I have lots of fun googling all the suggestions -- so pretty! I emailed Pat and she replied: that Morning Has Broken is a great yellow, very disease resistant. She hasn't noticed if it has throns. (Can anyone tell me?) And here is a list she gave me of some other light ones that have few thorns or none: Marie Pavie Gruss an Aachen Pink Gruss an Aachen Misty Dawn Echo Lime Sublime I think I am deciding now between Morning Has Broken and Marie Pavie -- which do you think would be better for a no-spraying rose newbie who will probably make a lot of mistakes?

Congratulations! You'll like your roses. They bloom very well and are fairly disease resistant. Have you done any fertilizing? You can work in some more soil amendments if you want to but they probably still could use some fertilizer. Any good well balanced one will do. I use a dry time release one like Osmocote, scratched into the surface of the soil, in the early spring and then liquid fertilizers about once a month after that. I've used Miracle Grow, Peters, Spray n Grow and others and they're all fine. I've had my Appleblossom Flower Carpet rose for about 5 years and I've never had it root to the ground from the long canes it sends out. So I wouldn't worry about that. I think you could get it to if you took a cane and buried part of it below ground but not if it's just lying on the top of the soil. Yes, pruning the spent blooms will encourage it to grow and produce more blooms. It's a big job on mine because it blooms so much so I generally wait until the flush is completely over and just prune the whole bush back some to take off the spent blooms. In general you can prune out dead wood at any time. Early spring (April here usually) is the best time to do any hard prune back. Otherwise, you can prune them for shape and size to some degree as you do your dead heading. Any time you prune you are encouraging new growth so if you have very cold winters don't prune back in the late fall or you will lose any new growth that happens afterward to the cold. Hope that helps, enjoy!

Dublinbay, I have not repotted the 1 gallon own root roses yet. I was going to let those plants go through the same process of acclimating to the temperature first. I recently received bands and potted them into 1 gallon pots. All have been placed on the covered patio, and at night, I place them in an area on the covered patio where they receive early morning sun, and then they are moved near the house, but still under the covered patio, in an area that is shaded all day;hoping that area is not as hot. I hope that giving the plants about 3.5 hours of morning sun will be sufficient but also not too extreme for them at this point? Thus far the plants that are a little over a week old appear to be growing. Because of the heat, I cannot plant them in the soil until mid-October. I check the soil with my finger for moisture about 3 x per day. I have planted the bands in potting soil; but it does not have fertilizers added like Miracle Gro. I was thinking of adding a very weak fish emulsion once a week during watering to add back some nutrients, but I am not sure at this point. This is my first "real" experience with bands and 1 gallon own root plants so I am really babying my new babies:) I have 15 that I am caring for or as you wrote " giving them love" :) Lynn

Hi Kelly I have or have had all the roses you list except William Morris, and there's obviously no worries about him being hardy. I've had no trouble overwintering Harlekin and Rosarium Uetersen here in zone 5, but they're not always cane hardy so they would do better for you as shrubs than climbers. The two really iffy survivors in your zone 4 yard would be Betty White and Steven's Big Purple. I've tried twice to overwinter both of those in regular spots in my zone 5 yard and they didn't even pretend to survive the winter. I'm trying Steven's Big Purple again in my zone 6 pocket and will probably try Betty White one more time there, but for you I expect you'll have to grow those in pots and take them into shelter for the winter. The same might be true of Pink Traviata - that one is new for me this year, but Traviata only survived in my zone 6 pocket too. Tamora, Pat Austin, Queen of Hearts, and St. Cecelia have all survived in my zone 4 pocket or other harsh spots and should do well for you. Honeymoon and Quicksilver are both new for me this year, but your more likely climbers (particularly Honeymoon - lavenders like Quicksilver tend to be less hardy). Have fun Cynthia