What comes next is all based on my experience and the advice of a well-trusted rose friend (ARS CR and all-around great guy). I originally had my shipment scheduled for delivery in early March, thinking that our zone 7 winter would be too much for new bare roots. While we were talking about something else one day, my friend mentioned Pallatine Roses. I told him that I had a shipment from them for March delivery. He asked why I didn't have them delivered in November. "November?", I asked, naively. He told me to pot them and keep them in my garage, knowing that I have been keeping potted roses for 3 years now. The cold garage will keep them dormant, but will protect them from the drying winds. I trusted his advice, and I changed my shipment date. Marina, to keep potted roses over the winter, you don't have to shuffle them in and out of the garage. Keep them in the garage and check on them every once in a while. Just make sure they don't go completely dry, but don't water them too much either. The idea is to keep them dormant. They won't need lots of sunlight because they're not growing. A bit of in and out will be necessary in the spring to harden them to outside conditions, but it's not as much as it would be if they were being held in a warmer space (like a greenhouse). As to planting them and mounding them, I don't think it's cold enough here for that yet. Don't you winter-protect roses like that after things have frozen? We've had frost a couple of nights here in Stafford, but no hard freeze yet. I went to HD this morning to get the ingredients to make up a few batches of potting mix (scotts garden soil, perlite, and spaghnum moss). I'll go down to the garage in a little while and put the not-so-little guys into their pots. Connie P.S. These aren't the only roses I'll be keeping in the garage. I have some bands from Rogue Valley coming soon. They'll be re-potted, and kept in the garage under lights along with some of my well-rooted cuttings. Winter is for rose gardening in the garage. :)

If I buy them from a greenhouse, and they are not all root bound, I don't cut the leaves...especially if the weather isn't really hot. If it is really hot, the roots are root-bound, or I'm a bit worried about it not settling in well - I cut them down to 6 in or so, the way you get them in the mail. It just helps the plant to not have so much foliage to feed with its already-stressed roots; helps it not to dry out so much, etc. Good luck! Yes, a LOT of the people in that forum are absolutely daylily CRAZY. I mean, I don't understand how they can possibly afford some of the plants they buy..like $300 for one plant! Maybe they are hybridizers. But still...yeesh. But they do know their stuff.

Wait until I get that far as I still have afew straggerers but I will post pictures of the empty plateau bed before I start to replant. A very few of those plants are gone as they were dogs here but almost all moved to the redone areas and the new daylily row but mostly to the area on the slope were there were no daylilies at all before I started. I always wanted rebloom up there and of course was not going to get it on my southern evergreens. I will be moving things like many of my Emmerich intros up there in order to get rebloom. There are (were) 4 rows there and since two are totally gone now and the third is mostly gone, I hope to have leftover room even after I put daylilies back in there.

haha, I TOO drive a pickup truck, with no working AC in it.I had to get a mechanic to come get it started for me 2 weeks ago. Its old and has a carburator in it that is always trouble, but this mechanic can have it running in 5 minutes.He brought it to the shop to do some thing minor to it,and when he brought it back,he said a can of freon in it and I could have the ac working in it, so I braved the heat the next evening and brought it to him and told him put that freon in it.He had to add 2 cans to it, but, coming back home,I was nice and cool,and feeling good to have a ac working in it..Three days later when I went out to the store, it blew nothing but HOT air,so all the freon had leaked out of it. Jean