if you have a spot for them, plant them now. Fall is the BEST time to plant perennials. Water them in well, they'll be fine, as long as they're in good shape when you plant them. I'd prepare the hole, make it about twice as big as the pot the plants is in now. Enrich w/some peat moss or compost if avail. Add in some gravel if your soil is wet/slow to drain. Maybe a little slow-release fertilizer, go easy, you don't want to burn the roots. Here is a link that might be useful: lilac planting tips from a seller

The Explorer series of roses were planted out in Kapuskasing, I believe, and whatever survived was selected. However, if you have discovered that some of the offspring are particularly attractive, I would make an assumption that since the parents are hardy, the offspring should be hardy, and I would go to the growing under lights forum and set up an indoor garden to actually grow them on through the winter. By doing this, next year you will have a good big bush to plant, and also in the middle of the winter, you can propagate your bush by taking cuttings. Given your climactic zone, I suspect your growing season is short, so multiply it with an indoor garden. I use 11 2-lamp t8 shoplight fixtures back to back, and suspended a 4 x 6' reinforced plywood from the ceiling by chains, and use that as a base for the garden, and grew out 72 Fair Bianca cuttings, taken in the fall, grown over the winter, and this year I have planted quite an awesome hedge with plants that look more like 2 years old, instead of just less than a year (which they actually are - 7 months to be precise). Indoor growing allows you to keep on the lights 24/7 continuous, and the amount of achieveable growth is prodigious and makes the effort definitely worthwhile. The heat from that bank of lamps (700-800 watts) helps to keep the house warm in the winter, so the electricity is essentially "free", because you have to heat your house anyways. I buy some heavy duty hardware from Home Depot, use 2 x 3" lumber to reinforce a 4 x 6' 1/2" plywood. This keeps the garden near the ceiling, so you can still use the floor space, if you have just a small house, like me. Sativa.

Winter care varies with the different climates so local gardeners advice is invaluable. However there are some general guidelines to follow. Rose bushes die or die back over the winter from cold drying winds, changes in freezing and thawing and from cold temperatures to the bud union. To protect the bud union mound up soil or a mulch to about one foot high after the first hard frost. Do not cut canes in the fall or give nitrogen fertilizers as both stimulate soft new growth which will be killed. Long canes on bushes or climbers can be tied to prevent wind rock. Container plants can be moved inside to an unheated space when their leaves fall off and a little water should be given monthly to prevent drying out.

Here is my method that I posted in my city's Rose Society. So the times are suited for here. :) I have a 100% success rate with 54 potted roses. :) Carol's Method of Overwintering Potted Roses in Garage • Keep deadheading until it's time for the roses to go into the garage. I give my last dose of fertilizing around the 2nd week of September. • In October, start watering a little bit less so the roses can experience some dryness. • When the night time temperature gets to about -6C it is time to move the pots into the garage. If it’s just one or two nights of low temperatures, I usually leave them outside…but you can get a bit of blackening of the canes. • Do not cut the plant down. Leave it as it is, but remove the leaves right to the cane. Give the rose one last really good water before using a dolly to move the pots into the garage. • Cover the roses with old thick blankets, layers of old flannel sheets or old sleeping bags when the outside temperatures get to about -20C. • The roses should experience darkness. If you have windows, then cover them with. It doesn't matter if the garage door is opened and closed. • Around March, check to see if the pots have dried out. If they have, give each rose about 1/2 cup water if they’re in a big pot (55 L are what mine are and about 22” across the top). If they’re in a smaller pot, then you should probably check them earlier – maybe early January and only give them ¼ cup or less of water. Once you start watering, you should continue once every month. • As the weather starts to warm up in the spring, the blankets can be removed. • Once the temperature gets to about 5C outside on a regular basis you can move the rose outside during the day, and recover with blankets to give protection overnight, or move back into the garage for the night. Moving the roses back into the garage is preferable to covering them…but if you have too many roses to make that feasible, then covering will do. • Water well once the pots get moved outside. The water will help protect the roots from cold. • Caveat, my garage is dry walled and probably insulated. Hope that helped, Carol