Hi, Read through leisurely and them go back to what you can do to make it your 'best'. There will be others to do the same thing with, unless they think I've pretty much covered all this brug forum family's known ideas...lol...and a couple ideas not so well known. Still I might of missed something...lol Find out when the approx. last freeze is for your area. One month before then, start watering thoroughly about once a week (depending on how warm it is where they are - if it's cold the water won't really go anywhere so either use a water meter or a dry stick to test it out. Only keep in moist or on the dry side if you can't tell. Add light if you have some available. I don't really think it matters that the chlorophyll can't kick in yet, as it didn't with mine last year. You'll get some yellow growth before it can get put outside and these can always be removed if they don't perform well. There are too many exotic brugs and crosses for anybody to speak with certainty on such a matter. It'll be your choice. Also, try to make it warmer around the roots, lets say up on a box instead of the cold basement floor. The idea of all this is to soften up your roots from the overwintered hardened state they've become. OR, you can always just treat them like you are now until after the last frost. They like to eat so try and get compost - that's one factor that will make a big difference. I personally am limited for room for more dirt so Miracle Grow would be used weekly/biweekly. Now this part is what I'll be doing or at least know that I should do if at all I can. This is what I consider the best I can do for the best outcome. Before planting in a compost enriched hole or the biggest pot I can get them in - (some dead roots will have to be pruned and new nutrient rich potting soil added if no compost to be mixed in the old) I also add the water polymer crystals specifically for plants - some peatmoss is always in the mix as well as perlite or vermiculite. The roots of smaller 1 year old brugs will be soaked in SuperThrive for 24hours. This year I have acquired mycorrhizal fungi to be mixed with some diluted molasses and superthrive of which will be applied to the roots - either sprayed or 'painted' on with a brush. If I had to choose between which one to use it would be the mycorrhizal fungi. This is new to most people but worth looking into. It will also be used on all plants that I can get at their roots with it. Epsom salt on hand is worth having - see other posts or online associated with plants. I spray new growth with very dilute Neem oil to keep the aphids away in spring and haven't had an issue with them on brugs. Hopefully you'll just note down what you can do this year as best as you can from all the tips that will come your way. If you happen to have a high nitrogen ferilizer, use it the first month and no more and ONLY on brugs that still need to Y. This will accelerate green growth and strengthen the plant but it will also inhibit flowering when used and at least a week or two after, until it's flushed down out of the surrounding soil and no longer in conflict with blooming nutrients/fertilizers. Anyway, not necessary either. I guess I'm going through this as much for myself as you or anybody else who's working on their tactics for our brugs this years. We all have different expectations from our brugs, some don't have that much to call their own so want the best out of them. Thus my own obsession with the 'best outcome'. Any other special tips - like maybe orchid bark might have something in there that might be worth looking into. Sulphur has also been mentioned but I believe epsom salt has sulphur. Maybe Ruth Anne will share her Mushroom compost secret. Maybe it's as simple as throwing mushrooms in the mix...lol I've actually been looking into growing mushrooms - seriously...lol I need some spores though - I think the ones at the grocerers are dead...lol I don't have time to review this...lol...so if I didn't catch something, please feel free to correct me. -Sandy PS. I don't know what's causing your soft tips on such big mature plants - I've only had them dry out.

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.

These above mild temps surely can't last too much longer and I wouldn't be concerned of what new growth possibly continues to push. The tops will be tender and very sensitive to freezing back, though the lower older portions of stems will be hardening up. You can top the plant back somewhat when really cold weather arrives to prevent it from being thrashed around in strong winter winds, though leave the hard pruning until spring. Oh, and do mulch that rose really thickly, as your Chinooks will want to eat up any snow that falls upon it.

Make sure its draining properly , and if its inside, move it outdoors, but keep it out of full sun/provide shade until it looks happy. And don't fertilize/feed it until then either. The way you described "being given a pot of roses" makes me wonder if you may have been gifted with a grocery store mini rose- these roses while being very pretty aren't usually sold with long term survival in mind, so you have to help them along. They bloom , look nice, then get thrown out. However, it is possible to save them, and they can make great garden plants with a bit of care. When you repotted them, were there several separate plants? that you divided when repotting? mini roses are often sold as 3 or 4 different barely rooted cuttings, so can go into shock when you transplant them (not that they would survive long if kept in the original too small container). If that is the case, it might not be a good idea to move them again so soon, even tho they will need a bigger pot eventually. There's another forum here about mini roses, although it doesn't get as many people commenting regularly there are plenty of posts covering grocery mini rescuing. I've tried it myself with varying degrees of success, and if I can manage it, anything is possible!