along with an LSU purple and an LSU gold fig. If you want cuttings of my "New Dawn", "Gloire de Dijon", "Ballerina", or my various minis (or other stuff; some suitable for bonsai use) email me. You have to come n' get it, though (or else tempt me with a swap).

They might go dormant or just slow down. I have a bunch of roses in pots that I am planning to plant this year. Like you they are a combination of some I've bought and some that I had to dig up while there was construction was going on in my yard. When the temps dipped into the teens, I would bring them in the garage/basement. After the third time, I said, screw it, they are staying in there. So they were in there for a few weeks. Some of them started to put out growth, but it was pale yellowish green. But as soon as they went out into the sun, boom, they took off. Now I did have some sunlight coming in through windows, but not a lot. You could maybe put a plant light on a timer. But I would think this time of year keeping them outside would be preferable. But I think they would be ok in the garage. You will have to water them at least once a week.

Rachel, I have over 100 roses in pots. The grafted roses get much bigger faster than the own root. Right now it is 80 degrees mid afternoon and I have to water every other day. All of my "big" roses as opposed to miniatures are in pots 20x22" which figures out to be about 15 gallons. Some of my roses get 5-6 ft tall in the pots. Because they are in pots they are 2 ft taller than they would be in the ground so keep that in mind. I have had success with just about everything except the ones that do get 5-6 ft tall like Mr. Lincoln and Paradise. They become top heavy and blow over in the wind even if I've just watered them. If I had it to do all over again I'd stick to roses that get no more than 4 ft tall and maybe even 3 ft tall. I tried hard pruning the tall ones and they stop flowering. My very tall ones will be given away as soon as I can find someone who wants them. If I were starting over I wouldn't get anything that is not extremely disease resistant. The roses have dry then wet conditions in the pots and the black spot is very bad on some of them. When I get a new pot I drill about 10 3/8" holes in the bottom for drainage. If you don't have enough drainage then the roots will stay waterlogged. I also have all my pots elevated so the water will drain correctly. Decide what kind of rose peaks your interest more, a shrub or floribunda or hybrid tea then research them. If you don't know about it go to helpmefind.com and you can't get size information from them. Choose a nursery, see what they have that you like then look it up on help me find. I will say, most of what you'll find in big box stores are grafted and are not very disease resistant since they are older cultivars from before breeders started paying attention to disease resistance. I hope this helped some. If you have any questions just ask.

The only two reasons I've seen this recommended are for gophers or voles as Sheila said, or for to constrain roses that sucker like gallicas. In both cases, you have to cut out substantial parts of the pot such as drill holes in the sides or cut out the bottom or the rose will trap itself and die from the constriction, if the poor drainage doesn't kill it first. I was advised when planting a particularly invasive gallica to take a full sized outdoor garbage can, cut out the bottom then plant ALL of the garbage can into the ground leaving just a lip above ground, putting the rose in the middle of that. Even with the 4' or so of the garbage can, some gallicas can send out runners below that level. Needless to say I made other plans involving that gallica since I simply can't fathom the size of that hole. For gophers, the better long-term solution I've seen is to bury the rose in a cage of hardware cloth that basically stays around the rose to protect the roots from chewing. Again, this sounds like a lot of work but necessary in some gopher climates. Beyond that, I can't think of any reason for long-term planting of a rose in a plastic pot into the ground. Some people do this temporarily, such as if they're leaving town for weeks with no one to water pots, but it's not a long-term solution. The same goes for those peat pots some roses and perennials come in, even though they're marketed to be planted in the pots. In reality, the peat pot wicks all the moisture away from the plant and it's usually a disaster. Best practice all around is to take the plant out of the pot to plant it, unless you have a big enough pot where you're planning to grow the rose in the (above ground) pot. Cynthia