Juliet, I agree that we seem to be having a third year of drought here. Where I live in the SF Bay Area we are actually a little ahead of our "normal" rainfall to date, but only because we got 7 1/2 inches of rain in Oct in two back to back freak storms. Since then, not much. Luckily roses can survive droughts here, although I must admit I am annoyed that I may have to turn our irrigation system back on soon!

My other comment is that, in addition to teas, chinas, polyanthas, and noisettes that do well here, don't forget the hybrid musks, the banksies, and the gigantica hybrids, which also do great here.

One thing that folks DO talk about a lot on this forum is that all rose growing is LOCAL, and you need to find out which classes of roses do well or not in your local climate area. Unfortunately there are a lot of rose books and general rose advice out there that ignore this - they tell you "this rose does that... and that rose does this..."without taking the climate conditions into account! Much disappointment results, as newbies take them at their word (I know I did), and can't figure out why many old European roses do very badly in CA (not enough winter chill), or why DA roses tend to grow three times larger here than it says in the DA literature.

All in all I think you and I are lucky - we have a 9-11 month rose blooming season for some of the very happy repeat bloomers, and a very early and long Spring bloom season for the once bloomers (my banksie lutea and Belle Portugaise - a hybrid gigantica - start blooming in Feb/March). Of course, the camellias, Japanese quince, hellebores, and flowering crab apple trees start blooming in January, so our Spring comes right on the heels of our Fall (my narcissus have been up and blooming for a month already).

I do regret the roses I can't grow, but once I discovered how many classes love it here, I have just concentrated on them - no need to be frustrated trying to grow roses that hate it here!

Jackie

PROS:

1. We get plenty of rain here. I rarely have to hand water even newly-planted roses. My sympathies to anyone else in the rest of the country that has to grow roses in a drought.

2. We can grow the albas, gallicas, and rugosas no problem due to our winter chill.

3. No thrips (yet).

4. No rose rosette disease (yet), although plenty of wild multiflora.

5. Not much hot weather (although we can have a few days in the summer in the high 90s).

6. The David Austins do fantastic here! None of them get overly big except the once-blooming climbers like Chianti and Constance Spry.

CONS:

1. Too darn cold most of the year to grow roses or enjoy gardening.

2. Nearly all roses winterkilled to a few inches above ground except the OGRs and rugosas due to #1 above.

3. Can't grow teas, chinas, noisettes due to #1 above. I could care less about HTs but can't grow them well anyways.

4. Massive pruning in the spring of winterkill, takes several days, due to #1.

5. Short growing season. The roses do bloom from June to Oct., but spring comes so late we have to squeeze a LOT of garden work into a short period of time, making for a stressful summer. Kind of like a race. You have visions of all the projects you can't wait to do once the snow melts and the ground thaws, but by the time you are able to work outside there isn't a lot of time to do all that you want at a leisurely pace. See #1 above.

6. Blackspot can be a problem and I wish I didn't have to spray, but our choices in reblooming roses are limited
due to #1.

7. Japanese beetles are a plague.

The good:
 dry air (less disease, more comfortable in summer)
 warm but not hot climate
 stunningly beautiful landscape as background

The bad:
 not enough rainfall
 alkaline soil
 gophers

I quite like the Mediterranean climate of warm, dry summers and cool, rainy winters. I just wish we had about twice as much rainfall as we get. Our average is 15 inches per year, and it varies widely. If the average were 30 inches or more, I would be content. The soil would likely be less alkaline, and all I'd have left on my "bad" list would be those dratted gophers. We have deer too, but the fence keeps them out very successfully.

Rosefolly

Where I live, here in Pinellas Co., St Pete Fla. , we are very humid and hot most of the year... right now I have the A/C on... our soil is very sandy, and we have a live soil, meaning it is full of wireworms and nematodes, that eat the roots of lots of plants, roses included... unleass they are grafted on Fortuniana.... I am told that a few China's and maybe some Bermuda's grow on their own-roots, and the soil really needs to be amended with compost, etc... Roses grow year-round and can get huge, and grafted, they live 20 - 30 years.. I have some I bought 30 years ago... but then they get a thick woody stalk that is like a hunk of hard-wood and doesn't send shoots anymore, so you have to keep them cut back all the time... and spray, for B S and Thrips and other baddies. Most of the roses that do well up north are no good here, so it pays to do your research before you plant. sally

My list of factors matches Rosefolly's precisely.

Though our Southern CA landscape is radically different from hers, it's still beautiful. And our area hangs onto agriculture and some rural character by the skin of its alkaline teeth.
My husband watched a big ol' dog raccoon stroll down the lane, late last night, and the coyotes still sing in the hills above us.

JEri

I don't blame my climate, near San Francisco california, for the small percentage of my roses that defoliated from disease, I could have researched their health in this district better, but too often I've felt as though I've been seduced by a pretty face, so to speak, and am a little more careful now, not to buy a rose because of its intense fragrance, and silken petals, before vetting its health.
Kordes, has long hybridized roses for the trait of disease resistance, and David Austin has begun more recently, but their efforts, I believe, would best be used if they tested each cultivar that they wish to introduce to commerce in 3 international settngs, where soils are different and,
1. where p.m. spreads easily, such as in San Francisco.
2. where blackspot is most abundant, as in some sites in the Midwest.
3. Where rust is a problem.

I do dream that someday a rose hybridizer will breed new cultivars of Old Garden Roses for health, in seperate region test gardens.
Wouldn't it be bliss to buy a Hybrid Perpetual that you knew would be healthy in your garden, wherever it is?
or new cultivars of Tea and Moss roses that were resistant to powdery mildew?
Luxrosa

I agree with much of what Veilchen had to say. The only difference is I think my summer is even a little shorter, but no blackspot, rust, thrips, japanese beetle that I know of. Never spray, but have only been gardening a few years. I think with the hot, dry summers and the long, cold winters, most of these things haven't been a problem.

I love where I live, even though the last few winters have seen a ridiculous amount of snow, but at least watering is rarely an issue. We have a well, so we water all summer to keep a fire break around the house and barns.

While my rose choices are pretty limited (and I have to hide them from our few deer) it's been fun so far and I've already ordered more for next year. I am trying to use mostly zone 4 roses, with a few zone 5 in protected area. This means mostly albas, gallicas, damasks and a few David Austin, with some rugosas where they have room to spread :)

Here I am in North Central Florida right off I-75, horse country because of the limestone. I thought of an abundance of positives but most of them curiously are also on the bad list...the proverbial double-edged sword.
The good:
* Lots of sunshine and blue skies
* Mild temps with highs in 70's & 80's for 7 months of the year
* The perfect climate for Teas, Chinas and Noisettes
* Blessed humidity that reduces wrinkles and keeps my lips from chapping
* Sandy soil that's easy to dig in
* Free composted horse manure nearby
* 50 Inches average rainfall
* Enough chilly weather to justify having a fireplace (which we don't now)
* Lots of sunshine and blue skies
* Lots of shade from big live oaks, sweet gums and big pines rather than the short scrubby stuff
* Most of the winter I can walk around in my shirt sleeves even at night
* Very little dreary weather
* Glorious sunshine and blessed rain all in one day
* Refreshing air conditioning

The bad:
* Sandy soil that leaks like a sieve and won't hold water for love nor money
* Near tropical strength sun that will fry your brain, burn your skin lickety-split and suck every drop of moisture out the sand
* Sub-tropical climate with highs in the low 90's combined with humidity in the 60's & up making for a heat index often over 100
* Wretched humidity that in high summer will suffocate you - or try to - and make your gardening clothes so wet from sweat that you almost can't pull them off
* Sandy soil that eats organic matter for breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snack
* Blackspot aka any number of fungal diseases that I can't pronounce that love our mild temps & humidity
* Thrips, grubs, grasshoppers, nematodes, chili thrips (oh, please no), fire ants, leaf-footed bugs
* Alkaline soil that azaleas (and a lot of other locally grown plants) don't like
* 2/3 of the year only gets 1/2 of the rain
* Almost no winter chill to speak of so forget European OGRs
* The heat makes September feel like a 45-day month, and mid-October takes forever to get here
* The garden centers don't get in spring plants until April when I've been itching to plant something since March 1st
* Growing roses in Florida ain't easy
* Expensive air conditioning

Though they look like they cancel each other out, I'm very happy with the positives and don't mind living with the negatives. I would choose to live - and garden - here again.

Sherry

Living close to Tyler, Texas (advertised as the rose capital of the world), roses grow extremely well here. With Chamblees right around the corner, shopping for roses is easy, too.

We do have humid weather, which promotes blackspot, but most summers the temps get over 100, which gets rid of the blackspot! Unfortunately, most summers are quite dry for one to two months, and watering is always an issue.

Winters are fairly mild, so we don't have to worry about protecting roses like those in the north, and usually spring is just around the corner by February. :)

Every place has its pros and cons, guess it's just what you get used to. I'm very content living here and love my garden more every day.

Oh Holley, that would be a BIG plus, to live right around the corner from Chamblees (and David Austin too?). Rose shopping is no good around here. Lucky you!

USDA Zone 6b, Montgomery County, Maryland

The good:
 climate: four actual seasons - spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Our autumn & spring is about as ideal as it gets. Zone 7 is too hot and zone 5 is too cold (for example, climbing roses begin to suffer in zone 5, limiting your choices). Zone 6 is perfect.
 culture: I live just outside of the Washington DC beltway, so I'm within close proximity to Disneyland on the Potomac.
 well run state: Maryland has consistently fared well compared to other states in terms of low unemployment rates, balanced budgets and general prosperity. Granted, it is politically a little too moderate for my taste, but by no means is it the right wing thinking, stuck in the past place like Virginia.
 adequate rainfall: yes we've had droughts before but nothing, and I mean nothing like what Southern California and Australia is enduring. The western part of the state is lush and green, with rolling hills, picture postcard pretty farms and stunning scenery.
 charming neighborhoods: I live in a neighborhood with low crime, hills, and lovely homes that exemplify the cape cod and colonial styles.

The bad:
 high air humidity year round due to the Chesapeake Bay influence; when it is cold it feels REALLY cold and when it is hot you feel like you are being smothered in a steaming hot blanket.
 acidic clay soil filled with big, heavy rocks. You can't dig six inches in any direction without hitting a rock, and the dirt looks like it is bleeding.
 Asian tiger mosquitoes - hate em!
 Japanese beetles; capable of eating an entire blossom in seconds.
 Rose rosette disease; the ebola of the rose world.
 Black spot - absolutely, positively relentless. Without consistent spraying with a fungicide BS will defoliate 99% of the roses available on the market today making Maryland the worst place for black spot infection in the entire country.
 High crime in the city  Washington DC may be an exciting city with a lot to offer culturally, but you DO NOT want to be there after dark. The city has a crime problem and the racial tensions are intense.

The bad--buried tree stumps in our yard by the dozens! Time to break out the power tools. Our wet humid climate is ideal for fungal diseases. Our climate is just a little too cold for the most winter tender roses.

The good--if you solve the disease issue there are many types of roses that grow amazingly well in our climate--our local rose show is filled with stunning roses each year.

-Roses bloom for six months.
-Once-bloomers need no irrigation, repeaters can use it about six weeks of the season.
=It rarely gets over 90, so blooms don't fry.
-In my garden, thrips aren't bad and JBs not terrible most years.

-Conditions for blackspot and cercospora are extreme all season.
-Conditions favor petal blight and balling for most of the season.
-Winter damage is surprisingly bad, comparable to parts of the Midwest-- canker plays a big role. Most HTs and floribundas have to be taken down to short stubs.
-Most teas and chinas are unhappy here.
-Very few repeating roses look decent without regular fungicide.

Western Washington- near Puget Sound. The good:

Cold enough for any European once bloomers
Warm enough for most teas and chinas to overwinter with very minimal damage.
No Japanese beetles or chili thrip's. We do have regular thrip's though.
Summers are fairly cool compared to most areas away from water, no more than low 90's ever during the summer.
The soil almost always has a low pH, around 5-5.5. Easily raised to the prefered area with a dose of hydrated lime.
Not many areas have clay, the soil can be sandy.
BS pressure is not as bad as many think. Mostly during our long damp spring.

The bad:

Some roses ball badly
Bs in the spring and fall, roses that get blackspot easily should not be grown if you do not want to spray.
Mildew is the main threat in late summer.

The good:

Sunshine and great weather for most of the year.
In my location beautiful views of hills and valleys and abundant wildlife, and blessed privacy.
No disease to speak of, a little mildew if spring is very wet.
Many varieties of roses do well here with the exception of roses that need a chill factor.
Low humidity, a very comfortable climate to live in.
Fairly good soil that just needs a little amendment.
Weeds are not a great problem because of the heat and low rainfall.

The bad:

Very hot, dry summers that fry many blooms; I have to be selective about what I plant. This is a local phenomenon, due to my elevation and hot boulders and hillsides that throw off a lot of heat.
Grasshoppers, aphids, insects that cut holes in leaves, and bunnies and squirrels that sometimes chew things.
Eight months of no rain, requiring extensive watering and mulching.
The danger of huge wildfires, which one year came close enough to burn the bottom of our deck.

All in all, the pros far outweigh the cons and I feel incredibly lucky to live here

Ingrid

I've always thought that Sacramento was rose heaven. Enough chill for many of the European once-bloomers to perform (although Gallicas and mosses can't compare to what I've seen in colder climes), mild enough for the more tender roses. Something is in bloom about 50 of the 52 weeks in the year. Dry and hot enough in the summer to discourage most disease; no Japanese beetles or RRD; good quality water. Lucky us.

What really makes it heaven, though, is the Sacramento Historic Rose Garden and its group of volunteers and people who love it. And just as heavenly has been having Vintage Gardens, the Celebration of Old Roses in El Cerrito, and the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden all easily accessible in a day trip.

I hate the extreme summer heat, and am not crazy about winter days of unbroken fog, but I count my blessings no matter what the weather.
Anita

I grow about 1000 roses in raised beds in northeast Ohio.

The good:

plenty of inexpensive well water (I use a daily automatic watering system with soaker hoses and battery operated timers)

inexpensive land

nearby Wooster Agriculture research station, plant scientific library, and rose garden ( http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/researchoperations/rosegarden/ )

"mild" summers

"relatively" mild winters

good plant growing soil

not much of a deer problem

no downey mildew

no rust

no need to spray for blackspot (natural benefical fungi keep it under control)

not much mildew

-------------------------------------------

Cons:

Japanese Beetles appear to be cyclic even with milky spore applications

Rose viruses are more of a problem than in hot climates

Cane borers, particularly in rugosas

underground "critters" (like voles?) damaging the roots

I live in Sweden but my conditions are rather similar to Veilchen's.

Good: We get enough rain for most of the year although springs can sometimes be too dry in the eastern part of the country where I am. We never have to water established roses or protect them in winter. Water is very cheap and plentiful, no hosepipe bans ever. Rose season is too short but winters are less harsh than in New England while summers are less hot. I've bought most of my 180 roses locally but I've got 24 plants from vendors in France and Germany as well as from Swedish mail order firms. In most cases it's no more expense or trouble than buying from local nurseries. I don't order from outside the EU.

Bad: Black spot has become a problem with some roses but I'll get rid of them eventually. I know who they are. I can't grow teas or most noisettes. Gloire de Dijon has been my only successful noisette. Deer and hares are a big problem.

I am lucky to have gardened in three different climates.
The first was in Surrey in the south east of England.
That area is dryer and sunnier than most of the U.K.
I grew lots of bourbons, hybrid perpetuals, portland roses and lots of the early D.A.roses.
I could also grow rhododendrons, camellias, azaleas, and acers.
Then I also had lots of cottage garden plants like delphiniums, lupins, dianthus etc.
It was easy to visit all the R.H.S. shows. Chelsea Flower Show and Hampton Court Flower Show which I did every year.
Great gardens like Sissinghurst Castle and Great Dixter were
within easy reach, and I visited them often.
The whole area abounded with great nurseries and garden centres, and finding even the rare plants was easy.
But, I had to spray all the roses regulary. Black spot was a big problem.
The feel of the area in the 1980's and 1990's became more and more frenetic. The rat race and crime spread out from London, and I yearned for a slower pace of life.
So, I moved to Cornwall.

Cornwall was a much quieter and slower pace of life, and I managed to find a little house outside a village without any nearby neighbours.
Cornwall has a much milder climate than the rest of the U.K.
and hard or prolonged frosts are rare.
I planted lots of roses. Mainly the same groups that I had grown in Surrey but a lot more climbers and ramblers as well as I had more space. I also had a wonderful hedge of rosa rugosa Roserie d'Hay.
I could also plant a lot of the more tender plants like proteas and citrus plants against the warm walls.
It was brilliant. I absolutely loved that garden.
But, the black spot and mildew was a lot worse than it had been in Surrey. Cornwall is milder, but it is also a lot wetter and windier.
I had a bigger garden, but it seemed every time I tried to go out to tend it, it rained. I couldn't keep up with the weeds let alone do anything else!
I also developed asthma and found that when I went on holiday to the Mediterranean it was a lot better.
So I moved to Crete.

I have not been here long enough to know all the pros and cons yet. However, one of the best things is that I can get out into the garden most days of the year.
No more sitting at the window waiting for the rain to stop.
The garden is a lot smaller than before, but I am getting older, so that is not such a bad thing. Also, it is small enough to water when necessary without worrying about it.
I will be able to grow tea roses, chinas,and noisettes. Hurray! I will also be able to grow all the plants that I have admired whilst holidaying here.
One of the cons, I have discovered, is the paucity of nurseries and garden centres here. There is also only a limited range of plants. Thank goodness for the internet and mail order.
Daisy

I was amazed recently to read on the Italian gardening forum the complaints of Italian gardeners about their terrible climate, so much more difficult than that of England. They don't know what they've got. I live in the northern foothills of the Apennines and think I'm one of the luckiest gardeners in the world as far as climate and other growing conditions are concerned. My husband and I have a garden we started working on in 2002 and which currently has about five hundred roses and a lot of other plants, cultivated organically.

Advantages:
Dry summers with fresh nights, chilly but mild winters. We have little trouble with blackspot and rust and while many of our roses get mildew, they don't suffer from it to any noticeable degree. We can grow both temperate climate plants--once-blooming old roses, lilacs, peonies, narcissus, fruit trees--and warm climate plants like Tea roses and olives. The climate is comfortable much of the time and we have four seasons. There's no winter damage.
We get forty inches of rain annually, more or less.
We have heavy clay soil which holds water, but the steep land eliminates drainage problems.
I've never checked the ph of the soil, but suspect it's somewhere around neutral.
We live in the country and our natural surroundings are beautiful; and we have a lot of land.
I have access by mail order to excellent rose nurseries, and have a network of generous gardening friends.
We have farmer neighbors who do occasional work for us with their tractors and other equipment; and we can buy hay in quantity for mulch and fertilizer.
We have bugs, but nothing unbearable so far.

Drawbacks:
The long summer drought means we have to water young plants then.
Our steep land is very hard to access: everything has to be carried in our arms or by a tractor. Also, for comfortable walking and sitting terracing is required.
Our area is subject to land slumps and slides.
We have extremely compact clay soil that requires lots and lots of amendment.
There is, locally, no really good nursery; and I don't have a good source for (non-rose) shrubs and vines.
Our main garden has practically no trees, and we miss shade in summer.
Our house is crowded into a settlement that includes our neighbors' functional but unaesthetic dairy farm.

Melissa

May I say that this has been a wonderful post. I feel like I'm actually in everyone's garden as I'm reading the goods and the bads. So enlightening in the sense of broadening my perspective on gardening. I feel like I have experienced all of your gardening environments. This topic would make a delightful book on climates and micro-climates..."Where We Garden".

Daisy, what a unique gardening privilege has been yours. I so enjoyed your post and now have a deeper understanding of who you are - a gardener extraordinaire - at least in my world. I really look forward to your future posts on the progress of your new garden.

The other heartening aspect of all of these posts is that all of us LIKE where we are inspite of the 'hardships'. Humans are wonderfully adaptable, aren't we? Particularly we gardeners.

I thank all of you for taking Juliet's post so seriously and describing your gardening environment so well and thoroughly, and thank you, Juliet, for asking the question. This is the Antique Roses Forum at its best.

Sherry

I will say, I am glad I was born and raised in California but having lived since then on the shore in New England, in the Hudson river valley and the mountains of western Pennsylvania I am glad that we eventually settled on the Canadian prairies in Manitoba.
As far as growing roses goes I have accepted our limits and grow only those that are cane hardy here. That means no pruning and no spraying. I have 40 or so roses and have been able to have a bouquet for my wife every Sunday from mid June to the beginning of October. I have pretty much used up the space we have and the energy for planting new roses that I have so I think it is a great plus that I am not faced with the unlimited choices that most of you have. That would be overwhelming. With this limitation I get to know each rose intimately and enjoy its unique characteristics and being able to share with others the stories of their breeders or where they were found.
Of course I donÂt know how I would take our long winters without being able to go on the internet and admire and dream about the all the beautiful roses we canÂt grow or looking in on discussions like this one.
Leo

North Alabama is a good place to grow old roses. The soil, red clay, is easily amended by the abundance of pine needles and leaves that are available in my yard and by the composted horse manure that is easily obtained. Last year I bought a used Mackissic shredder that I really enjoy using to shred pine needles and leaves. Wonderful mulch.

The rains are normally abundant. There are no rose nurseries very close by, but I order from some very good mail order sources in the south. The teas and chinas that I particularly love thrive in the sun and the heat that are here and seem to be pretty resistant to bs. There is lots of sunshine, mild winters, beautiful springs and falls. It is a good place to live.

Bad, well, the summers can be muggy and humid.Mosquitoes are nasty. Not many others near me grow old roses, so I am glad to find information and help here on the forum.

It has been interesting to read other's comments about the place they live and garden. Roses grow just about everywhere... Gean

Good:
Moderate winters, with plenty of freezing temps to set the blooms of the Old Europeans.
Abundant sunshine most of the year.
Very strong heat for the Bourbons, i.e. SdlM clan.
Lots of heat and sunshine for the teas.
Terraine is open to allow good air circulation.
Small and rural, no problems with air pollution.
Little competition for underground aquafers, so well water is plentiful.
Hot summers and freezing temps keep down the bug population.
No JBs or RRD.
Very little problems with fungus.
Sandy loam a pleasure to work with, needs little amendment.
No deer or rabbit problem.
Weather permits year 'round gardening for the most part.
Dry, so weeds not so bad.
Folks still have a lot of elbow room here.
Skies are wide and blue, not so often a cloud.
The stars at night are big and bright.

Bad:
Open, flat terrain and inland spells continuous winds, not a lot of vegetation.
Sparse rainfall, rarely a "shower" but a "thunderstorm".
Tornado alley.
Gophers/moles/voles.
No streams, rivers, lakes or oceans anywhere nearby.
Situated in the midst of farmland, so lots of spraying for bugs and RoundUp/whatever.
Summers are really hot from April/ May into October.
Late freezes following a mild Feb/March can spell loss of spring flush.
Early spring heat can fry the spring blooms

That's a good observation by Sherry: everyone is blooming where they are planted.

Pro: everything but the...
Con: water bill!

I agree with Sherry - WONDERFUL POST! It's been fascinating hearing about everyone's experiences.

Laura

My garden in Cambridge is minute.....but also enclosed by a high brick wall - great for tender plants. My allotments though are much bigger, flatter, sandier and windier. East Anglia is classed as semi-arid so watering is a problem. However, there is nowhere I would rather be. The pros so massively outnumber the cons.

Sherry said it for me (thanks, Sherry!): this is an excellent topic and the answers have been good reading. And I too am happy to see people so grateful for their gardens, wherever and whatever they are.
Melissa

I live in Phoenix, AZ in the Sonoran Desert. We just got our first sprinkle of rain in 75 days. Every year we have 100+ days of 100+F temps, unbroken by any cold spells. In the past 15 years, we've set 13 heat records, including 122F in June and 118F in July in recent years.

The bad part is the other 100+ days when it isn't 100F and 1/4 of the rest of the USA & Canada move down here, lol.

Except for heat and drought, our pests & diseases are pretty much limited to spring; aphids, thrips and powdery mildew. Sustained heat is like sustained cold, though. Some roses just can't take it. Our soil is alkaline clay and there are areas of caliche (hardpan) or rock that require a jackhammer to get through. Some areas of the city also deal with javalina (wild pigs), scorpions, rattlesnakes and black widows, maybe the occasional tarantula. We've all got SOMEthing...

I believe the largest and maybe the oldest rose in the US is the Lady Banks in Tombstone, AZ which is over 150 years old.

moroseaz, Congratulations! You get the prize for Hardiest Rose Gardener. I draw the line at tarantulas.

Sherry

Sherry said it best! It has been very enlightening, learning about how conditions are in each and every garden that all you special people have. It has been like taking a trip on a magic carpet ride and experiencing everyone's garden from overhead. Very fascinating to say the least! I also thank all of you, for giving me so much insight to what it is like to garden in so many places.

Juliet

11 below on the porch this morning and I was wishing for some of that good old fashioned greenhouse effect. Really, the greenhouse effect began here like a thin blue line in 1980. My history professor said it was part of a cyclical drought that hits the west every 50 years. Who knows? This winter is looking like it's going to be rough.
I have grown plants that are marginal for many years and may have to cut it out.
Temps vary here from 40 below to 105 degrees. For three summers they hit a hundred and stayed that way for two months but it seems to have cut it out.
Good: no blackspot or powdery mildew and lots of well water.
Bad: Nine inches of bad topsoil, the worst dirt I ever have had, that I call naturally occurring cement. Underneath is stone. Lots of cane loss, about a truckload in spring. Politics? Our famous senator hit every news outlet in the country yesterday........
So, Leo, what's your list of 40 roses?

The Bad* : To much information
The Good : Roses and we,... Both seem to adapt

Veilchen's list is right on the money for me.

The good and the bad pretty much even each other out.

My rocky New England soil makes for difficult double digging, but I now have enough good-sized rocks for a low stone wall. A short one, but good enough for my plot.

Having just returned from a year in the SF Bay Area, I have an even deeper appreciation for my overflowing rain barrels here in MA, but I do have awful mildew and blackspot.

The freezing winds always make me worried that my winter protection is inadequate, but when the snow comes early and blankets everything, it stops my worry for a while.

But I can't think of anything positive to balance the evil that is the Japanese beetle...

Kaylah,
-26c (-15f) this morning and only 2" of snow yet. On the Far North forum there is a post called "The horribly detailed rose report" where my roses are listed. It is a bit out of date but gives an idea of what roses work up here. In south eastern Manitoba we do not get such extreme heat and usually (if there is such a thing) get adequate summer moisture. Our soil is the gumbo of the old Lake Agassiz and holds moisture down 80' but turns into cracked concrete on the top if we don't amend and mulch.
I have pretty much given up trying marginal plants, both roses and perennials, and have enjoyed gardening much more.
Leo

Here is a link that might be useful: The horribly detailed rose report

The Good
Avg. temps 65 to 80
Plentiful winter rains
Clay soil that drains well and holds moisture

The Bad
Dry summers
Need a pick ax to dig clay soil
Soil pH 5.4
Rocketing salt laden tradewinds
Lack of chill hours limits plant selection

The Ugly
Chinese Rose Beetles year round
Blackspot Alley

Someone please remind me WHY i try to grow roses here ; )

What a fantastic thread.

Vielchen spelled most of it out for me, except im just a tad colder than her, even though im more south than she is closer to the coast than me.

1. The plenty of rain, also means plenty of snow over 100 inches the last couple of years, its a pain to deal with.

2. I HAVE serious class envy when I see noisettes and teas, especially the huge monsters. I WISH i could grow them!!! SOOOOO BAD.
3. I dont care about hybrid teas either, If I could grow a couple of the best fragrance onces, maybe. But the form doesnt do much for me.

Silverkelt

The good:

1. Quite a few things can be grown here. Peonies, both herbaceous and trees, do well. Usually vegetables will do reasonably well also. Daylilies like it here. They are everywhere.

2. Cost of living here is not as horrendous as other areas, particularly coastal.

3. Usually rainfall is okay.

The not so good:

1. tornado alley. It is the ones the weather people don't see coming that are the scarey ones. I was outside when the sirens went off only to see the thing trying to start the sustained spinning going over my driveway.

2. I think we have 6 or 7 seasons. The four usuals just repeat in random order depending on which way the wind is blowing.

3. Blackspot. very bad here; regular spraying needed.

4. Utility costs are high here. My gas and electric costs are sometimes higher than my house payment.

5. Soil quality is poor. Lots of soil amendments are needed.

6. Too many mosquitoes around my area. Mosquitoes make working in the yard a real challenge.

It rarely goes below 10, theres enough rain and sun Springs generally aren't 2 wild. I've never had Japanese bettles though we do get midge. There are 2 major Botanical Gardens 20 to 30 minutes in either direction reachable by public transportation and several other notable gardens in the area. Space is very tight!

Roses mostly love it here. The soil is good. It can get hot in the summer at times but we have a marine influence and are up at 1800 feet so the heat is moderated. The neighbors are all at least a mile away in all directions. We don't have gophers. It gets cold enough but not too cold(zone 8). The land is all up and down which meant terracing and many tons of rock moved, which I enjoyed. The biggest con is watering. We must water for nearly half the year. With a huge garden all up and down this can be crazy making. The way in which I water and the system itself is extremely complicated. We also have false springs and sometimes late springs. All our water comes in the winter, often 60 to 80 inches.