You have good wind blocks under that deck so that will help, Tammy. I get my burlap at Home Depot or Lowes usually but I think most garden centers carry it. You may have to ask them for it though. I literally beg, borrow and steal bags of leaves from all my neighbors in the fall! We have 5 big trees and I still need extra. I go out early on trash day and drag the bags over from my neighbor's lawns. Two of my neighbors now just bag their leaves and put them on my lawn instead of theirs, lol! But if leaves aren't available you can also use bagged bark mulch. It's way more expensive though. If you go that route make sure you bag it back up next spring to reuse. You could also use straw or hay. One of them has seeds, and I don't remember which, so you may get more weeds in the spring but they do work well as insulation. You want to wait until they are completely dormant before you put them in storage. And the ideal is to keep them completely dormant until you are past any freezing temps at night in the spring. The worst thing is for them to go through repeated freeze and thaws during the winter and especially the spring. The most roses I ever lost, 37, was during the big Easter freeze in April of 2007. I had just taken all the pots out of winter storage and they were all leafing out when the temps fell drastically for a weekend. Thankfully, Alan came up with a plan for the pots. He wheeled his tractor out of the shed and we put as many pots as we could in and he set up a couple of lamps with 100 watt bulbs in them for added warmth. I only lost 3 or 4 potted roses that we couldn't fit in the shed. All the rest of my losses were roses planted in the ground even though I had NOT yet taken off their winter protection! I don't recommend the cones for a couple of reasons. First, you have to really cut the rose back severely in the fall to get them on and I don't prune in the fall. You are going to get winter die back no matter what. If you cut them to 12 inches in October by April you'll be cutting them to 6 or less. Second, unless you cut the tops off for air circulation (which sort of destroys their integrity) they create the perfect breeding ground for fungus to grow. Particularly in the spring when conditions are very damp, the sun is getting higher up and days are longer and the temps are warming up. I understand that you disagree with me about raising up the pots, Michaelg. But I will stand by my opinion. It's not to protect them from freezing. I want them to freeze and STAY dormant until the temps will stay consistently above freezing. The freeze and thaw yo-yoing is deadly. It's for moisture retention. Desiccation kills them quickly too. That's why I water during the winter. They're asleep, not dead, and still require some water. How many of you have a glass of water on the table beside your bed because you get thirsty during the night? When I didn't put them up off the cement the pots would be bone dry with nice damp rings in the cement under them. And I lost roses. I do not raise them up where they are on the dirt. The dirt retains it's own moisture and does not pull water from the pots so it isn't a problem. BTW, I do winter my tree rose inside the shed, with the tractor, every year and have had no problems with the gasoline fumes affecting the rose.

Coming in a bit late here, as often--- I don't think of 'Dupontii' as a species hybrid (I don't know whether anyone knows where it comes from) but it's a good handsome rose, sweetly scented, with grayish foliage. Nobody has mentioned R. palustris as far as I can tell after skimming this post. I like this rose, which I believe is native to your part of the world: its willowlike foliage, red canes, and flowers are all handsome; it's thornless, or nearly so; it colors well in autumn, a great advantage here; and in spite of its name it handles drought and alkaline soil gracefully. It roots easily from cuttings, unlike many species roses. My plant is young; I don't know what a mature specimen looks like. I like the foetida cultivars myself, including R. foetida bicolor, which is so exceptionally showy in its bloom period that I'm willing to give it garden room for the whole year on that strength. Black spot is no problem for me, so I can have these roses, but I'd be hesitant about them in an area where that's a problem. On their showing so far I'd say they like my sun, dry summers, and alkaline clay. The flowers of R. foetida are the brightest yellow there is, and the foliage is lettuce green. I love the Musk Rose, though my plant is doing badly and may have to be replaced. I think it's suited to this area, but my grafted plant got off to a bad start and has sunk ever deeper in illness and distress. Or perhaps this is wishful thinking. At any rate, if your conditions suit it it's a lovely rose to have in the garden. It's very fragrant, and once it starts blooming in late summer it goes on until darkness and cold shut it down. The Cherokee Rose is beautiful, I think, with a very oriental and exotic look to the flowers and foliage, the latter strongly reminiscent of that of camelias, which unfortunately I can't grow. This, and my failure to keep the Cherokee Rose alive and prosperous, may be why I long for this rose. If it's warm enough where you live it might do well for you. If R. anemoneflora is the R. laevigata hybrid 'Anemone', I believe it has a similarly exotic look to it, as does 'Anemone's color sport 'Ramona'. The rugosas look fat and prosperous; they rebloom; they have round orange hips, also fat, as well as edible; they have a very good clove fragrance. They're thorny. I would plant rugosas if I thought they were good roses for my garden, which I don't, but am not heartbroken not to have them. When I dared call them fat on the Italian forum, various rugosa enthusiasts countered that they were beautifully exotic and oriental roses. In fact, this is true. They're great shrubs. Perhaps because R. canina is so common here, I tend to take it for granted. It's attractive in flower, and would probably make a good shrub if pruned to shape it. The hips are oval, gleaming scarlet, and handsome: I use them in Christmas wreaths as we don't have holly. Some clones are definitely prettier than others. I've only had 'Canary Bird' for a year, but it's been growing great guns. It has ferny foliage and good fall color, and I think I'm going to like it a lot. R. rubrifolia (R. glauca) has very good foliage and is a handsome plant: I just got one myself. R. roxburghii 'Plena' has fascinating foliage, bark, and hips (the flowers are nice, too) and I've seen it grown as an outstanding specimen rose. These are the roses on your list, or not on it, that I've grown or know something about from direct experience. My growing conditions are different from yours, and I suspect that a lot of roses that grow well for me might suffer for you, and vice-versa. Then there are those that tolerate a wide range of conditions, like R. palustris.

Thanks Krista, Karl, HoovB, Petaloid, John and Jim for all your thoughts and input...Karl yes, I am hoping that Gemini will deepen in its colors at least with the leaves, but ugh, Gemini has about as much wisdom and common sense as I have. Instead of storing up chlorophyll in its leaves and tender stems, being patient, strengthening and taking its time to develop and mature, Gemini is trying to send up another flush immediately. 10 p.m. on New Year's Eve: A baby blossom bud emerged 3/4" above its sheath of leaves (fully extended "neck"). I predicted 4 other buds as well, because I started seeing the tell-tale signs of the 2 5-leaflet tender enclosed "prongs". As soon as I see a split 2 5-leaflet stem fork outwards, usually a baby bud is nested within the "sheath". New Year's Day Another 4 flower buds emerged. I give Gemini its 2nd Gardenville feeding (got delayed by a few days). January 2nd I have another one flower bud nested and emerging, and 6 very suspicious pronged stems to deal with. Total count will be 12 flower buds so far (6 definite). Sadly my house is way too large and drafty for me to do any humidity control via Karl's suggestion so all I can do is cross my fingers and shake my head at this craziness. I am expecting blackspot to strike any moment because it is a pattern of Gemini to get sick whenever it goes through a spurt of blooms. I dare not decrease the h. oil/Greencure at this point like I originally intended. Predicted survival of buds into mature blooms is only 20% at this time. Leaves and stems are way too soft and pale to support blooms!!! Why Gemini is trying to send up another flush is beyond me! Gemini is as kooky and insane as me (sigh-I think it is a "mind-reader" LOL). Jim, still no problems with spider mites... John, I have a fragrance-sport Gemini that consistently had a wonderful scent while growing outside and that is the one HUGE thing that I miss terribly. But my sport Gemini is also a BS magnet-Sport as well. Gemini is supposed to be known for its health and beauty, but mine flunks the BS test whenever it goes through a flush...It gets extremely sick and ugly, but it is also a fighter rose as well and a few weeks after the flush it will make another comeback. Tomorrow I will post a sample photo of the baby flower buds. P.S. Eluane gives everyone a puppy kiss. She is glad HoovB and Petaloid are mentioning her instead of stupid Mama fussing over some messy rose, LOL!

Crapemyrtles are actually fairly long lived and some cultivars can get 20-30 feet tall. It's a very well behaved tree and a safe choice for your front yard. Crapes are prettiest when allowed to make several trunks. Shade trees make a big difference: At the beginning of this summer I had my Mulberry tree cut down. It has been hotter than H E double toothpicks. The difference between tree and no tree has been dramatic. I don't remember being this miserable in a long time. So it was damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead: I did what I was not supposed to and planted not one, but two London Planes in my 30 foot deep front yard (It's 80' wide). They are situated fairly close to the fenceline and will shade my yard and a good part of the road. There are no powerlines or sewer over there for them to interfere with. Also being on a corner lot, they're not going to droop over into anyone else's yard. I was going for maximum overkill for shade and aircooling. Shading part of the street will also combat the hot pavement effect. They're growing quickly but they can't grow fast enough for me.