up with clay, be sure you don't try to work in it when it's very wet. That'll just compact it and make it even worse than it was before you started---if that's possible with clay!!! But, a lot of us out here have clay---and we ALL have gardens, so never fear---it is definitely possible. You may already have been using a lot of xeric plants, but if you haven't, and you decide to go that way, we can give you a lot of recommendations for xeric and native plants too. There are a few other Wyoming members who post here, so I'm sure you'll get some good advice from them---and you'll find we ALL have something to say about just about everything! If you're interested in a LONG (long winded?) dissertation on the Rocky Mountain Region in general, check out the "The Grand View - RMG" post on the bottom of this page---or maybe the top of the next page by the time you read this! A bunch of us were "passing time" back in November! Once again, welcome, and we're glad you found us, Skybird

Let me just say that water will be the biggest issue on the Colo Front Range, and I have given presentations stating my belief that this area will begin to depopulate within 50 years. Southern Denver area cities are spending $Bns to deliver water to just a few tens of thousands of future homes. Other areas in the Intermountain West may depopulate as well, esp. if we start mining oil shale. Colo water rights are different than Wyo., and these two are much harder to interpret than UT and MT. Next will be man-made climate change impacts, and we see the beetle kill and droughts here already. You'll want to research what these impacts will be in your settlement area of choice, as this should drive your choice - fire will be an issue in droughts (more than normal fire regimes) and should drive your choice of house construction - straw bale, durisol are more fire resistant than stick-built and you'll have to learn fire-wise landscaping. Our forests are changing in front of our eyes and if you want trees to look at on your property, you'll want to research what they are and whether they will be there in 10 years. This old weatherman will tell you that if you want extensive veggie gardens, you'll want to spend some time in that spot, as desiccating winds and little moisture make subtropical nematodes look like child's play. And elevation gives you more sun in the winter, and that means cool seasons all winter long under insulated glass. But you'll get all the sunlight you want. Not the water or humidity or temps, but you'll get sunlight. Purchase a Sunset Western Garden Book and learn to understand the climate zones therein. They will tell you whether you can grow stone fruits or pome fruits. Then subscribe to the catalogue High Country Gardens to understand what plants will flourish here and in what kind of soil. And then budget some money to purchase fencing to keep the critters out of the beds you make, which will likely be raised for drainage and aspect. A few years ago, an old GF and I looked for land for homesteading and found that the tradeoffs in Eastern WA and ID were good enough to do so, but the rapidly increasing land prices there made that impossible at the time. If you want to homestead and such, you'll want to come out here. But you'll want to be sure you understand the near-term and medium-term changes coming to this area and whether you have the resources and means to deal with them. Dan

Although it makes things a bit gloomy, the rain has been great this year. I've only had to spot water a couple of times to keep the soil moist for germinating seeds. The cooler temps have been a help as well. I'm sure it's slowed some of the warm season veggies up a bit but they'll come on strong as soon as things warm up again. Last night things got pretty cold here, I believe it got down to 35 deg. F. last night brrrrrr. My peas have really gone through a growth spurt in the last week or so. The peas which were planted on 4/16 are over a foot tall and going strong. I should be seeing blossoms any day now. The broccoli and cabbage look great, the beets and mixed greens are looking lush and wonderful. In fact I need to thin out the beets, so I'll be having steamed beet greens with dinner tonight. As for the warm season stuff... the summer squash are a couple of inches tall now, the bush and pole beans are a few inches tall as well. The cucumbers are slowly peaking their heads above ground, as are the cantaloupe and wateremlons. The tomatoes and peppers have a couple of blossoms and look healthy, but haven't put on much growth. The winter squash haven't germinated yet. Aside from the vegetable garden loving all this moisture, I've noticed that the other plants in the yard look like they're on steroids this year. I can't believe how big and lush everything is.